Pcb Integrated Micro-generator for Wireless Systems

This paper presents the development of a printed circuit board (PCB) integrated vibration-induced power generator with total volume of ~1cm that uses lasermicromachined springs as resonating structures. The goal of our research is to create a minimally sized, economical, and circuit integrated electric power generator capable of producing enough voltage to drive low-power IC circuit or wireless micro sensors where mechanical vibrations are present. Potential applications for the generator may also include mobile phone and heart-pacers where human motions can be used as a source of mechanical energy. Thus far, we have produced a PCB-integrated generator capable of producing 245mV peak-to-peak voltage with 104Hz input frequency and 240μm input vibration amplitude.