Electrostatic Energy Harvester Design using In-plane Gap Closing and In-plane Overlap Varying Mechanisms

Demand of energy is increasing day by day with the development of new technologies. Renewable energy resources are mostly focused nowadays to harvest energy. Mostly vibration-based energy harvesters include Electrostatic, Electromagnetic and Piezoelectric energy harvesting mechanisms. Electrostatic energy harvester (EEH) is preferable as compared to other two mechanisms due to low cost and possibility of integration on small scale. Electrostatic energy harvesting would be possible using in-plane and out-of-plane capacitive mechanisms. In-plane capacitive mechanisms include gap closing, overlap varying, full plate varying and patterned varying mechanisms. In this research paper, combined in-plane gap closing (IPGC) and in-plane overlap varying (IPOV) mechanisms have been used to design an energy harvester on small scale. IntelliSuite® software is used for design and simulation purpose. Electrostatic, frequency and electromechanical analysis have been performed. Comparison between other relevant work is also presented with respect to power density.