The government-backed Mechanical Industry Research Laboratories (MIRL) recently introduced a patented micro power generator that produces power by simply taking advantage of the natural laws of dynamics, making it one of the most environment-friendly models on the market.

The generator, measuring just one millimeter in thickness and three millimeters in diameter, was developed around the basic dynamics concept that any motion, tangible or not, generates energy. "The key," says F.Y. Chang, manager of MIRL's Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) laboratory, which is handling the micro-generator project, "is how you transform the energy released into usable form."

The project manager stresses that the micro power generator has gone from being a possibility to being a reality thanks to the introduction of MEMS technology, which has borrowed photolithographic technology from the microelectronics industry.

Key to the workings of the device is a copper coil, around which a magnetic field is created by a magnetic film on a spring, which as a unit play the "transformer" role. When a vibration occurs, the coil interacts with the magnetic field by constantly changing their relative positions, generating dynamic energy. The coil then transforms the dynamic energy into electricity. "Potential energy is harnessed and transformed into usable energy," Chang says.



The sophisticated device is so sensitive it can detect vibration at a level far lower than the level of human sensory detection--fluctuation waves of as little as 200-micron meters and frequency of 60 hertz per second. "As long as vibration continues, the generator continuously creates usable power," the manager adds.

However, since the power needs to be stored, "this generator works in symbiosis with storage batteries," Chang explains. His laboratory hopes that the generators will, eventually, be fitted on batteries used for such portable consumer-electronics devices as mobile phones, MP3 music players, and personal digital assistants (PDAs), but in the initial stage it will be used with less-sophisticated products such as flashlights, lighting on pneumatic-powered tools, and the MIRL's own patented digital meters for hand-tools.

"Equipped with the generator, lithium batteries for handsets last much longer," Chang says. He explains that the life of such batteries has become shorter as a result of fast-recharge technology. The generator, in contrast, recharges a battery little by little.

Chang's laboratory is planning to license the technology to the private sector in 2005, making it, almost surely according to Chang, the world's first organization to commercialize technology of this kind. The French technology organization CNRS, Japan's University of Tokyo, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the U.S. are developing similar technologies; he points out that Japan and France are developing MEMS generators for commercial-use radio-frequency modules while the U.S. is developing models for military-use wireless communications equipment. MIT's version is to have the largest power output, at about 50 watts, incorporating amplication by a micro turbine.

MIRL launched its project around four years ago, believing there was substantial market potential for micro power generators thanks to their non-polluting operations and their compact size, which makes them suitable for a wide variety of micro applications. In addition, the generator is free of any connections to electrical outlets or to batteries for its own power. "Just think of the advantages," Chang enthuses. "How many polluting power plants will not be needed if the 2.1 billion handsets operating worldwide now are powered with our technology?"

The generator has been granted 12 patents in Taiwan, the United States, and several European countries, based on seven unique technologies, including the laboratory's innovative molding technology for making the copper coil, which is only 40 microns thick and eight microns wide.

Chang claims that in testing conducted in-house by MIRL the laboratory has proved its generator to be the world's most effective in terms of the ideal combination of getting the most power from a device of the smallest size.

The laboratory is now organizing an industrial alliance to develop applications for the generators, which Chang states may in effect be limitless because of the generator's material-saving size and easy-to-assemble configuration.