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Power Scavengers The market for energy-harvesting products powers up 34 | MAY/JUNE 2012 | MICROmanufacturing Every 2 weeks the founder and chief technology officer of MicroGen Systems, a developer of energy-harvesting technologies, drives about 6 hours from the company’s Ithaca, N.Y., headquarters to the Boston area to see his son. As he heads down Interstate 90, Robert Andosca doesn’t let the radio interfere with the hum of the road and his own thoughts. “All I do is think,” Andosca said. “So, I’m just thinking and thinking about these problems and University of Michigan A 1.5-cu.-mm intraocular pressure sensor to aid glaucoma patients developed by the University of Michigan is powered by harvesting light that enters the eye through the cornea. The IOP contains an integrated solar cell, thin-film Li battery, MEMS capacitive sensor, wireless transceiver and ICs vertically assembled in a biocompatible glass housing. I’ve come up with so many ideas.” The “problems” have to do with the bumps and vibrations endured by his tires every mile he drives. There is a great deal of energy in all that punishment his wheels endure; he is looking for a way to scavenge and harness it. Andosca predicts that by 2016 his company will be selling an energy solution for MEMS-based systems for monitoring tire pressure. He hopes to latch onto the growing, government-mandate-fueled market for tire- By Howard Lovy pressure-monitoring systems (TPMS) and a growing need to find a way to power the tiny devices. Tires will be the driver that will allow MicroGen to produce the volume necessary— about 50 million units per year—to eventually sell each energy-harvesting unit for $1. That, Andosca said, will open up the company’s energy-harvesting products to other applications and markets. According to market research firm IDTechEx, the market for energy harvesting and storage is a potentially lucrative one for companies that can meet the various challenges involved in gathering and using power from the physical environment. IDTechEx researchers Peter Harrop and Raghu Das write that energy-harvester sales are expected to reach $18 million in 2012 for wireless sensor applications alone. That number is expected to climb to $4 billion in 2021. MicroGen’s piezoelectric harvesters specialize in converting vibration generated by everything from tires to clothes dryers into power that can be harnessed and used for other purposes. According to Andosca, MicroGen is in discussions with a major appliance company regarding the product. But vibration is not the only source of ambient energy. Other types of devices include those that harvest radio-frequency (RF) signals from dedicated transmitters or ambient sources such as mobile phones; thermal energy, or heat, generated by differences in temperature between an object and the ambient air; and photovoltaic approaches that convert ambient natural and artificial light into electricity. While these methods of harvesting energy are not new, the market for them is expected to explode. Driving growth is the need and popularity of “green” technologies that save energy. Another factor is technological innovation that has improved the ability of devices to collect and translate ambient energy into usable power, along with a push for further integration of “connected” objects and ubiquitous computing, typically referred to as “the Internet of things.” The IoT will fail to reach its full potential
if ambient energy can’t be reliably and continuously transformed into power. Always-connected objects can never run out of energy. Harvesting partnerships An energy-harvesting device alone is not useful without the support of other elements. These include a microcon- troller, a power-storage unit (battery or ultracapacitor) and the ability to receive information about when and how to use that energy. That is why more energy-harvesting partnerships are being formed among companies that specialize in one area or another. “It’s almost harder to find somebody who’s not working with somebody else,” said Randy Frank, president of Randy Frank & Associates Ltd., a Scottsdale, Ariz., marketing firm specializing in technology communications. “One might specialize in microcontrollers, another in batteries or ultracapacitors for storage and another in power management,” Frank continued. “There’s a kind of mix-and-match going on of companies and technologies looking to complement one another in managing power from harvested energy.” Cymbet Corp. is one company that offers products designed to manage harvested energy. The Elk River, Minn.based company produces the EnerChip, a 1mm 3 , solid-state power-management system that gathers, converts, stores and manages virtually all the energy output by