This paper deals with the design of the power management circuit for the vibration generator developed in the frame of the European WISE project and its testing in the connection with the generator and the dynamic load simulating the real load. This generator is used as an autonomous energy source for wireless sensor applications. It can be used for example in the aeronautic, automotive and many other applications. The generator output power analysis was based on the vibration spectrum measured on the helicopter engine, provided by the consortium EADS, EUROCOPTER, DASSAULT AVIATION - 6.RP -WIreless SEnsing (WISE) project. This spectrum shows very unstable vibration levels. It was done the statistical analysis of these vibration levels and it was shown that there is a need of the power management circuit, which can provide a stable output voltage for the supplied circuit and if there is a need it can store an immediately unusable generated energy. The generator can't be used as the only energy source for the sensor circuit, because there are not any vibrations when for example a motor is stopped. In these periods and in the time of low vibration levels the circuit must be supplied from battery. The power management circuit described in this paper fulfills these requirements. It has two power inputs - the battery and the generator. It can switch between them at certain defined generator output levels by the threshold detector. Also when there is too much of the generated power, it can store the extra energy in the storage for the later usage. The storage device is the advanced capacitor. The advanced capacitor is a device containing three capacitors. These capacitors are connected (and charged) sequentially so the increasing capacity is provided. The developed power management was tested in the connection with the real vibration generator raised by stable vibration levels and the dynamic load simulating the real sensor in the main operation stages - sampling and data transmitting. It was shown that the generator with output power of 8mW@0,3GRMS with generator weight of 140g together with the described power management circuit can save about 50% of battery energy with the mentioned vibration spectrum. The generator used for the testing was improved, so it is more sensitive and also the sensor power requirements were decreased, so now it can be saved up to 100% battery energy during the generator operation. Also the power management circuit is still refined.

Date Published: 18 May 2009
PDF: 12 pages
Proc. SPIE 7362, Smart Sensors, Actuators, and MEMS IV, 73621S (18 May 2009); doi: 10.1117/12.822822

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7362:
Smart Sensors, Actuators, and MEMS IV
Ulrich Schmid, Editor(s)