EnginSoft - Conference Abstracts

EnginSoft International Conference 2010
CAE Technologies for Industry

MEMS Design Optimisation: The Case of Energy Harvesing Devices

Benkhelifa Elhadj - Cranfield University (UK)
Tiwari Ashutosh - Cranfield University (UK)

Abstract

Energy Harvesting Devices (EHD) are able to capture and store ambient energy from the environment. EHDs are usually based on four different mechanisms: Electrostatic, Electromagnetic, Piezoelectric and Thermoelectric. Potentially, these devices will replace the traditional batteries. The micro scale EHD are meant to power devices which require smaller amount of power, such as cellular phones, PDAs and remote sensor nodes. The design of micro-EHD, like any other MEMS device, follow the traditional trial and error approach which greatly depends on human expertise. This paper proposes an automated approach for the design optimisation of such devices, based on evolutionary algorithms. Unlike traditional approaches, the
proposed method searches for a global optimum for multiple objectives simultaneously. The desire is to produce smaller EHD that can generate the highest possible electrical power. The prop osed framework and experiments are conducted within modeFRONTIER.