Kiziroglou, Michail EMichail EKiziroglouYeatman, EMEMYeatman2021-10-192021-10-192021-10-13Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, 2021, 31 (11), pp.1-180960-1317http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/92125The emergence and evolution of energy micro-generators during the last two decades has delivered a wealth of energy harvesting powering solutions, with the capability of exploiting a wide range of motion types, from impulse and low frequency irregular human motion, to broadband vibrations and ultrasonic waves. It has also created a wide background of engineering energy microsytems, including fabrication methods, system concepts and optimal functionality. This overview presents a simple description of the main transduction mechanisms employed, namely the piezoelectric, electrostatic, electromagnetic and triboelectric harvesting concepts. A separate discussion of the mechanical structures used as motion translators is presented, including the employment of a proof mass, cantilever beams, the role of resonance, unimorph structures and linear/rotational motion translators. At the mechanical-to-electrical interface, the concepts of impedance matching, pre-biasing and synchronised switching are summarised. The separate treatment of these three components of energy microgenerators allows the selection and combination of different operating concepts, their co-design towards overall system level optimisation, but also towards the generalisation of specific approaches, and the emergence of new functional concepts. Industrial adoption of energy micro-generators as autonomous power sources requires functionality beyond the narrow environmental conditions typically required by the current state-of-art. In this direction, the evolution of broadband electromechanical oscillators and the combination of environmental harvesting with power transfer operating schemes could unlock a widespread use of micro-generation in microsystems such as micro-sensors and micro-actuators.© 2021 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.Science & TechnologyTechnologyPhysical SciencesEngineering, Electrical & ElectronicNanoscience & NanotechnologyInstruments & InstrumentationPhysics, AppliedEngineeringScience & Technology - Other TopicsPhysicsMEMSenergy harvestingpiezoelectricelectrostaticelectromagnetictriboelectricenergy autonomyELECTROMAGNETIC GENERATORPOWER GENERATORFREQUENCYELECTRODEPOSITIONFABRICATIONINTEGRATIONMECHANISMHARVESTERMAGNETSMOTIONNanoscience & Nanotechnology09 Engineering10 TechnologyJournal Articlehttps://www.dx.doi.org/10.1088/1361-6439/ac2a52https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6439/ac2a521361-6439