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BROADBAND ENERGY SCAVENGING TECHNOLOGIES FOR MICRO ELECTRO-MECHANICAL SYSTEMS – BESTMEMS

A global and unified approach for optimized self-powered IoT devices

BESTMEMS aims at developing a global approach for the design of self-powered systems supplied by ambient vibrations, including material, mechanical, electrical and energy management aspects for the conception of energetically autonomous sensors. With this aim, two specific target applications will be envisaged through the collaboration with industrial partners, consisting in a self-powered Tyre Pressure Monitoring System and a structural health monitoring system for smart bearings.

Replacing chemical batteries and tackling the fragmented approach in energy harvesting and self-powered systems

The spreading of wireless sensors has raised the issue of power supply. While chemical batteries are most common solution, they feature severe limitations in confined environments and/or under harsh operating conditions. As an example, Tyre Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS) usually feature lifespan of less than four years because of battery depletion, which is much lower that the tyre lifespan. Meanwhile, predictive maintenance (e.g., in bearings) requires reliable and long-lasting monitoring systems that therefore cannot use such conventional batteries as well.<br />Using surrounding energy, for instance vibrations, leading to the concept of “Energy Harvesting”, has been a promising solution to address such issues. This has however suffered from topic segmentation, preventing from the disposal of a complete working system. BESTMEMS, embracing all of the involved scientific fields as well as their interfaces, therefore permitted to dispose of global views and approaches, enabling the design of a complete and optimized integrated sensing system supplied from ambient energy, therefore allowing a significant step towards the disposal of global and realistic self-powered sensing systems.

BESTMEMS proposes a unique combination of competences, ranging from the material elaboration (NTU) and structural design (LTDS, LGEF) to the electrical interface (LGEF) and integration (NTHU, NTU), along with expertise at the interfaces between each of these fields (LGEF, NTU, LTDS). Definitely oriented towards the application, BESTMEMS consortium also benefits from expertise of industrial partners (SKF and SIMTRANS) truly involved in the global device design.
BESTMEMS is therefore a truly multiphysic and transdisciplinary project, bringing advances at multiscale levels, from local to global considerations. Hence, the project encompasses elaboration of optimized micro-transducers able to efficiently convert vibrational energy into electricity, innovative structures able to harvest energy from rotational motions, optimized electrical interfaces taking the most of the electromechanical structures to deliver significant amount of electrical power, and ultralow-power yet performant sensing architectures. The efficient combination of all of these advances, co-designed to ensure an optimized global system, then allows the disposal of truly working devices in realistic applications.

BESTMEMS’s transdisciplinarity enabled advances on each field but also at their interfaces.
Micro-transducers have been elaborated by an original approach, with performance 5 times higher than state of the art while addressing applicative constraints. New research routes, consisting in harvesting from rotational motions, were also unveiled. Integrated electrical interfaces, with 6-fold power gain, have been enabled by controlling the extracted energy w.r.t the available one.
The project allowed a major consolidation of the French-Taiwanese partnership (new projects, MOU, invited professor…).

Currently, BESTMEMS opens new fields in terms of electromechanical micro-transducers for energy harvesting purpose, by obtaining per formant microtransducers with high electromechanical activity as well as efficient, integrated energy extraction electrical interfaces well adapted to energy harvesting systems.

Mechanical aspects lead to original structures that take advantage of target applications (rotating systems) and are currently under investigation.

Finally, lessons learnt in terms of global interfacing between each stage, as the project progresses, show optimal operating points at a global point of view.

Finally, on the collaborative aspect, the project also allows a strengthening of the French-Taiwanese partnership on coupled microsystems, but also of the local partnership.

9 publications in International Peer-Reviewed Journals:
1. M. Lallart, W.-J. Wu et al., “Inductorless Synchronized Switch Harvesting using a Piezoelectric Oscillator”, IEEE Trans. Power Electronics, (in press).
2. Y. C. Shu, W. C. Wang and Y. P. Chang, ‘’Electrically Rectified Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Induced by Rotary Magnetic Plucking’’, Smart Mater. Struct., Vol. 27, Art. No. 125006., 2019.
3. L. Yan, M. Lallart and A. Karami, Low-Cost Orbit Jump in Nonlinear Energy Harvesters through Energy-Efficient Stiffness Modulation, Sens. Act. A: Phys., Vol. 285, pp. 676-684, 2019.
4. T.-Y. Hsu, C.-L. Kuo et al., “The effects of annealing and wake-up cycling on the ferroelectricity of zirconium hafnium oxide ultrathin films prepared by remote plasma atomic layer deposition”, Smart Mater. Struct., Vol.28 (8), 2019.
5. C. K. Thein, F. M. Foong and Y. C. Shu, “Spring Amplification and Dynamic Friction Modelling of a 2DOF/2SDOF System in an Electromagnetic Vibration Energy Harvester – Experiment, Simulation, and Analytical Analysis”, J. Mech. Syst. Sig. Proc., Vol. 132, pp. 232-252, 2019.
6. M. Lallart, S. Zhou et al., “Tailoring multistable vibrational energy harvesters for enhanced performance: theory and numerical investigation”, Nonlinear Dynamics, Vol. 96 (2), pp. 1283-1301, 2019.
7. C. K. Thein, F. M. Foong and Y. C. Shu, ‘’Damping Ratio and Power Output Prediction of an Electromagnetic Energy Harvester Designed through Finite Element Analysis”, Sens. Act. A.: Phys., Vol. 286, pp. 220-231, 2019.
8. P. H. Wu, Y. J. Chen et al., “Wideband Energy Harvesting Based on Mixed Connection of Piezoelectric Oscillators”, Smart Mater. Struct., Vol. 26(9), 094005, 2017.
9. M. Lallart, W.-J. Wu et al., “Synchronous Inversion and Charge Extraction (SICE): a Hybrid Switching Interface for Efficient Vibrational Energy Harvesting”, Smart Mater. Struct., Vol. 26(11), 115012, 2017.

