Sensors & Transducers

Volume 107, Issue 8 August 2009

www.sensorsportal.com
Editors-in-Chief: professor Sergey Y. Yurish,
Phone: +34 696067716, fax: +34 93 4011989, e-mail: editor@sensorsportal.com

ISSN 1726-5479

Editors for Western Europe Meijer, Gerard C.M., Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands Ferrari, Vittorio, Universit di Brescia, Italy Editor South America Costa-Felix, Rodrigo, Inmetro, Brazil Editor for Eastern Europe Sachenko, Anatoly, Ternopil State Economic University, Ukraine

Editors for North America Datskos, Panos G., Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA Fabien, J. Josse, Marquette University, USA Katz, Evgeny, Clarkson University, USA Editor for Asia Ohyama, Shinji, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan Editor for Asia-Pacific Mukhopadhyay, Subhas, Massey University, New Zealand

Editorial Advisory Board

Abdul Rahim, Ruzairi, Universiti Teknologi, Malaysia Ahmad, Mohd Noor, Nothern University of Engineering, Malaysia Annamalai, Karthigeyan, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan Arcega, Francisco, University of Zaragoza, Spain Arguel, Philippe, CNRS, France Ahn, Jae-Pyoung, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Korea Arndt, Michael, Robert Bosch GmbH, Germany Ascoli, Giorgio, George Mason University, USA Atalay, Selcuk, Inonu University, Turkey Atghiaee, Ahmad, University of Tehran, Iran Augutis, Vygantas, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania Avachit, Patil Lalchand, North Maharashtra University, India Ayesh, Aladdin, De Montfort University, UK Bahreyni, Behraad, University of Manitoba, Canada Baliga, Shankar, B., General Monitors Transnational, USA Baoxian, Ye, Zhengzhou University, China Barford, Lee, Agilent Laboratories, USA Barlingay, Ravindra, RF Arrays Systems, India Basu, Sukumar, Jadavpur University, India Beck, Stephen, University of Sheffield, UK Ben Bouzid, Sihem, Institut National de Recherche Scientifique, Tunisia Benachaiba, Chellali, Universitaire de Bechar, Algeria Binnie, T. David, Napier University, UK Bischoff, Gerlinde, Inst. Analytical Chemistry, Germany Bodas, Dhananjay, IMTEK, Germany Borges Carval, Nuno, Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal Bousbia-Salah, Mounir, University of Annaba, Algeria Bouvet, Marcel, CNRS UPMC, France Brudzewski, Kazimierz, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland Cai, Chenxin, Nanjing Normal University, China Cai, Qingyun, Hunan University, China Campanella, Luigi, University La Sapienza, Italy Carvalho, Vitor, Minho University, Portugal Cecelja, Franjo, Brunel University, London, UK Cerda Belmonte, Judith, Imperial College London, UK Chakrabarty, Chandan Kumar, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Malaysia Chakravorty, Dipankar, Association for the Cultivation of Science, India Changhai, Ru, Harbin Engineering University, China Chaudhari, Gajanan, Shri Shivaji Science College, India Chavali, Murthy, VIT University, Tamil Nadu, India Chen, Jiming, Zhejiang University, China Chen, Rongshun, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan Cheng, Kuo-Sheng, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan Chiang, Jeffrey (Cheng-Ta), Industrial Technol. Research Institute, Taiwan Chiriac, Horia, National Institute of Research and Development, Romania Chowdhuri, Arijit, University of Delhi, India Chung, Wen-Yaw, Chung Yuan Christian University, Taiwan Corres, Jesus, Universidad Publica de Navarra, Spain Cortes, Camilo A., Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Colombia Courtois, Christian, Universite de Valenciennes, France Cusano, Andrea, University of Sannio, Italy D'Amico, Arnaldo, Universit di Tor Vergata, Italy De Stefano, Luca, Institute for Microelectronics and Microsystem, Italy Deshmukh, Kiran, Shri Shivaji Mahavidyalaya, Barshi, India Dickert, Franz L., Vienna University, Austria Dieguez, Angel, University of Barcelona, Spain Dimitropoulos, Panos, University of Thessaly, Greece Ding, Jianning, Jiangsu Polytechnic University, China Djordjevich, Alexandar, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Donato, Nicola, University of Messina, Italy Donato, Patricio, Universidad de Mar del Plata, Argentina Dong, Feng, Tianjin University, China Drljaca, Predrag, Instersema Sensoric SA, Switzerland Dubey, Venketesh, Bournemouth University, UK Enderle, Stefan, Univ.of Ulm and KTB Mechatronics GmbH, Germany Erdem, Gursan K. Arzum, Ege University, Turkey Erkmen, Aydan M., Middle East Technical University, Turkey Estelle, Patrice, Insa Rennes, France Estrada, Horacio, University of North Carolina, USA Faiz, Adil, INSA Lyon, France Fericean, Sorin, Balluff GmbH, Germany Fernandes, Joana M., University of Porto, Portugal Francioso, Luca, CNR-IMM Institute for Microelectronics and Microsystems, Italy Francis, Laurent, University Catholique de Louvain, Belgium Fu, Weiling, South-Western Hospital, Chongqing, China Gaura, Elena, Coventry University, UK Geng, Yanfeng, China University of Petroleum, China Gole, James, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA Gong, Hao, National University of Singapore, Singapore Gonzalez de la Rosa, Juan Jose, University of Cadiz, Spain Granel, Annette, Goteborg University, Sweden Graff, Mason, The University of Texas at Arlington, USA Guan, Shan, Eastman Kodak, USA Guillet, Bruno, University of Caen, France Guo, Zhen, New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA Gupta, Narendra Kumar, Napier University, UK Hadjiloucas, Sillas, The University of Reading, UK Haider, Mohammad R., Sonoma State University, USA Hashsham, Syed, Michigan State University, USA Hasni, Abdelhafid, Bechar University, Algeria Hernandez, Alvaro, University of Alcala, Spain Hernandez, Wilmar, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain Homentcovschi, Dorel, SUNY Binghamton, USA Horstman, Tom, U.S. Automation Group, LLC, USA Hsiai, Tzung (John), University of Southern California, USA Huang, Jeng-Sheng, Chung Yuan Christian University, Taiwan Huang, Star, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan Huang, Wei, PSG Design Center, USA Hui, David, University of New Orleans, USA Jaffrezic-Renault, Nicole, Ecole Centrale de Lyon, France Jaime Calvo-Galleg, Jaime, Universidad de Salamanca, Spain James, Daniel, Griffith University, Australia Janting, Jakob, DELTA Danish Electronics, Denmark Jiang, Liudi, University of Southampton, UK Jiang, Wei, University of Virginia, USA Jiao, Zheng, Shanghai University, China John, Joachim, IMEC, Belgium Kalach, Andrew, Voronezh Institute of Ministry of Interior, Russia Kang, Moonho, Sunmoon University, Korea South Kaniusas, Eugenijus, Vienna University of Technology, Austria Katake, Anup, Texas A&M University, USA Kausel, Wilfried, University of Music, Vienna, Austria Kavasoglu, Nese, Mugla University, Turkey Ke, Cathy, Tyndall National Institute, Ireland Khan, Asif, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India Sapozhnikova, Ksenia, D.I.Mendeleyev Institute for Metrology, Russia

