Time-Resolved Eye Diagrams to Exploit Hidden High-Energy Branches in a Nonlinear Wideband Vibration-Energy Harvester

A wideband vibration energy harvester with multiple nonlinear forces is investigated. The nonlinearities are due to repulsive magnets and hardening springs, which gives rise to multistabilities between a number of energy branches. Not all branches are accessible by a simple up or down sweep of the driving frequency and in particular the highest energy branch is often hidden, requiring a suitable frequency schedule to be accessed. Detailed theoretical understanding of the energy branch structure along with robust experimental methods are essential for characterizing each of the energy branches to enhance the energy output from such a vibration energy harvesting system. We introduce a graphical representation in the form of eye diagrams based on time-resolved measurements of acceleration and output voltage to study the dynamical features of the different branches. This generic approach allows us to optimize the design, which results in 1.3 mW of power generated at 1 g over the 44-Hz frequency bandwidth while maintaining a small footprint of 1.23cm3. The energy conversion ratio of the energy harvester at 120-Hz drive frequency is 0.52 for the high-energy branch.