iCANX Talks: talks.ican-x.c...
Ambient and Wireless Power Sources for Miniature Devices
Professor Eric M. Yeatman, Professor Paul Mitcheson
Imperial College London, UK
Group Website:
www.imperial.ac.uk/people/e.yeatman
www.imperial.ac.uk/people/paul.mitcheson
ABSTRACT:
Wireless electronic devices have been proliferating in recent years, and will continue to do so. Most are powered by batteries, and removing the burden of recharging or replacing these is becoming ever more attractive. Wireless sensors are a particularly compelling application, because in many desired applications they will be large in number, and difficult to access, while having modest power requirements. At Imperial College London, we have developed a variety of alternative powering methods, including kinetic energy harvesters, dynamic thermoelectric harvesters, resonant inductive charging systems, and ultrasonic power delivery. We will present these devices and methods, and also demonstrate a new concept called synthetic sensor networks, in which drones or other mobile robots visit widely scattered sensors to autonomously collect data and deliver wireless power. We will introduce new applications for such systems, and discuss future possibilities and trends.
BIOGRAPHY:
Eric M. Yeatman has been a member of academic staff in Imperial College London since 1989, and Professor of Micro-Engineering since 2005. He has published more than 200 papers and patents, primarily on micro-fabrication, micro-optics, micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), and sensor systems. Since 2015 he is Head of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. He is a Fellow and a Silver Medalist of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and a Fellow of the IEEE. Prof. Yeatman is also co-founder and director of Microsaic Systems plc, which develops and markets miniature mass spectrometers, based on MEMS technology, for chemical analysis.
Paul Mitcheson received the MEng degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in 2001 and the PhD degree in 2005 both from Imperial College London. He is currently Professor of Electrical Energy Conversion in the Control and Power Research Group in the Electrical Engineering Department at Imperial and has research interests in energy harvesting systems, wireless power transfer and power electronics. He is a fellow of the higher education academy and senior member of the IEEE. He was general co-chair of PowerMEMS 2013, held in the Royal Society, London and of IEEE Wireless Power Week, 2019, held in London at the IET. He sits on the Executive Committee of the UK Power Electronics Centre.