Kim, Min Young, Kyungpook National University, Korea South Ko, Sang Choon, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, Korea South Kockar, Hakan, Balikesir University, Turkey Kotulska, Malgorzata, Wroclaw University of Technology, Poland Kratz, Henrik, Uppsala University, Sweden Kumar, Arun, University of South Florida, USA Kumar, Subodh, National Physical Laboratory, India Kung, Chih-Hsien, Chang-Jung Christian University, Taiwan Lacnjevac, Caslav, University of Belgrade, Serbia Lay-Ekuakille, Aime, University of Lecce, Italy Lee, Jang Myung, Pusan National University, Korea South Lee, Jun Su, Amkor Technology, Inc. South Korea Lei, Hua, National Starch and Chemical Company, USA Li, Genxi, Nanjing University, China Li, Hui, Shanghai Jiaotong University, China Li, Xian-Fang, Central South University, China Liang, Yuanchang, University of Washington, USA Liawruangrath, Saisunee, Chiang Mai University, Thailand Liew, Kim Meow, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Lin, Hermann, National Kaohsiung University, Taiwan Lin, Paul, Cleveland State University, USA Linderholm, Pontus, EPFL - Microsystems Laboratory, Switzerland Liu, Aihua, University of Oklahoma, USA Liu Changgeng, Louisiana State University, USA Liu, Cheng-Hsien, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan Liu, Songqin, Southeast University, China Lodeiro, Carlos, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Portugal Lorenzo, Maria Encarnacio, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain Lukaszewicz, Jerzy Pawel, Nicholas Copernicus University, Poland Ma, Zhanfang, Northeast Normal University, China Majstorovic, Vidosav, University of Belgrade, Serbia Marquez, Alfredo, Centro de Investigacion en Materiales Avanzados, Mexico Matay, Ladislav, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia Mathur, Prafull, National Physical Laboratory, India Maurya, D.K., Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, Singapore Mekid, Samir, University of Manchester, UK Melnyk, Ivan, Photon Control Inc., Canada Mendes, Paulo, University of Minho, Portugal Mennell, Julie, Northumbria University, UK Mi, Bin, Boston Scientific Corporation, USA Minas, Graca, University of Minho, Portugal Moghavvemi, Mahmoud, University of Malaya, Malaysia Mohammadi, Mohammad-Reza, University of Cambridge, UK Molina Flores, Esteban, Benemrita Universidad Autnoma de Puebla, Mexico Moradi, Majid, University of Kerman, Iran Morello, Rosario, University "Mediterranea" of Reggio Calabria, Italy Mounir, Ben Ali, University of Sousse, Tunisia Mulla, Imtiaz Sirajuddin, National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, India Neelamegam, Periasamy, Sastra Deemed University, India Neshkova, Milka, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria Oberhammer, Joachim, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden Ould Lahoucine, Cherif, University of Guelma, Algeria Pamidighanta, Sayanu, Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), India Pan, Jisheng, Institute of Materials Research & Engineering, Singapore Park, Joon-Shik, Korea Electronics Technology Institute, Korea South Penza, Michele, ENEA C.R., Italy Pereira, Jose Miguel, Instituto Politecnico de Setebal, Portugal Petsev, Dimiter, University of New Mexico, USA Pogacnik, Lea, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Post, Michael, National Research Council, Canada Prance, Robert, University of Sussex, UK Prasad, Ambika, Gulbarga University, India Prateepasen, Asa, Kingmoungut's University of Technology, Thailand Pullini, Daniele, Centro Ricerche FIAT, Italy Pumera, Martin, National Institute for Materials Science, Japan Radhakrishnan, S. National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, India Rajanna, K., Indian Institute of Science, India Ramadan, Qasem, Institute of Microelectronics, Singapore Rao, Basuthkar, Tata Inst. of Fundamental Research, India Raoof, Kosai, Joseph Fourier University of Grenoble, France Reig, Candid, University of Valencia, Spain Restivo, Maria Teresa, University of Porto, Portugal Robert, Michel, University Henri Poincare, France Rezazadeh, Ghader, Urmia University, Iran Royo, Santiago, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Spain Rodriguez, Angel, Universidad Politecnica de Cataluna, Spain Rothberg, Steve, Loughborough University, UK Sadana, Ajit, University of Mississippi, USA Sadeghian Marnani, Hamed, TU Delft, The Netherlands

