A Silicon MEMS DC/DC Converter for Autonomous Vibration-to-Electrical-Energy Scavenger

Author

Paracha, Ayyaz Mahmood ; Basset, Philippe ; Galayko, Dimitri ; Marty, Frédéric ; Bourouina, Tarik

Author_Institution

ESYCOM, Univ. Paris-Est, Noisy-le-Grand

Volume

30

Issue

5

fYear

2009

fDate

5/1/2009 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

481

Lastpage

483

Abstract

This letter deals with an innovative design for a silicon MEMS DC/DC converter, to be used in autonomous mechanical-energy scavengers, based on electrostatic transduction. The device is made of bulk silicon and is fabricated using a batch process. It is 27 mm³ in volume and resonates at 250 Hz. We demonstrate a net vibration-to-electricity power conversion of between 60 and 100 nW in autonomous mode, i.e., without injecting and introducing new charges from an external power supply. We have compared the measurements with the results of a mixed VHDL-AMS/ELDO modeling experiment, and the agreement between these two experiments is better than 3%.

Keywords

DC-DC power convertors; elemental semiconductors; energy harvesting; micromechanical devices; silicon; Si; autonomous mechanical-energy scavengers; autonomous vibration-to-electrical-energy scavenger; batch process; electrostatic transduction; frequency 250 Hz; mixed VHDL-AMS-ELDO modeling experiment; net vibration-to-electricity power conversion; power 100 nW; power 60 nW; silicon MEMS DC-DC converter; DC/DC power conversion; energy conversion; microelectromechanical devices;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Device Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0741-3106

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LED.2009.2015780

Filename

4814660