Electret-based Out-Of-Plane Micro Energy Harvester with Parylene-C Serving as the Electret and Spring Material

A micro energy harvesting device based on electrostatic transduction using Parylene-C as the electret layer and spring material of an out-of-plane generator (OoPG) is presented. This approach is advantageous for three reasons. First the fabrication of the device can be realized with simpler processing steps compared to in-plane configurations. Second, being unstructured the electret has a larger area and can be charged more effectively by a corona discharge. As a consequence, thirdly, the output power is potentially higher. In this paper the design, fabrication and characterization of such an OoPG are described.