Sandacci, Serghei, Sensor Technology Ltd., UK Saxena, Vibha, Bhbha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, India Schneider, John K., Ultra-Scan Corporation, USA Seif, Selemani, Alabama A & M University, USA Seifter, Achim, Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA Sengupta, Deepak, Advance Bio-Photonics, India Shearwood, Christopher, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Shin, Kyuho, Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, Korea Shmaliy, Yuriy, Kharkiv National Univ. of Radio Electronics, Ukraine Silva Girao, Pedro, Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal Singh, V. R., National Physical Laboratory, India Slomovitz, Daniel, UTE, Uruguay Smith, Martin, Open University, UK Soleymanpour, Ahmad, Damghan Basic Science University, Iran Somani, Prakash R., Centre for Materials for Electronics Technol., India Srinivas, Talabattula, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India Srivastava, Arvind K., Northwestern University, USA Stefan-van Staden, Raluca-Ioana, University of Pretoria, South Africa Sumriddetchka, Sarun, National Electronics and Computer Technology Center, Thailand Sun, Chengliang, Polytechnic University, Hong-Kong Sun, Dongming, Jilin University, China Sun, Junhua, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China Sun, Zhiqiang, Central South University, China Suri, C. Raman, Institute of Microbial Technology, India Sysoev, Victor, Saratov State Technical University, Russia Szewczyk, Roman, Industrial Research Inst. for Automation and Measurement, Poland Tan, Ooi Kiang, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Tang, Dianping, Southwest University, China Tang, Jaw-Luen, National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan Teker, Kasif, Frostburg State University, USA Thumbavanam Pad, Kartik, Carnegie Mellon University, USA Tian, Gui Yun, University of Newcastle, UK Tsiantos, Vassilios, Technological Educational Institute of Kaval, Greece Tsigara, Anna, National Hellenic Research Foundation, Greece Twomey, Karen, University College Cork, Ireland Valente, Antonio, University, Vila Real, - U.T.A.D., Portugal Vaseashta, Ashok, Marshall University, USA Vazquez, Carmen, Carlos III University in Madrid, Spain Vieira, Manuela, Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa, Portugal Vigna, Benedetto, STMicroelectronics, Italy Vrba, Radimir, Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic Wandelt, Barbara, Technical University of Lodz, Poland Wang, Jiangping, Xi'an Shiyou University, China Wang, Kedong, Beihang University, China Wang, Liang, Advanced Micro Devices, USA Wang, Mi, University of Leeds, UK Wang, Shinn-Fwu, Ching Yun University, Taiwan Wang, Wei-Chih, University of Washington, USA Wang, Wensheng, University of Pennsylvania, USA Watson, Steven, Center for NanoSpace Technologies Inc., USA Weiping, Yan, Dalian University of Technology, China Wells, Stephen, Southern Company Services, USA Wolkenberg, Andrzej, Institute of Electron Technology, Poland Woods, R. Clive, Louisiana State University, USA Wu, DerHo, National Pingtung Univ. of Science and Technology, Taiwan Wu, Zhaoyang, Hunan University, China Xiu Tao, Ge, Chuzhou University, China Xu, Lisheng, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Xu, Tao, University of California, Irvine, USA Yang, Dongfang, National Research Council, Canada Yang, Wuqiang, The University of Manchester, UK Yang, Xiaoling, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA Yaping Dan, Harvard University, USA Ymeti, Aurel, University of Twente, Netherland Yong Zhao, Northeastern University, China Yu, Haihu, Wuhan University of Technology, China Yuan, Yong, Massey University, New Zealand Yufera Garcia, Alberto, Seville University, Spain Zagnoni, Michele, University of Southampton, UK Zamani, Cyrus, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain Zeni, Luigi, Second University of Naples, Italy Zhang, Minglong, Shanghai University, China Zhang, Qintao, University of California at Berkeley, USA Zhang, Weiping, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China Zhang, Wenming, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China Zhang, Xueji, World Precision Instruments, Inc., USA Zhong, Haoxiang, Henan Normal University, China Zhu, Qing, Fujifilm Dimatix, Inc., USA Zorzano, Luis, Universidad de La Rioja, Spain Zourob, Mohammed, University of Cambridge, UK

