A CNU research team of Professor Lee Dong-won (School of Mechanical Systems Engineering) developed a micro-generator that can generate electricity by itself using vibrations. It can be used without electricity providers or battery cells for sensor devices in remote areas such as mountains to conduct environmental monitoring or safety evaluation for bridges.

The generator, which can convert mechanical vibration frequencies to electrical energy, can be used semi-permanently even though it is as small as a USB memory stick.

While conventional generators produce large quantities of power only in certain frequency bands, this generator can generate energy at wider frequency bands efficiently through its magnetic coupling structure.

Recently, with the spread of relevant technology in the fourth industry revolution environment, the technology of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) has been attracting more attention with Internet-based systems of objects and cyber physical systems. These devices used to suffer from the limit of battery technology as electricity providers as this technology has a limited power source and side-effect of environmental pollution. The generator developed by the research team of Professor Lee is expected to solve this problem.

In recognition of the importance of the development, the research results were selected as a cover image for the May 2019 issue of the Journal of Energy Research, which is the top 1.5% journal in JCR's nuclear science and technology field.

The research was carried out with the support of the Korea Research Foundation and financial resources of the Ministry of Science and ICT.