Title: Smart dust sensor network with piezoelectric energy harvesting

Authors: Yee Win Shwe, Yung C. Liang

Addresses: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore. ' Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Abstract: Piezoelectric materials can be used to convert mechanical energy, such as vibration into electrical energy which can be used to power up devices in a smart dust sensing network. This piezoelectric mechanism exhibits great potentials to resolve many energy supply problems in sensor network to supply energy to radio frequency (RF) circuits, microcontroller, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and sensors placed in remote locations. This paper presents the detailed development work of a self-powered wireless sensor node which harvests the power energy from surrounding machinery vibration by the piezoelectric generator. The detailed design on a temperature sensing system is described in this paper. This approach is very useful in application in real-time remote monitoring of the machine temperature by sensor network in industries.

Keywords: smart dust sensor networks; piezoelectric energy harvesting; wireless sensor networks; WSNs; condition monitoring; radio frequency circuits; RF circuits; microcontrollers; microelectromechanical systems; MEMS; sensors; remote locations; machinery vibration; piezoelectric generators; remote monitoring; machine temperature.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISTA.2010.036580

International Journal of Intelligent Systems Technologies and Applications, 2010 Vol.9 No.3/4, pp.253 - 261

Published online: 04 Nov 2010 *

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