Characterisation of an Electrostatic Vibration Harvester

Abstract: Harvesting energy from ambient vibration is proposed as an alternative to storage based power supplies for autonomous systems. The system presented converts the mechanical energy of a vibration into electrical energy by means of a variable capacitor, which is polarized by an electret. A lumped element model is used to study the generator and design a prototype. The device has been micromachined in silicon, based on a two-wafer process. The prototype was successfully tested, both using an external polarization source and an electret.