Theoretical study of the output energy for various MEMS based electrostatic mechanisms

This paper presents a comparison of the energy harvesting capabilities of 3 different electrostatic mechanisms based on MEMS (microelectromechanical system) structures which are designed and operated in idea vacuum. The 3 mechanisms that will be compared are the in-plane overlap, in-plane gap closing and out-of-plane gap closing mechanisms. Firstly, it was found that the in-plane gap closing mechanism potentially has the highest output energy amongst the 3 different mechanisms. Secondly, the best energy output for the in-plane gap closing mechanism is approximately 1.8 times that of the out-of-plane gap closing mechanism for load volumes between 5 mm³ and 50 mm³.