Dan Nocera: Personalized Energy

PIEZOELECTRIC ENERGY HARVESTER FROM VIBRATIONS - A MODULE FOR INDUSTRIAL APPLICATION

          This project is just an example of Vibrational Energy Harvesting. We can give whatever the vibrational source available as input. Also, here we are storing the obtained power it can be used for any purpose. If you want to eliminate battery then no problem just with the help of proper power conditioning circuit you can directly connect the obtained power to load. But make sure the continuous source of vibration before eliminating battery.

THIS IS THE BLOCK DIAGRAM FOR THE PIEZOELECTRIC ENERGY HARVESTER
FROM VIBRATIONS

THIS IS THE SET UP FOR UTILIZATION OF HARVESTED POWER

APPLICATION OF VIBRATIONAL ENERGY FROM ANY
VIBRATING SOURCE

AFTER THE APPLICATION OF VIBRATION THE INDICATOR GLOWS
INDICATING THE POWER GENERATED

NOW THE GENERATED POWER IS STORED IN BATTERY AFTER PROPERLY
CONVERTING IT INTO DC 

POWER FROM BATTERY IS GIVEN TO LOW POWER SENSOR - THERMISTOR

THEN THE POWER FROM BATTERY IS SUPPLIED TO LDR

FINALLY SUPPLYING IRDA

PIN CONFIGURATION FOR IRDA

THE NEXT THREE PICTURES SHOWS THE CONTROLLING OF SENSORS 

INTERFACING CIRCUIT OR CONNECTION DIAGRAM

OUTPUT OF THE PROJECT

OLED

What is an OLED?

OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) is a flat light emitting technology, made by placing a series of organic thin films between two conductors. When electrical current is applied, a bright light is emitted. OLEDs can be used to make displays and lighting. Because OLEDs emit light they do not require a backlight and so are thinner and more efficient than LCD displays(which do require a white backlight).

LG Display 31-inch OLED prototype

OLEDs are not just thin and efficient - they can also be made flexible (even rollable) and transparant.

OLED vs LCD

OLED displays have the following advantages over LCD displays:

• Lower power consumption
• Faster refresh rate and better contrast
• Greater brightness - The screens are brighter, and have a fuller viewing angle
• Exciting displays - new types of displays, that we do not have today, like ultra-thin, flexible or transparent displays
• Better durability - OLEDs are very durable and can operate in a broader temperature range
• Lighter weight - the screen can be made very thin, and can even be 'printed' on flexible surfaces

The future - flexible and transparent OLED displays

It turns out that because OLEDs are thin and simple - they can be used to create flexible and even transparent displays. This is pretty exciting as it opens up a whole world of possibilities:

• Curved OLED displays, placed on non-flat surfaces
• Wearable OLEDs
• Transparent OLEDs embedded in windows
• New designs for lamps
• And many more we cannot even imagine today...Several companies are working towards this, and we already got some pretty exciting prototypes. Hopefully these kind of displays will become available within a few years!

How do OLEDs work?

An OLED is made by placing a series of organic thin films between two conductors. When electrical current is applied, a bright light is emitted.

OLEDs are organic because they are made from carbon and hydrogen. There's no connection to organic food or farming - although OLEDs are very efficient and do not contain any heavy metals - so it's a real green technology.

So what's organic about OLEDs?

Where can I find OLED displays today?

Today you can find small (up to 3 or 4 inch) organic displays in many types of devices - mobile phones, A/V players, car audio systems, Digital cameras and PDAs. Lot's of companies are placing OLEDs in their products - Sony, Samsung, Nokia, LG, Microsoft, and others.

The main attraction today is the small size, the low power consumption and the great brightness. Obviously OLEDs carry a price premium over LCDs, but companies are using these displays more and more.

Samsung Galaxy S

OLED disadvantages

OLEDs aren't perfect. First of all, these screens are currently expensive - although this should hopefully change in the future, as OLEDs has a potential to be even cheaper than LCDs because of their simple design.

OLEDs have limited lifetime (like any display, really), that was quite a problem a few years ago. But there has been constant progress, and today this is almost a non-issue.

OLEDs can also be PDS, because of their emmissive nature. But companies are working to make it better. Samsung is producing in-cell touch panel displays  and Nokia has inlcuded a polarized filter in their...

Can OLEDs produce white lighting?

One of the more exciting attributes of organic displays is the low power consumption, and the ability to operate as a light source. OLEDs can produce white light, and can provide the bulb of the future - low power and thin designs (and no heavy metals). As OLEDs will also be flexible and transparent, this technology can truly be the light of the future.

Transparent white OLEDs by Philips

A lot of companies (Samsung, LG, duc and others) are working towards OLED Lighting. OSRAM, Philips and Lumiotec already offer sample panels, but these are very expensive 'samples' and not real commercial products yet. Real products shold arrive by 2012, hopefully.

FUTURE MOBILE POWER GENERATION - HARVESTING FROM VIBRATIONS USING PIEZOELECTRIC MATERIALS

          With the recent advances in wireless and micro electro mechanical systems technology, the demand for portable electronics and sensors is growing rapidly. Because these devices are portable, it becomes necessary that they carry their own power supply. In most cases this power supply is the conventional battery; however, problems can occur while using batteries because of their finite lifespan. For portable electronics, replacing the battery is problematic because the electronics could die at any time and replacement of the battery can become a tedious task. Supplying power through a long cable can be impractical, hard to install and maintain. Advances in integrated circuit manufacturing and low power circuit design have reduced the total power requirements of a sensor node to well below 1 mW.

           The sensor network systems provide new services based on the information in the real world. Sensor nodes, which constitute terminals of a sensor network system, measure the environment, such as temperature and humidity. Power consumption of wireless communication is large, so intermittent operation is effective in reducing power consumption. Consequently, sensor nodes have achieved average power consumption on the microwatt order. However, we still have a problem of maintenance cost to change battery manually of every distributed sensor node. 

ADVANCED NANO MATERIAL WHICH PRODUCES ELECTRICAL POTENTIAL
BY THE PIEZOELECTRIC PRINCIPLE

            Therefore, the power-free sensor nodes that scavenge its energy from ambient environments (mainly industries) and need no battery are strongly desired. There have been many approaches for ambient-energy scavenging technologies that use solar energy, thermal energy, and environmental vibration energy, of all these scavenging technology from vibration is quite useful. It can be applied for the sensor nodes that monitor the problems of the industrial machines such as machines, motors or monitor the circumstances in the busy traffic roads. However, conventional scavenging technologies from environmental vibration have not yet achieved to supply stable power for continuous operation of sensor nodes. The scavenged powers have reached in 100 microwatt order, but the sensor nodes require 10 mW order power instantly.
           For this reason, conventional scavenging technologies are used as a supporting battery that enhance the lifetime of the main battery. In this project, we describe a completely power-free sensor node or low power electronic device that works under small vibration energy scavenged from industrial machines with no battery. The energy harvester consists of a piezoelectric resonator or Piezoelectric Sensors(click here for Piezoelectric Ceramics: Principles and Applications) for a vibration-to-electric energy converter, and a power control circuit that store scavenged current charge to supply instant power.