Energy Harvesting (generators/transducers)

  • Different applications have different needs
    • Some require the device to be miniaturized (e.g. wearables)
    • Other applications need to be able to work in harsh environments (temperature, vibrations, ingress, mechanical shocks, etc.)
  • We need to understand what ambient energies are available since energy harvesting can convert them to electricity (light, vibrations, thermoelectric, RF)
  • The ambient energies are often sporadic and their behavior changes. How well can energy harvesters respond to this?
  • If there are multiple ambient energies we need to be able to effectively combine them
  • Similarly we need to find ways to scale generators to meet the power needs of the load
  • Generators need to be designed collaboratively with storage and micro-power management components for optimal system performance