Energy Harvesters for Human-Monitoring Applications

Takayuki FUJITA  

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics   Vol.E96-C    No.6    pp.766-773
Publication Date: 2013/06/01
Online ISSN: 1745-1353
DOI: 10.1587/transele.E96.C.766
Print ISSN: 0916-8516
Type of Manuscript: Special Section INVITED PAPER (Special Section on Analog Circuits and Related SoC Integration Technologies)
Category: 
Keyword: 
energy harvester,  wireless sensor network,  WSN,  photovoltaic cell,  thermo electric generator,  RF harvester,  electrostatic,  electromagnetic,  vibratory type,  

Full Text: FreePDF(5.2MB)
Summary: 
This paper introduces the basics of energy harvesters and demonstrates two specific vibratory-type energy harvesters developed at the University of Hyogo. The fabrication and evaluation results of the vibratory-type energy harvesters, which employ electrostatic and electromagnetic mechanisms, are described. The aim of developing these devices is to realize a power source for an autonomous human monitoring system. The results of harvesting from actual human activities obtained using a data logger are also described. Moreover, challenges in the power management of electronic circuitry used for energy harvesting are briefly discussed.