harvesting devices such as solar cells and thermoelectric generators. “Every joule is critical; every microjoule is critical,” said Steven Grady, vice president of marketing at Cymbet. Salvaging every microjoule is not an easy task. For example, Grady points to an intraocular pressure sensor designed by researchers at the University of Michigan that incorporates Cymbet’s EnerChip (see photo on page 34). The device will eventually be used to help glaucoma patients. The MEMS-based pressure sensor contains a microprocessor, solar cell and wireless transceiver in a device that is a mere 1.5mm × 2mm. Designers of this tiny device face several challenges, including converting energy from the solar cell. The company has achieved a conversion rate of about 22 percent, Grady said. The next step is The ‘problems’ have to do with the bumps and vibrations endured by his tires every mile he drives. There is a great deal of energy in all that punishment his wheels endure. taking the energy converted by the transducer and making it accessible to the system, which creates all sorts of opportunities for energy to be lost. Since light sources are variable, energy storage has to be close to 100 percent. Any power leakage would render the unit almost useless. How a system handles the small amount of energy harvested is the “secret Infinite Power Solutions A Thinergy micro-energy cell from Infinite Power Solutions. The paper-thin, solid-state, rechargeable energy-storage device can be used with all forms of ambient energyharvesting techniques for recharging, including solar, thermal, RF, magnetic and vibratory. sauce” most energy-harvesting designers keep close to their vests. But the payoff is potentially huge for those companies able to bring highly efficient harvesters to market, because the demand for batteries that never need replacing is expected to surge. There are several key markets for energy-harvesting devices, including implanted medical devices, where it isn’t possible to change the battery; military applications, where it is dangerous to do so; energy and lighting controls; and freestanding security devices. Consumer products, Grady said, are still not much of a market because having to change batteries is not a drawback with most products. Growing trend Tim Bradow, vice president of marketing for one of Cymbet’s competitors, Infinite Power Solutions (IPS), Littleton, Colo., recalled a day in 2007 when he stood in front of a group of 400 investors at a summit and bragged that IPS had developed an infinitely rechargeable, solid-state battery able to collect ambient energy and power an electronic device for decades. “They almost laughed me off the stage,” Bradow said. “There were hecklers in the crowd, and there were hecklers in the investment panel in the front.” About 5 years later, energy-harvesting symposiums are held around the globe and the attendees don’t laugh at pronouncements such as Bradow’s. Like Cymbet, IPS specializes in managing the trickle of power gathered by energy harvesters. “You trickle that energy in, and you blast it out,” Bradow said. IPS works closely with Maxim integrated semiconductor products to boost lowvoltage energy output by photovoltaic or thermoelectric harvesters. According to Bradow, IPS accomplishes this task by making its solidstate batteries from an inorganic compound that does not eat away at the battery as does the “chemical stew” in lithium-ion or nickel-cadmium batteries. The company uses lithium-phosphorus oxynitride, or LiPON. Bradow is excited about the prospects for energy harvesting as they apply to distributed wireless sensors. With a new wireless standard, Bluetooth 4.0, replacing disparate older versions, soon everybody’s handheld devices will micromanufacturing.com | 35
Page 2 and 3: Someone challenged us to a little g
Page 4 and 5: Features May/June 2012 • Volume 5
Page 6 and 7: FRONTpage Don Nelson Publisher Hybr
Page 8 and 9: TECHnews Applications abound for na
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Page 12 and 13: TECHnews these technologies creates
Page 14 and 15: TECHnews UM is suitable for workpie
Page 16 and 17: Micro End Mills l .002" to .125" Cu
Page 18 and 19: MEASUREMENT matters Video measureme
Page 20 and 21: DOWNsizing Silicon that goes pitter
Page 22 and 23: SWISSmachining By Kip Hanson, Contr
Page 24 and 25: SWISSmachining high-polish finishes
Page 26 and 27: More than Meets the Eye Eyewear tha
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Page 32 and 33: No Mass Appeal—Yet Additive manuf
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Page 40 and 41: Prickly Situation Makers of microne
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Page 44 and 45: PRODUCTS/services CARBIDE DEBURRING
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