Sensors & Transducers Journal (ISSN 1726-5479) is a peer review international journal published monthly online by International Frequency Sensor Association (IFSA). Available in electronic and on CD. Copyright 2009 by International Frequency Sensor Association. All rights reserved.

Sensors & Transducers Journal

Contents
Volume 107 Issue 8 August 2009

www.sensorsportal.com

ISSN 1726-5479

Research Articles
Precise Frequency and Period Measurements for Slow Slew Rate Signals Based on the Modified Method of the Dependent Count Sergey Y. Yurish .. Electronic Nose Technology and its Applications Esmaeil Mahmoudi ............................................................................................................................. Electronic Nose Study of Powdered Garlic Rosa E. Baby, Mara M. Sance, Mnica Bauz, Valeria M. Messina, Alvaro R. Gmez, Jos L. Burba, Noem E. Walse de Reca......................................................................................... Effects of Radiation on Silicon Pressure Sensor Jaspreet Singh, M. M. Nayak, K. Nagachenchaiah, K. Rajanna ........................................................ Design of a PC Based Pressure Indicator Using Inductive Pick-up type Transducer and Bourdon Tube Sensor S. C. Bera, N. Mandal, R. Sarkar and S. Maity .................................................................................. Problem of Piezoelectric Sensitivity of 13-type Composites Vitaly Yu. Topolov and Anatoly E. Panich. ......................................................................................... Development of a Surface Micromachined On-Chip Flat Disk Micropump M. I. Kilani, A. T. Al-Halhouli, P. C. Galambos, Y. S. Haik, A. Al-Salaymeh and S. ttgenbach ....... Humidity Sensing Behavior of Polyaniline / Strontium Arsenate Composites Machappa T., M. Sasikala, Koppalkar R. Anilkumar, M. V. N. Ambika Prasad ................................. Oxygen Sensing Properties of the WO3 Thick Films R. S. Khadayate, S. K. Disawal and P. P. Patil .................................................................................. Optimization of Firing Temperature of PbO-doped SnO2 Sensor for Detection of Acetone, Methanol, Propanol J. K. Srivastava, Preeti Pandey, V. N. Mishra and R. Dwivedi........................................................... Sol gel Synthesis of Tungsten Oxide Thin Film in Presence of Surfactant for NO2 Detection Vibha Srivastava, A. K. Srivastava, K. N. Sood, Kiran Jain ............................................................... Epinephrine Biosensor Using Tyrosinase Immobilized Eggshell Membrane Sanket Tembe, Sudha Kulkarni, Meena Karve, S. F. DSouza.......................................................... Finite Element Analyses of a Flat Spring for use in an Electromagnetic Microgenerator Nibras Awaja, Dinesh Sood, Thurai Vinay ......................................................................................... Design and Development of a Step Climbing Wheeled Robot Srijan Bhattacharya, Sagarika Pal, Subrata Chattopadhyay..............................................................

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Enhancement of Heat Exchanger Control using Improved PID Controller Gopalakrishna G., Sivakumaran N. and *Sivashanmugam P. ........................................................... Speech Disability Threshold Determination by Graphical and DSP Techniques Anandthirtha. B. Gudi and H. C. Nagaraj ........................................................................................... Smart Wireless Sensors Integrated in Clothing: an Electrocardiography System in a Shirt Powered Using Human Body Heat Vladimir Leonov, Tom Torfs, Chris Van Hoof and Ruud J. M. Vullers ...............................................

