SBIR Phase I: Advanced Micro Vibration Energy Harvesters for Energy-Autonomous Internet of Things

该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是解决电力问题，这严重限制了下一代无线传感器和物联网（IoT）节点的部署和功能，并抑制了它们在智能制造、智能交通和楼宇自动化等最需要的领域对能源和效率节约的影响。大多数高影响力的物联网应用通常需要将无线传感器节点小型化并大量放置在难以服务的位置，在这些位置更换电池或电线不实用或成本过高。本次研发工作将探索振动能量采集器的基础和技术极限，开发具有高功率密度、多轴工作能力、更宽频率带宽的新型微振动能量采集器。这些低成本微振动能量采集器旨在实现能量自主无线传感器节点，这将为自供电物联网节点开辟新的市场和高影响力应用，通过启用连续数据收集，在多个行业实现节能和提高效率，减少数百万废弃有毒电池的生态足迹，并显着降低工业物联网网络的维护成本。该小型企业创新研究（SBIR）一期项目旨在开发一种毫米级振动能量采集器，该采集器可以提供高功率密度，多轴运行能力和足够宽的运行带宽，作为下一代工业物联网节点的免维护和低成本可再生能源。现有的振动能量采集器存在体积大、成本高、功率密度低、工作频率高、频带极窄等问题，在现实生活中的实际应用受到限制。此外，商用收割机只能在单个振动轴上运行，无法从实际应用中复杂的三维振动剖面中高效收获。该SBIR第一阶段项目将专注于新型器件架构，以在高度紧凑的器件体积中实现高功率密度，并在任何空间方向上有效地从低振幅振动中获取能量。此外，将研究新的器件架构，以获得进一步改进的性能和额外的功能。分析模拟和有限元分析将进行优化设备性能。原型将通过专有的先进微制造方法制造，以在硅片上获得高质量的压电薄膜。制造的收割机原型将在模拟目标工业应用的条件下进行测试。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is to address the power problem, which significantly limits the deployment and functionality of next generation wireless sensors and internet-of-things (IoT) nodes and inhibits their impact on energy and efficiency savings in the most needed areas of smart manufacturing, smart transportation, and building automation. Most high-impact IoT applications typically require miniaturization and placement of wireless sensor nodes in hard-to-service locations in vast numbers, where the battery replacement or electrical wiring is not practical or too costly. This research and development effort will explore the fundamental and technological limits of vibration energy harvesters, and development of novel micro vibration energy harvesters with high power density, multi-axis operation capability, and wider frequency bandwidth. These low-cost micro vibration energy harvesters aim to enable energy-autonomous wireless sensor nodes that will open up new markets and high-impact applications for self-powered IoT nodes, achieve energy savings and increased efficiency in multiple industries due to enabled continuous data gathering, reduce the ecological footprint of millions of wasted toxic batteries, and significantly decrease the maintenance cost of industrial IoT networks. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project aims to develop a millimeter-scale vibration energy harvester that can provide high power density, multi-axis operation capability and sufficiently wide operation bandwidth, as a maintenance-free and low-cost renewable power source for next-generation industrial IoT nodes. Existing vibration energy harvesters have limited practical applications in real life, as they suffer from large size, high-cost, low power density, high operation frequency, and extremely narrow frequency bandwidths. Moreover, commercial harvesters can only operate at a single vibrational axis and cannot harvest efficiently from complex three-dimensional vibration profiles found in real-life applications. This SBIR Phase I project will focus on novel device architectures to achieve a high-power density in a highly compact device volume and to harvest energy efficiently from low-amplitude vibrations along any spatial directions. In addition, new device architectures will be investigated to obtain further improved performance and additional functionalities. Analytical simulations and finite element analysis will be performed to optimize device performance. Prototypes will be fabricated via a proprietary advanced micro manufacturing method to obtain high-quality piezoelectric thin films on silicon wafers. Fabricated harvester prototypes will be tested at conditions simulating target industrial applications.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.