News

Scientists at Tokyo Tech developed a micro-electromechanical energy harvester that allows for more flexibility in design, which is crucial for future IoT applications.

Nowadays, it would be hard to not notice that electronic devices have become incredibly small. The use of miniature sensors in the upcoming Internet of Things (IoT) era could enable us to develop applications that were only seen in science fiction. However, microelectronic devices still require power to run, and energy-harvesting micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) can be used so that these minuscule contraptions can run on ambient energy, such as that coming from mechanical vibrations.

As depicted in Fig. 1, conventional MEMS energy harvesters use an electret (the electrical equivalent of a permanent magnet; it has permanent charge stored in it) placed in an MEMS tunable capacitor, which has a moving electrode that is pushed by ambient forces, inducing the movement of charges. Unfortunately, this design is very constrained because the fabrication processes for both the electret and the MEMS components have to be compatible. Therefore, a team of scientists, including Assistant Professor Daisuke Yamane from Tokyo Tech, proposed a new MEMS electret-based energy harvester that consists of two separate chips: one for the MEMS tunable capacitor, and one containing an electret and dielectric material to form another capacitor (Fig. 1). "This allows us to physically separate MEMS structures and electrets for the first time," states Yamane.

Lead author Daisuke Yamane from Tokyo Tech (middle) with co-authors Hiroshi Toshiyoshi (left) and Hiroaki Honma (right) from University of Tokyo

Media

Nikkei（January 28, 2019）
https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXLRSP501052_Y9A120C1000000/

EE Times Japan（January 28, 2019）
https://eetimes.jp/ee/articles/1901/29/news018.html

Tokyo Tech Bulletin No. 54（March 26, 2019）
"Putting that free energy around you to good use with minuscule energy harvesters"
- Scientists at Tokyo Tech developed a micro-electromechanical energy harvester that allows for more flexibility in design, which is crucial for future IoT applications.

ＪＳＴ（January 27, 2019）
https://www.jst.go.jp/pr/announce/20190127/index.html

Eurekalert AAAS（January 27, 2019）
「Putting that free energy around you to good use with minuscule energy harvesters」
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-01/tiot-ptf012519.php

Dempa Publications Inc.（February 1, 2019）
新原理の振動発電素子を開発
エネルギーハーベスティング技術性能向上に期待
https://www.dempa.co.jp/

Contact

Ito Lab.
http://masu-www.pi.titech.ac.jp/
Asst. Prof. Daisuke YAMANE（Applied Electronics Research Core）
http://masu-www.pi.titech.ac.jp/member_files/daisuke_yamane/daisuke_yamane.html