This paper presents the electrical and thermal design of a thermoelectric energy harvester power system and its characterisation. The energy harvester is powered by a single Thermoelectric Generator (TEG) of 449 couples connected via a power conditioning circuit to an embedded processor. The aim of the work presented in this paper is to experimentally confirm the lowest ΔT measured across the T...

For light harvesters with a reaction center complex (LH1-RC complex) of three types, we propose an experiment to verify our analysis based upon antenna theories that automatically include the required structural information. Our analysis conforms to the current understanding of light-harvesting antennas in that we can explain known properties of these complexes. We provide an explanation for th...

Wearable medical and electronic devices demand a similarly wearable electrical power supply. Humanbased piezoelectric energy harvesters may be the solution, but the mismatch between the typical frequencies of human activities and the optimal operating frequencies of piezoelectric generators calls for the implementation of a frequency up-conversion technique. A rotary piezoelectric energy harves...

This paper presents a wireless sensor node (WSN) system where an electromagnetic (EM) energy harvester is utilized for charging its rechargeable batteries while the system is operational. The capability and the performance of an in-house low-frequency EM energy harvester for charging rechargeable NiMH batteries were experimentally verified in comparison to a regular battery charger. Furthermore...

In this work, we present an automatized, computationally efficient and stable compact modeling technique for a large-scale multiport model of MEMS based piezoelectric energy harvester. The method includes structure preserving model order reduction based on Krylov subspaces. We further demonstrate a cosimulation between the reduced harvester model and the power circuitry. Introduction MEMS (micr...

This paper presents the design, fabrication and characterization of an electromagnetic MEMS energy harvester with ultra-broad operating bandwidth. The beam stretching induced nonlinear spring stiffness enables the resonance to extend from 65 Hz to 340 Hz and 400 Hz at accelerations of 0.5g and 1.0g, respectively. The ultra-wide bandwidth could benefit the harvester device for more efficient vib...

AbstractWith the application of wireless sensor networks become widespread, supply energy for these wireless sensors proves to be a significant issue. Moreover, for the ambient vibration lies everywhere, the vibration can supply energy for the wireless sensor via energy harvester. The piezoelectric energy harvester becomes the research focus for the simple structure and higher energy conversion...

Currently, wearable electronics are increasingly widely used, leading to an increasing need of portable power supply. As a clean and renewable power source, piezoelectric energy harvester can transfer mechanical energy into electric energy directly, and the energy harvester based on polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) operating in 31-mode is appropriate to harvest energy from human motion. This pa...

Facilitation, when one species enhances the environment or performance of another species, can be highly localized in space. While facilitation in plant communities has been intensely studied, the role of facilitation in shaping animal communities is less well understood. In the Chihuahuan Desert, both kangaroo rats and harvester ants depend on the abundant seeds of annual plants. Kangaroo rats...