A vibration energy harvester using diamagnetic levitation

In this paper a novel electromagnetic vibration type energy harvester which uses a diamagnetic levitation system is conceptualized, designed, fabricated, and tested. The harvester uses two diamagnetic plates made of pyrolytic graphite between which a cylindrical magnet levitates passively. Two archimedean spiral coils are placed in grooves which are engraved in the pyrolytic graphite plates, used to convert the mechanical energy into electrical energy efficiently. The geometric configurations of coils are selected based on the field distribution of the magnet to enhance the efficiency of the harvester. A thorough theoretical analysis is done to compare with the experiment results. At an input power of 103.45 μW and at a frequency of 2.7 Hz, the harvester generated a power of 0.744 μW at an efficiency of 0.72%. Both theoretical and experimental results show that this new energy harvesting system is efficient and can capture low frequency broadband spectra.