A Rotary Energy Harvester with Liquid Metal Coils Embedded in PDMS Membrane

A new type of miniature rotational energy harvester is developed through the utilization of gallium-based liquid metal coils. Direct written on a PDMS film, the coil was fabricated with a mobile platform, then coated with another protected layer of PDMS. For planning the coil path, due to the phase difference of induced voltage between radial line segments, the winding factor correlation formula was used to calculate the optimal number of line segments corresponding to the maximum power generation. The path design method can be used as a reference for future improvements. The multi-layer assembly can be further used to increase the output power for providing real-time power to micro sensors.