Polymer energy harvester for powering wireless communication systems

Energy was generated from harvester structures based on various electroactive polymer thin films of different electro-mechanical properties under applied pressure and frequency characteristics specific to human motion. A self-priming energy harvesting circuit was designed and optimized to collect and store this energy. The circuit enables a gradual increase in voltage each time pressure is applied on the harvester and more energy to be stored with each generation cycle. Thus stored energy of up to 10 mW/cm2 at 10 Hz was successfully used to power a wireless transmitter. The results revealed that, with increasing number of layers in a fluoropolymer harvester system, the time between signal transmissions could be shortened more and more.