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Authors are encouraged to submit article in MS Word (doc) and Acrobat (pdf) formats by e-mail: editor@sensorsportal.com Please visit journals webpage with preparation instructions: http://www.sensorsportal.com/HTML/DIGEST/Submition.htm
International Frequency Sensor Association (IFSA).

Sensors & Transducers Journal, Vol. 107, Issue 8, August 2009, pp. 119-132

Sensors & Transducers

ISSN 1726-5479 2009 by IFSA http://www.sensorsportal.com

Finite Element Analyses of a Flat Spring for Use in an Electromagnetic Microgenerator

Nibras Awaja, Dinesh Sood, Thurai Vinay
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, RMIT University, GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne VIC 3001, Australia E-mail: nibras.awaja@ieee.org

Received: 6 April 2009 /Accepted: 15 August 2009 /Published: 25 August 2009

Abstract: This paper represents a study on design aspects of flat spring, which is the active component of electromagnetic microgenerator, through comprehensive finite element analyses. The electromagnetic microgenerator performs as a transducer that converts ambient vibrational energy to electrical power. A Model of flat spring is developed and used in the finite element analyses study utilizing ANSYS software. The structural analysis has been carried out to analyze different flat spring designs and evaluate the flat spring characteristics to provide an optimum spring model. Maximum static deflection was found to be 13.43 m is under the gravitational force. Furthermore, free vibration characteristics of the selected spring are presented to determine the resonance frequency. Natural frequency of 18.56 Hz was obtained. The simulation results show that the electromagnetic microgenerator can generate 14.5 nW at an input frequency of 3 kHz. Copyright 2009 IFSA. Keywords: Micro power generator, Micro spring design, and Mechanical vibration.

1. Introduction
Over the past few years, there has been a huge reduction in size and power consumption of MEMS [Micro Electro Mechanical Systems] devices like transducers and sensors. These devices are usually designed to run on batteries but the replacement of batteries is not practical. The limited lifespan of batteries may induce a costly maintenance, in the case of contaminated areas for instance. Moreover, batteries dying without warning cause serious problems in safety monitoring applications. That led to a surge of research in the area of energy harvesting. Since mechanical vibrations exist in most systems, many researches focused on vibration-driven generators. The main design concept of the vibration
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based generator utilizes the free vibration available in the environment to produce movement and convert this movement of a suspended mass into electrical power. The mechanical to electrical power converter based on an electromagnetic induction or piezoelectric material or an electrostatic material [1-23]. The electromagnetic induction is well suite for the mechanical to electrical energy conversion and it is the focus of this paper. Silicon micro beam mass structures are mechanical structures where linear elastic theory is generally applicable. However, to use them as a functional systems against a set design of specifications is extremely complicated exercise due to their small sizes and the difficulties of using traditional mechanical performance and diagnostic methods [24]. Finite Element-Analysis (FEA) CAD systems with sophisticated mechanical modeling capabilities allow designers to quantitatively predict the effects of process variations, and the optimize device performance. Thus, it has been a widely used tool in the design and modeling of mechanical structures. There are several commercially available software packages such as ANSYS, NASTRAN, COSMOS, and ABAQUS. A number of groups have reported the application of FEA for modeling the static and dynamic characteristics of microstructures [25-32]. This paper presents details of the mechanical analyses performed on the flat spring. The basic theory of the static modeling of the flat spring were studied and presented. The design objectives and specifications of the flat spring to be used in the electromagnetic micro generator were discussed. The key design parameters such as static deflection, spring constant, resonant frequency, and dynamic range were investigated. A linear analytical model is developed for the flat spring with different beam configurations. A series of structural and vibration analyses were carried out using ANSYS to evaluate the flat spring characteristics.

2. Electromagnetic Microgenerator Design

Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of the electromagnetic microgenerator. The system consists of two parts: an upper mass-spring system and a lower wounded coil. Vertically polarized permanent magnet forms the inertial mass and is attached to the centre of the spring. A coil is made up of a number of copper wires and wound around a plastic capillary. The operating principle of the device is as follows: when the housing is vibrated, a mechanical input force feeds into a second order mechanical system, the mass moves relative to the housing and energy is stored in the mass-spring system. This relative displacement, which is sinusoidal in amplitude, causes the magnetic flux to cut the coil. Electro Motive Force (EMF) will be induced across the coil due to the varying flux linkage within the motion between the magnet and the coil as stated by Faradays law of induction.

3. Objectives and Considerations of a Spring Design Suitable for Electromagnetic Microgenerator

One of the most significant improvements of the electromagnetic microgenerator efficiency is to optimize the spring design [1-3]. There are some limitations that should be considered when a spring is design is to be used in the electromagnetic microgenerator: The mechanical damping should be reduced by using a spring fabricated from a material with a low mechanical hysteresis loss, such as Si. This would be a significant improvement on the previous use of polymide membrane spring [3].
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Fig. 1. Cut view diagram of the microgenerator.

