February 16, 2011 -- The realization of self-powered
microsystems for medical implants, drug delivery, remote
monitoring, or safety-driven applications forms the basis behind
a new project being run at the UK's NPL by the Functional
Materials Group. The goal is to replace batteries in these
applications with an energy-scavenging power supply. This energy
harvesting power supply would eliminate the environmental
hazards and costs associated with battery technologies. Energy
harvesting covers the scavenging of many low-grade energy
sources such as environmental vibrations, human power, thermal
sources, wind energy and their conversion into useable
electrical energy. This project is concerned mainly with
environmental vibrations and human power, where the
transformation of mechanical to electrical energy is used to
power small autonomous devices. The conversion can be achieved
by various methods; however, the most promising options for MEMS
devices include magnetic, piezoelectric and magnetostrictive
transformat