Over the years, we’ve seen researchers develop some rather unorthodox energy harvesting systems, including photovoltaics (solar panels), piezoelectric materials that react to motion, and thermoelectrics that turn heat into electricity.
Now, MIT Professor of Electrical Engineering Anantha Chandrakasan and MIT doctoral student Saurav Bandyopadhyay are working on a chip that can harvest energy from all three of the same sources at the same time.According to the researchers, the chip can generate up to 0.15 volts from thermal differences, 0.7 volts from natural light, and five volts from vibrations. While each power source only produces a small amount of electricity, the researchers have found a way to effectively combine the energy from all three methods by rapidly switching between them.