19 communications in conferences (including 18 international ones and 3 invited talks).

Ensuring the security of goods and people in transportation is a serious issue. In order to ensure this objective, the use of embedded sensors has been the subject of an exceptional growth over the last few years. However, bringing power supply to a large part of such sensors is still an open issue, as bringing supply wires is not possible for moving parts. In such a case, typical solutions rely on the use of primary batteries, but the latter yields costly maintenance issues because of the self-discharge, which can also raise security problems, as the sensor cannot work without energy.
Recently, the concept of “energy harvesting”, consisting of converting an energy source directly available to the system into useful electricity, has become a reliable way for replacing batteries. In particular, many studies were devoted to the conversion of mechanical energy, as such a source is commonly available in many environments (road traffic, machinery, etc…). However, challenges for the integration of the microgenerator at dimensions similar to the electronic device to supply as well as efficient harvesting for real-life, complex mechanical excitations still hold. Tackling these issues requires, in addition to the development of cutting-edge technologies, a perfect mastering of the transdisciplinary fields involved in the design of the harvester, going from the material aspects to the electrical domain through mechanical considerations. Furthermore, a perfect knowledge of the interfaces between these domains and multiphysic couplings is necessary for the disposal of efficient microgenerators.
BESTMEMS hence proposes to provide such an approach that consists of conceiving the harvesting system as a whole instead of seeing the device as a simple association of independent blocks which would lead to a sub-optimized system. The project is furthermore driven by applications in the fields of transportations, through the development of Tyre Pressure Monitoring Sensor (TPMS) and smart bearings. The project encompasses partners with worldwide recognized expertise in the fields of material elaboration, mechanics, electromechanical coupling and electronics, along with two partners from industries (one for each country) that will help in developing a realistic global device. This will therefore permits developing efficient and optimized microgenerators, with particular focuses on the following issues:
1. Development of a MEMS (Micro-ElectroMechanical System) transducer for mechanical to electrical energy conversion;
2. Optimization (in a global way) of the mechanical coupling between the transducer, the substrate and the electronic interface for harvesting;
3. Optimization (in a global way) of the electrical interface for energy extraction; in particular, integrated nonlinear treatment interfaces for energy conversion enhancement will be developed in the particular case of MEMS system.
4. Device optimization with respect to the target application; exploitation of mechanical and electrical nonlinearities (as well as the coupling between them) for broadband energy harvesting is a key issue to dispose of efficient harvesting systems.
5. Optimization of the power management strategy and development of integrated power management module;
6. Design of self-powered devices for transportation systems (Tyre Pressure Monitoring System and smart bearings)

Project name: BESTMEMS (Broadband Energy Scavenging Technologies for Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems)
Partners: LGEF INSA (France), NTU (Taiwan), LTDS ECL (France), NTHU (Taiwan), SIMTRANS (Taiwan), SKF (France)
Budget (ANR) : 313 000 € (533 180 € total)
Keywords: Energy harvesting, self-powered devices, multiphysic coupling, MEMS, power management and sensors, nonlinearities, nonlinear mechanics
Start date: November 2015
End date: November 2018

Project coordination

Mickaël LALLART (Laboratoire de Génie Electrique et Ferroélectricité)

The author of this summary is the project coordinator, who is responsible for the content of this summary. The ANR declines any responsibility as for its contents.

Partner

SIMTRANS SIMTRANS Technology Inc.
SKF SKF-Aerospace
NTHU National Tsing Hua University
LTDS Laboratoire de Tribologie et Dynamique des Systèmes
INSA LYON Laboratoire de Génie Electrique et Ferroélectricité
NTU National Taiwan University

Help of the ANR 313,000 euros
Beginning and duration of the scientific project: February 2016 - 36 Months

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