Evaluation Methods of Vibration Energy Harvester Reliability

Vibration energy harvesting (VEH) devices being developed for practical applications must be standardized to compare the performance of different devices for a particular application. Two work programs on measurement and evaluation methods for the VEHs are underway in WG7 of the Semiconductor Technology Committee (TC47) of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Also in Japan, a national project on international standardization of reliability evaluation of VEH devices has been launched. The purpose of this paper is to describe in detail the reliability evaluation of VEH, especially the mechanical reliability evaluation method, and to stimulate discussion among the PowerMEMS community.