A Silicon MEMS DC/DC Converter for Autonomous Vibration-to-Electrical-Energy Scavenger

Abstract : This letter deals with an innovative design for a silicon MEMS dc/dc converter, to be used in autonomous mechanical-energy scavengers, based on electrostatic transduction. The device is made of bulk silicon and is fabricated using a batch process. It is 27 mm(3) in volume and resonates at 250 Hz. We demonstrate a net vibration-to-electricity power conversion of between 60 and 100 nW in autonomous mode, i.e., without injecting and introducing new charges from an external power supply. We have compared the measurements with the results of a mixed VHDL-AMS/ELDO modeling experiment, and the agreement between these two experiments is better than 3%.