Open AccessStray electric field energy harvesting technology using MEMS switch from insulated AC power lines
Author(s) -
Kim Hoseong,
Choi Dongkil,
Gong Sungmin,
Park Kyungjin
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
electronics letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.375
H-Index - 146
ISSN - 1350-911X
DOI - 10.1049/el.2014.1264
Subject(s) - electrical engineering , energy harvesting , capacitor , engineering , wireless sensor network , microelectromechanical systems , wireless , electric power , power management , power (physics) , voltage , computer science , telecommunications , materials science , optoelectronics , physics , quantum mechanics , computer network
A new energy harvesting technology that extracts energy from the stray electric field around a three‐wire AC power line is presented. It is observed that when 20 cm of the insulated power line is surrounded with a conductive sheet, about 20 mJ of energy is harvested in 15 min with a 1 μF storage capacitor. An autonomous harvesting circuit was designed and built adopting an MEMS switch as a low leakage, low power consumption and hysteretic switch. It is demonstrated that the harvested energy is utilised to drive a commercial Zigbee‐based wireless sensor module autonomously. Since it is easy and safe to install, the proposed stray electric field harvesting technology should greatly expand the field in which wireless sensors are required, such as home automation, smart grid, building energy management and structural health monitoring, as long as power lines are available nearby.