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Electret-based-microtransducers

Electro-mechanical effect Dielectric charges Energy harvesting Polymer technology Heterogeneous material integration

Competence

Electrets are materials that are excellently suited for permanent charge storage. Electret materials previously known in microsystems engineering have included silicon nitride, silicon oxide and teflon, among others. Our work has been focusing on the promising new electret polymers Cytop and PDMS that besides are simultaneously suited as a robust assembly and packaging material and as a soft material for structural mechanical components, respectively. Electrodes, counter electrodes and the electret structures are integrated on micromechanical resonators, which are excited into non-linear resonance by external vibrations. Thus, energy can be extracted from the external source. Depending on the application, one- or multi-dimensional oscillators are beneficial. Resonant frequencies useful for scavenging energy from the moving human body are in the range of a few Hz to a few 100 Hz.

 

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Fields of application

  • Energy source for low-power systems such as medical implants

  • Battery substitute for wireless sensor systems

Team

  • M.Sc. Simon Genter, Ph.D. student

Projects

Current

 Completed

  • Ulrich Bartsch, Ph.D. Resaearch Training Program

Selected publications

  • U. Bartsch, J. Gaspar, O. Paul
    Low-frequency two-dimensional resonators for vibrational micro energy harvesting
    2010 J Micromech Microeng, pages: 1 - 12

  • U. Bartsch, J. Gaspar, O. Paul
    A 2D electret-based resonant micro energy harvester
    2009 22nd IEEE International Conference on MEMS 2009 , pages: 1043 - 1046

  • U. Bartsch, J. Gaspar, O. Paul
    Characterization of the Charging and Long-Term Performance of Cytop Electret Layers for MEMS Applications
    2008 MRS Fall Meeting 2008, Boston, USA

  • U. Bartsch, M. Blattmann, J. Gaspar, O. Paul
    Low-Frequency 2D Resonators for Vibrational Micro Energy Harvesting Applications
    2008 PowerMEMS 2008, Sendai, Japan , pages: 57 - 60

  • U. Bartsch, C. Sander, M. Blattmann, J. Gaspar, O. Paul
    Influence of Parasitic Capacitances on the Power Output of Electret-Based Energy Harvesting Generators
    2009 PowerMEMS 2009, Washington DC, USA , pages: 332 - 335

Equipment

  • Custom-made corona discharge station

  • Electrostatic Voltmeter (Monroe Electronics model 279)

  • MSA-400 Microsystem Analyzer (Polytec)

Contact

Simon Genter

Tel.: +49 (0) 761 230 7193

email: simon.genter@imtek.de

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