Structural performance and evaluation of PDMS-based planar Membrane for electromagnetic vibration energy harvester (EM-VEH)

This paper discusses the performances of Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membranes with the electromagnetic coils and magnetic arrangement as the supporting structure to generate electricity by capturing the energy from vibrating ambient source. The membrane attached to the permanent magnet moved according to the structure of the electromagnetic system. The study first designed the PDMS planar membrane to allow the vibration energy capturer to induce the coils efficiently. Membrane vibration from a loudspeaker with an operating frequency of 32 Hz was used as the vibration source. The generated energy stored in a storage circuit using a 220 μF/25 Volt capacitor, while a 1.5 Volt LED was used as a tested load in the system. The results showed that the moving membrane attached with a 10 mm diameter magnet revealed an open circuit output voltage of 500 mV on the EM coil. An experiment within a 20-minute flashing LED load test produced an output voltage of 2.2 Volts. This study would benefit the development of vibration energy harvester used to supply a low electrical power for microdevices in an isolated area.