The deflection and the linear movement of the spring could be increased by employing a cantilever spring. The spring must have a maximum deflection within the generator size to make the magnet moves as close as possible to the coil to increase the induced flux. The spring should be designed so that the resonant frequency of the device matches the vibration frequency of the source.

5. Spring Modeling
5.1. Basic Theory of the Mechanical Spring Design The static deflection of the flat spring D is given by the basic expression of undamped spring-mass system:
D = F /k,

(1)

where D is the static deflection of the spring, F is the applied force and k is the spring constant. The deflection of the cantilever beam for the case of a concentrated force F applied at the free end of the beam as shown in Fig. 2 is given by Equation (2): D= Fl 3 , 3EI (2)

where l is the length of the beam, I is the second moment of area of the cross section of the beam, and E is Young Modulus of the material of the beam.

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Fig. 2. Basic diagram of the deflection of cantilever beam with concentrated force F applied at the free end of the beam and Moment M applied at the free end of the beam.

For a four beams spring, the spring constant, k can be approximated by [33]: k= 4 Eb 3 w , l3 (3)

where b, w and l are the thickness, width and mean length of the spring beam and E is the modulus of elasticity of the spring material. By substituting the spring constant equation (3) in equation (1) which is the static deflection equation of one beam gives the static deflection for the four beams mass springs.

D = Fl 3 / 4 Eb 3 w

(4)

As shown in Equation (4), the spring static deflection is proportional to l and inversely proportional to b and w. Therefore, the thickness, width and length of the beams are the most dominant factors to determine the deflection. In order to get large deflection, the beams have to be longer and thinner. The thickness of the beam was chosen to be 10 m as it is limited by the etching process. The beam width was chosen to be 200 m in order to satisfy the requirement of etching mask design.

5.2. Initial Structural Design of the Flat Spring Fig. 3 shows the flat spring with a center platform and four beams or cantilevers, the spring cantilevers are fixed from one end and free from the other end where they are connected to the platform. The permanent magnet mass is on the platform. The initial outer dimensions of the springs were chosen to be 2600 m 2600 m with 100 m gap between the beams and 200 m between the beams and the rectangular platform. The platform dimension is fixed to be 1000 m 1000 m, which is enough to accommodate an 800 m 800 m 1200 m permanent magnet. The beam mean length is varying from 3800 m to 4300 m according to the beams configuration. Fig. 4 shows the four spring shapes which were selected for more study and investigation using the finite elements analysis software ANSYS. In Fig. 4.a and b the springs have a platform and four L-shaped beams while, Fig. 4.c and d the springs have a platform with four meander shaped beams. The idea behind changing the beams configuration is to get longer beam in a limited area.

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Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of microspring. 1. Spring beam. 2. Platform. 3. Permanent magnet.

Fig. 4. Four spring: a) L-shaped1, b) L-shaped2, c) meander1 d) meander 2.

5.3. Material Selection Large mass deflection and high resonance frequency of the flat spring are the goals of designing the spring and it is highly dependent on the material properties. In comparing different materials a few fundamental material properties are important like Youngs modulus (E) which decides the stiffness of the spring. To achieve this, different materials have been considered. Their relevant properties are summarized in Table 1 [35], [36]. SU-8, Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) and copper (Cu) have lower youngs modulus than silicon that make the spring able to give larger deflection with the same applied force. However, these materials have very low yield strength in comparison to the silicon yield strength. GaAs is an expensive material and requires a very difficult fabrication processes and SU-8 has the problem of removal after fabrication. Therefore, silicon was chosen as the preferred material for the spring as it has good mechanical properties such as high yield strength and low mechanical losses. At room temperature and under applied load, silicon can only be elastically deformed. Moreover silicon is relatively inexpensive material and has available standard processes of fabrication [35], [37].

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Table 1. Properties of materials considered for the mechanical springs.

Youngs modulus (GPa) 190 75 110 3 Poisson's Ratio 0.22 0.31 0.35 0.22 Yield Density 3 Strength (g/cm ) (MPa) 2.30 7000 5.3 2000 8.94 69 1.19 179.4

Material Silicon Gallium Arsenide Copper SU-8

5.4. Spring Model Definition in ANSYS The aim of using the finite-element method is to gain a deeper understanding of flat spring mechanical characteristics. To achieve this aim, a 2D finite-element model was prepared using the same specification as described in section IV All finite-element simulations performed were conducted using two different analyses firstly, structural analysis; this technique is used to determine the displacement and the deflection of a structure under the gravitational force. Secondly, frequency analysis, that is used to determine the vibration modes under the free vibration. Fig. 5 shows ANSYS model where the model is solved to find the simulation results of the maximum static deflection of the four springs. Fig. 5 also illustrates a 3D structural descriptions prepared in ANSYS. It has a cantilever beam configuration with a platform in the middle. A rectangular magnet is attached to that platform.

