A Novel e-Gear Selector based on Triboelectric Nanogenerators (TENGs) for Automotive Applications

A novel self-powered e-Gear selector was successfully fabricated based on single electrode triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG) mode. The fabricated TENG device consists of four sensors to match the traditional gear selector (P, R, N, and D) with push-button style in the vehicles. Cow leather, natural cotton, paper, and thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) were selected as bottom triboelectric layers for the first, second, third, and fourth sensors, respectively. Screen-printed Ag ink was utilized as the bottom electrode for all the sensors and the human finger was chosen as the top triboelectric material. The performance of the fabricated device was demonstrated by characterizing its output signals in terms of open circuit voltage (V
oc
), and short circuit current (I
sc
) for three times. An average V
oc
of 4.4 V
pp
, 6.9 V
pp
, 9.3 V
pp
, and 12.6 V
pp
, and average I
sc
of 0.40 μA, 0.58 μA, 0.63 μA and 0.86 μA resulted in a power density of 0.3 μW/cm
²
, 0.7 μW/cm
²
, 1.0 μW/cm
²
and 1.8 μW/cm
²
for the leather, cotton, paper and TPU, respectively. The variation in power densities between the materials clearly shows the potential to differentiate between gears, making them suitable for implementation in an automotive e-Gear selector.