Design methodology of micro vibration energy harvesters

Recently, micro vibration energy harvesters are attracting much attention for wireless sensor applications. To answer the power requirement of practical applications, the design methodology is important. This paper first reviews the fundamental theory of vibration energy harvesting, and then discusses how to design a micro vibration energy harvester at a concept level. For the micro vibration energy harvesters, independent design parameters at the top level are only the mass and stroke of a seismic mass and quality factor, while the frequency and acceleration of vibration input are given parameters determined by the application. The key design point is simply to make the mass and stroke of the seismic mass as large as possible within the available device size. Some case studies based on the theory are also presented. This paper provides a guideline for the development of the micro vibration energy harvesters.