Fig. 5. Three dimensional mesh size of the flat spring.

6. Results and Discussion

6.1. Structural Static Analysis ANSYS structural static analysis was preformed on the four spring shapes. The maximum static deflection under gravitational force was determined. In the first set of the structural analysis, the four springs have the same outer dimensions and same platform size as in Fig. 3 but with different beam length and configuration. It is assumed that the type of material is fixed to silicon and applied to all shapes of the spring. SOLID92 element type was chosen to represent the finite elements in the model. SOLID92 is a structural element which also has plasticity, creep, swelling, stress stiffening, large deflection, and large strain capabilities. This element may be used for spars and beam. The
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displacement on the ends of the model is constrained to be zero. The gravitational force due to the magnet weight is represented by a pressure (8.979E-5 MPa) in the Z-direction. Fig. 6 shows the simulation results of the spring static deflection. The spring deflection is represented by a deformed area of each spring in the z-direction and it is clearly shown from the side view of each spring. Fig. 6.a and b represent the deflection of the springs with L_shaped (as shown in Fig 4.a, b) beam configuration, while Fig. 6.c and d represent the deflection of the springs with meander shaped beams (as shown in Fig 4.c, d). It is clearly observed that changing the beams configuration from L_shaped to meander has a great effect on the beam length and then on the output deflection. Therefore Fig. 6.a represents the spring with longer beam length and maximum deflection. From Table 2 the spring with large beam length which is L_shaped2 (as shown in Fig. 4.b) has the maximum deflection over the other springs. The deflection is found to mach up with theory shown in equation (4).

(a)

(b) Fig. 6 (a, b). ANSYS results of the static deflection of the flat spring: a) L-shaped1, b) L-shaped2.

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1
DISPLACEMENT STEP=1 SUB =1 TIME=1 DMX =2.903 DEC 13 2005 11:43:18

Y Z

Meander.mat.1.1 spring analysis(l=2600,w=200,b=10,g=100,Pressure=8.979E-5MPa)

(c)
1
DISPLACEMENT STEP=1 SUB =1 TIME=1 DMX =7.333 DEC 5 2005 15:29:40

Y Z

Meander.Mat.2.1 spring analysis(l=2600,w=200,b=10,g=100,Pressure=8.979E-5MPa)

(d) Fig. 6 (c, d). ANSYS results of the static deflection of the flat spring: c) meander1 d) meander 2.

Table 2. ANSYS results of maximum deflection in z-direction (D). Sprig shape Deflection(m) L-Shaped1 11.66 L-Shaped2 13.43 Meander1 5.11 Meander2 7.34

The same initial model of the four springs (as shown in Fig. 3) is then used to do structural static analysis. Table 1 showed different materials selected which are the most common materials used for mechanical structures in MEMS. These materials like [Silicon, Gallium Arsenide, Copper and SU-8] applied to all spring shapes. Each material has a Youngs Modulus (E) which has a great effect on the spring constant of the spring and then on the spring stiffness. Structural static analysis has been used to find out the most influential parameters on the spring deflection. Fig. 7 shows the ANSYS simulation results of the spring deflection in Z-direction by using different youngs modulus (E) of materials. It
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can be seen that the spring with L_shaped beams has the maximum deflection among other types of springs.

900 Spring deflection in Z-dirction (micrometer) 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 Si GaAs Co Su8 Material type L_shape1 L_shape2 Meander1 Meander2

Fig. 7. ANSYS simulation result of the spring deflection Vs spring material.

Fig. 8 shows the simulation results of static analysis of the four shapes of the flat springs by varying the length, width, thickness of the beam and the gaps between the beams. The analysis output is the maximum deflection in Z-direction of the flat spring under the gravitational force. It is clearly observed from Fig. 8.a that using springs with different beam length varied from 2600 m to 3000 m gives a great increase in the spring deflection. Fig. 8.b shows the deflection of the four springs, by increasing the thickness of the spring beam the deflection start to drop as it reached the value of less than 2 m with beam thickness of 25 m. Fig. 8.c presents the deflection of the springs by selecting springs beam widths start from 100 to 250. The deflection of the spring has the highest value at 32 m when the beam width is 100 m. Fig. 8.d shows that the deflection of the spring reached its highest value when the gap between the beams is the minimum. Fig. 7 and Fig. 8 are with a great agreement with the equations of spring constant and deflection 3 and 4. Therefore, youngs modulus, the thickness, length and the width of the beams are the most dominant factors to determine the deflection. Fig. 6, 7and 8 results conclude that the largest mass displacement could be obtained from L-Shaped2 spring (as shown in Fig. 4.b) which is 13.43m. That is because L-Shaped2 has the longest beam length among the other springs due to the way its beam folding. Based on the work of Williams et. al. [1], the amount of the power generated is proportional to the square of the peak mass displacement. Therefore, L-Shaped2 was chosen to study the vibration behaviour of this spring.

