Development of Kinetic Energy Harvester using Piezoelectric and Magnetostrictive Materials

Nowadays almost all of our daily activities are tied to smartphones. Examples include, but are not limited to: fatigue and physio measurements, online banking, business management, situational awareness combined with navigation, computational photography, and modern telecommunication are all operational on our smartphones. These applications often depend on artificial intelligence and/or efficient 5G technology that often draws even more power from smartphone batteries. To address the ever-increasing need for battery power via a portable charger, researchers have developed various devices to convert environmental energy to electricity via small solar panels, electrostatic, electromagnetic, and reverse electrowetting effects. However, each system comes with its specific drawbacks. Solar is not suitable for cloudy days or nights whereas electrostatics are limited by its low-energy density. Electromagnets suffer from a bulky coil, and reverse electrowetting requires a complex and costly structure. I will develop a reliable and compact Mobile Charger using a new generation of Smart Materials (MCSM) to generate electricity. Smart materials used in this research are mainly piezoelectric and magnetostrictive.