Self-powered wireless switch
AssigneesLear Corporation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
InventorsH. Winston Maue, Richard Meinzer, Joe Paradiso, Mark Feldmeier
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A wireless switch is provided having a twenty-year life energy harvesting arrangement for self-powering a wireless transmitter. The energy harvesting arrangement is implemented in one embodiment using a piezoelectric switch element. A tritium light source and photovoltaic device are used in a second embodiment, while a black light source and photovoltaic device are used in a third embodiment. The energy harvesting wireless switch arrangement of the present invention can be combined, for example, with a vehicle side mirror switch, to reduce the complexity of the wire harness feeding the door. The wireless switch can be located without regard to accessability of a wiring harness or connector.
Claims1
A self-powered wireless switch comprising:
- a wireless transmitter;
- an energy harvesting device arranged to produce electrical power for operation of the wireless transmitter upon actuation of a switch by a user, wherein the energy harvesting device includes a piezoelectric element arranged to be distressed upon actuation of the switch;
- and
- an electric circuit including a matching wound step down transformer coupling the piezoelectric element to a rectifier connected to a capacitor to allow the piezoelectric element to resonate and the capacitor to receive the harvested energy and supply electrical power for operation of the wireless transmitter wherein a capacitance of the piezoelectric element and an inductance of the electric circuit have a resonate frequency substantially equal to a mechanical resonate frequency of the piezoelectric element.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.