6.2. Vibration Analysis ANSYS Modal Analysis was used to study the free vibration characteristics of the flat spring and to select the desired mode of vibration. This analysis aimed to know the resonance situation of the spring where the electric power generation will be the maximum [3]. The studied model is L_ shaped2 (as shown in Fig. 4.b) spring with beam length (2600 m), beam width (200 m), and thickness (10 m). The resonant frequencies of the beam structured are calculated using Block Lanczos method, which is used as a mode extraction method to solve the eigen values.
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25 20 15 10 5 0 2600 2800 2900 3000 Beam length (micrometer) L_shape1 L_shape2 Meander1 Meander2

14 S prin g d eflectio n in Z _directio n (m icro m eter) 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 10 15 20 25 Beam thickness(micrometer) L_shape1 L_shape2 Meander1 Meander2

Spring deflection in Zdirction(micrometer)

(a)
S p rin g d eflectio n in Z _d irectio n (m icro m eter)

(b)
16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 50 100 150 Gaps between the beams(micrometer) L_shape1 L_shape2 Meander1 Meander2

35 Spring deflection in Z_direction(m icrometer) 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 100 150 200 250 Beam width(micrometer) L_shape1 L_shape2 Meander1 Meander2

(c)

(d)

Fig. 8 ANSYS simulation results of spring deflection in Z_direction versus: (a) Beam length, (b) beam thickness (c) beam width (d) Gaps between beams.

The ANSYS calculation results in Fig. 9 show that the motion of the spring mass system (represented by the flat spring and the magnet) has three different resonant vibrations. Fig. 9.a shows the first resonance mode where the spring and the mass move in vertical direction while in Fig. 9.b, c it was observed that the spring mass system rotate and has second and third mode where the movement of the spring mass system is in horizontal direction. Table 3 shows the values of spring natural frequencies for the first three modes. It is clearly shown that the value of spring natural frequency in mode1 is less than its values in mode2 and mode3. The vibration results come with a great agreement with what was reported by Ching et al. [9], if a spring is designed to have movements in horizontal direction with rotation, rather than in vertical direction relative to the coil, the generator will have more movements and then it produces more power. This can be explained by Faradays law of induction which indicates that the voltage output should be proportional to the rate of changing magnetic of flux.

Table 3. ANSYS results of L-Shaped2 modal analysis. No. of modes Mode1 Mode2 Mode3 Natural frequency (Hz) 13.98 17.79 18.56 128

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(a)

(b)

(c) Fig. 9. Simulation results of modal analysis of the L-shaped spring: (a) first mode shape, (b) second mode shape, (c) third mode shape.

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7. Power Generation
Estimated output power has been calculated using the resonance frequencies of the L-Shaped2 spring. The power generating equation is given by Williams et. al. [3] Fig. 10 shows the output power generation as a function of resonance frequencies of the selected spring. The spring resonance frequency of L-Shaped2 is applied to equation (5) at input vibration frequency of 3 kHz with amplitude of 5 m. The spring mass system is assumed to be under damped so the damping ratio is assumed to be 0.3. It was observed that the output power in the first mode is less than the output power in the second and third modes. It shows clearly that the electromagnetic microgenerator will produce more power when the input vibration matches the spring resonance frequencies in the horizontal direction.

mY02 Paverage =

3 3 3 n
(5)

2 2 2 1 2 + 2 n n

Fig. 10. Calculated output power for the three different resonant frequency modes.

The out put power can be optimized by: 1) Increase the mass size within the device size. 2) Adjust the spring constant to make the generator resonance frequency match the frequency of the vibration source. 3) Select a permanent magnet with high flux density. 4) Increase the number of electrical coil turns and that could be achieved by using narrower tracks.

8. Conclusion
Theoretical static and dynamic considerations were presented to characterize the mechanical behaviour of a flat spring. The spring design objectives and considerations were presented which are suitable for the use in the electromagnetic microgenerator. Finite element analysis was used to determine the deflection and the maximum displacement in Z- direction. Four different designs of a flat spring were modeled and analyzed using ANSYS software. Maximum static deflection of 13.43 m was achieved by using L-shaped2 and under gravitational force. ANSYS Modal analysis was conducted to characterize the vibration behaviour of the spring and to choose the desirable mode of vibration. First three modes of the L-shaped2 spring were shown at the natural frequencies of 13.98 Hz, 17.79 Hz, and 18.56 Hz. By the study of the resonance frequency
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modes of the spring, it is found that under gravitational force the mass can move in a horizontal direction with larger value of resonance frequency than in a vertical direction which gives the generator more movements and then more power production. Electromagnetic microgenerator conversion offers the potential for MEMS and sensors devices to be self-powered in many environments as the low level vibrations occur in many environments including large commercial buildings, automobiles, aircraft, ships, trains, and industrial environments.

References
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