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A. E. Akin-Ponnle ¹, A. A. Ponnle ¹, S. O. Falaki ²

Affiliations
1 Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Federal University of Technology, Akure, NG
2 Research and Development Department, Engineering Materials Development Institute, Akure, NG

Abstract

A cantilever-electret based electrostatic micro-power generator for energy harvesting was set up in which Cyclic Transparent Optical Polymer (CYTOP) was used as the electret, and the upper electrode was made in form of an Ashaped cantilever which was fabricated from materials of copper with embedded glass epoxy. The cantilever was vibrated in the vertical direction in close to contact point mode of operation. Experimental result showed that the average output power increases with increasing electret surface potential, and the minimum distance to contact point decreases with increasing electret surface potential. Also, variation of output power with frequency was investigated by first observing the natural vibration of the cantilever amplitude with frequency. The natural amplitude was found to decrease with increasing frequency, thus making the average output power to decrease with increasing frequency. However, for the fabricated cantilever when operated over a wide frequency range, it was further confirmed by experiments that the output power variation peaks around 40Hz with maximum output power of 2.7nW with 1MΩ externally connected load and then decreases with increasing frequency.

Keywords

Electret, Cantilever, Micro-Power Generator, Energy Harvesting, Average Output Power, Frequency, Surface Potential.

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A. E. Akin-Ponnle ¹, A. A. Ponnle ¹, S. O. Falaki ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Federal University of Technology, Akure, NG

Abstract

We present a generator model to describe the generated electrical output power variation with external load for vertical vibration based electret-cantilever micro-power generator. The generator, being electrostatic, is represented by an equivalent current source model. A vertical vibration based electret-cantilever micro-power generator was set up in which CYTOP was used as the electret and the upper electrode was made in form of an A-shaped cantilever fabricated from materials of copper with embedded glass epoxy. Experiments were conducted on the set up in the laboratory to validate the model. The results (generated electrical output power variation) from experiments agree fully with expected characteristics from the mathematical model. Also, maximum average power was expended in the external load when its value is equal to the equivalent internal source resistance of the micro-power generator. Electret-cantilever micro-power generator is best suited for high impedance loads.

Keywords

Electret, Cantilever, Micro-Power Generator, Average Output Power, External Load.

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