On the efficiency of energy harvesters: A classification of dynamics in miniaturized generators under low-frequency excitation

Although motion energy harvesting at the small scales has been a research topic for over 20 years, the implementation of such generators remains limited in practice. One of the most important contributing factors here is the poor performance of these devices under low-frequency excitation. In this research, a new metric is proposed to evaluate the performance and bandwidth of generators at low frequencies. For that, a classification based on the dynamics was made. It was found that the highest efficiencies were found in single-degree-of-freedom resonators where a large motion amplification was achieved. Smaller generators can be designed by limiting the motion through end-stops at the cost of a reduced efficiency. Moreover, it was argued that upon miniaturization, resonators could be outperformed by generators using a frequency up-conversion principle.