Piezoelectric and Electrostatic Bimetal-Based Thermal Energy Harvesters

Arthur Arnaud (1) , Sébastien Boisseau (2) , Stéphane Monfray (3) , Onoriu Puscasu (3) , Ghislain Despesse (2) , Jihane Boughaleb (3) , Yannick Sanchez (3) , Frédéric Battegay (3) , Mickaël Fourel (3) , Stéphanie Audran (3) , Frédéric Boeuf (3) , Jérôme Delamare (1) , Gabriel Delepierre , Gilbert Pitone , Thomas Skotnicki (3)

1 G2ELab - Laboratoire de Génie Electrique de Grenoble
2 CEA-LETI - Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives - Laboratoire d'Electronique et de Technologie de l'Information
3 ST-CROLLES - STMicroelectronics [Crolles]

This paper reports on innovative thermal energy harvesters (TEH) turning heat fluxes into electricity in a two-step conversion, involving (i) a curved bimetallic strip converting thermal gradients into mechanical oscillations, which are then (ii) converted into electricity by a piezoelectric or an electret-based electrostatic transducer. This work mainly focuses on (i) the optimizations of the piezoelectric devices, (ii) a first demonstration of a Wireless Sensor Node powered by our electrostatic transducers, validating the viability of bimetal-based thermal energy harvesters, and (iii) the possibility of future scaled scavengers by a micrometric silicon approach to improve efficiencies and power densities.

Domaines: Energie électrique

Arthur Arnaud, Sébastien Boisseau, Stéphane Monfray, Onoriu Puscasu, Ghislain Despesse, et al.. Piezoelectric and Electrostatic Bimetal-Based Thermal Energy Harvesters. PowerMEMS 2013, The 13th International Conference on Micro- and Nano-Technology for Power Generation and Energy Conversion Applications, Dec 2013, Londres, United Kingdom. ⟨hal-00926752⟩