Multiple cell configuration electromagnetic vibration energy harvester

Abstract

This paper reports the design of an electromagnetic vibration energy harvester that doubles the magnitude of output power generated by the prior four-bar magnet configuration. This enhancement was achieved with minor increase in volume by 23% and mass by 30%. The new 'double cell' design utilizes an additional pair of magnets to create a secondary air gap, or cell, for a second coil to vibrate within. To further reduce the dimensions of the device, two coils were attached to one common cantilever beam. These unique features lead to improvements of 66% in output power per unit volume (power density) and 27% increase in output power per unit volume and mass (specific power density), from 0.1 to 0.17 mW cm-3 and 0.41 to 0.51 mW cm-3 kg -1 respectively. Using the ANSYS multiphysics analysis, it was determined that for the double cell harvester, adding one additional pair of magnets created a small magnetic gradient between air gaps of 0.001 T which is insignificant in terms of electromagnetic damping. An analytical model was developed to optimize the magnitude of transformation factor and magnetic field gradient within the gap. © 2011 IOP Publishing Ltd.