MicroGen Systems - New Power Source For Battery Charging

MicroGen systems a New York based company is trying to develop an energy harvesting chip designed to power up batteries and other wireless sensors. These chips are designed in a way to convert the vibrational energy into electrical energy which in turn will be utilized to charge up the batteries. These chips are more useful in those devices that require frequent battery replacements.



The main functional part of these chips is a small square shaped silicon piece that vibrates when the chip is in motion. Below it a piezoelectric material is used which when strained will produce electric potential and it is then used to produce electric current. This piezoelectric current is then passed through an electric device which converts the electric current into a compatible form for the batteries. In other words this device simply converts the vibrational energy into electrical energy by means of a piezoelectric material. For instance when this chip assembly is associated with a rotating tire it can produce about 200 microwatt power.

Robert Andosca founder of MicroGen says that their product uses non toxic material unlike the most common piezoelectric crystal PZT that contains lead. He also believes that their product will be much cheaper than other piezoelectric devices mainly because of their large size and more because they are assembled by hands. While this silicon based micro electrical mechanical system also called MEMS are small and can be made on same equipments that are used to make computer chips, hence there is no additional cost incurred.

The company has sent the sample to major semiconductor manufacturing companies. Initially this technology is sought to be used for charging batteries for tire pressure indicators. This will be of great use as optimized tire pressure helps in saving fuel. These chips could be very useful in coming days in terms of lowering the battery pollution and thereby increasing their life.