Matthias Hunstig

Frequency tuning of piezoelectric energy harvesters by magnetic force

A piezoelectric energy harvester is an electromechanical device that converts ambient mechanical vibration into electric power. Most existing vibration energy harvesting devices operate effectively at a single frequency only, dictated by the design of the device. This frequency must match the frequency of the host structure vibration. However, real world structural vibrations rarely have a specific constant frequency. Therefore, piezoelectric harvesters that generate usable power across a range of exciting frequencies are required to make this technology commercially viable. Currently known harvester tuning techniques have many limitations, in particular they miss the ability to work during harvester operation and most often cannot perform a precise tuning. This paper describes the design and testing of a vibration energy harvester with tunable resonance frequency, wherein the tuning is accomplished by changing the attraction force between two permanent magnets by adjusting the distance between the magnets. This tuning technique allows the natural frequency to be manipulated before and during operation of the harvester. Furthermore the paper presents a physical description of the frequency tuning effect. The experimental results achieved with a piezoelectric bimorph fit the calculated results very well. The calculation and experimental results show that using this tuning technique the natural frequency of the harvester can be varied efficiently within a wide range: in the test setup, the natural frequency of the piezoelectric bimorph could be increased by more than 70%.

Analytical determination of characteristic frequencies and equivalent circuit parameters of a piezoelectric bimorph

Piezoelectric structures are nowadays used in many different applications. A better understanding of the influence of material properties and geometrical design on the performance of these structures helps to develop piezoelectric structures specifically designed for their application. Different equivalent circuits have been introduced in the literature to investigate the behaviour of piezoelectric transducers. The model parameters are usually determined from measurements covering the characteristic frequencies of the piezoelectric transducer. This article introduces an analytical technique for calculating the mechanical and electrical equivalent system parameters and characteristic frequencies based on material properties and geometry for a cantilever bimorph structure. The model is validated by measurements using a cantilever bimorph and fits the experimental results better than previous models. The model gives a full set of piezoelectric transducer parameters and is therefore well suited for further theoretical investigations of piezoelectric transducers for different applications. The results also show that even small manufacturing tolerances have a considerable effect on the system parameters and characteristic frequencies. This might lead to intolerable deviations, especially in dynamic applications and should be avoided by careful design and production.

Modelling the friction contact in an inertia motor

Piezoelectric inertia motors, also known as stick–slip drives or (smooth) impact drives, use the inertia of a body to drive it by a friction contact in small steps, in the majority of motors composed of a stick phase and a slip phase between the friction partners. For optimizing inertia motors, it is important to understand the friction contact correctly and to measure its properties appropriately. This contribution presents experimental set-ups for measuring the contact force, friction force and relative displacement in an actual inertia motor with a dry friction contact and numerical simulations of the motor operation. The motor uses a pre-stressed multilayer actuator with a displacement in the range of 20 µm. It is shown that a previously postulated condition for the applicability of simple kinetic friction models is well fulfilled for the investigated motor. The friction contact in the motor is simulated using different kinetic friction models. The input for the friction models is the measured motion of the rod. The models qualitatively reproduce the measured motion but show quantitative deviations varying with frequency. These can be explained by vibrations of the driving rod that are experimentally investigated.

Modeling of the stick-slip effect in heavy copper wire bonding to determine and reduce tool wear

To increase quality and reliability of copper wire bonds, self-optimization is a promising technique. For the implementation of self-optimization for ultrasonic heavy copper wire bonding machines, a model of stick-slip motion between tool and wire and between wire and substrate during the bonding process is essential. Investigations confirm that both of these contacts do indeed show stick-slip movement in each period oscillation. In a first step, this paper shows the importance of modeling the stick-slip effect by determining, monitoring and analyzing amplitudes and phase angles of tool tip, wire and substrate experimentally during bonding via laser measurements. In a second step, the paper presents a dynamic model which has been parameterized using an iterative numerical parameter identification method. This model includes Archards wear approach in order to compute the lost volume of tool tip due to wear over the entire process time. A validation of the model by comparing measured and calculated amplitudes of tool tip and wire reveals high model quality. Then it is then possible to calculate the lifetime of the tool for different process parameters, i.e. values of normal force and ultrasonic voltage.

Increasing the power of piezoelectric energy harvesters by magnetic stiffening

A piezoelectric cantilever beam with a tip mass at its free end is a common energy harvester configuration. This article introduces a new principle of designing such a harvester that increases the generated power without changing the resonance frequency of the harvester: the attraction force between two permanent magnets is used to add stiffness to the system. This magnetic stiffening counters the effect of the tip mass on the efficient operation frequency. Five set-ups incorporating piezoelectric bimorph cantilevers of the same type in different mechanical configurations are compared theoretically and experimentally to investigate the feasibility of this principle: theoretical and experimental results show that magnetically stiffened harvesters have important advantages over conventional set-ups with and without tip mass. They generate more power while only slightly increasing the deflection in the piezoelectric harvester and they can be tuned across a wide range of excitation frequencies.

Modeling and simulation of the ultrasonic wire bonding process

Ultrasonic wire bonding is an indispensable process in the manufacturing of semiconductor components. It is used for interconnecting the silicon die to e.g. connectors in the housing or to other semiconductors in complex components. In high power applications, such as wind turbines, locomotives or electric vehicles, the thermal and mechanical limits of interconnects made from aluminum are nearing. The limits could be overcome using copper wire bonds, but their manufacturing poses challenges due to the harder material, which leads to increased wear of the bond tools and to less reliable production. To overcome these drawbacks, adaptation of process parameters at runtime is employed. However, the range of parameter values for which a stable process can be maintained is very small, making it necessary to compute suitable parameters beforehand. To this end, and to gain insights into the process itself, the ultrasonic bonding process is modeled. The full model is composed of several partial models, some of which were introduced before. This paper focuses on the modularization of the full model and on the interaction of partial models. All partial models are presented, their interaction is shown and the general outline of the simulation process is given.

Micro wear modeling in copper wire wedge bonding

Ultrasonic wire bonding is a common technology for connecting electrodes of electronic components like power modules. Nowadays, bond connections are often made of copper instead of aluminum due to its thermal and mechanical assets. One of the main cost factors in the wire bonding process is the acquisition cost of consumables such as bonding tools. For copper wire bonding tool lifetime is much lower than for aluminium bonding. This paper presents a micro wear model for wedge/wedge bonding tools that was validated by observing wear patterns with a scanning electron microscope. The wear coefficient is determined in long-term bonding tests. The application of Fleischers wear approach incorporating frictional power to a finite element simulation of the bonding processes is used to shift element nodes depending on the rising frictional power for finite element modeling. The presented simulation method can be used to take tool wear into consideration for creating tools with increased lifetime. This enables the production of reliable bond connections using heavy as well as thin wire of any material. The paper discusses the predominant influences of wear on the main tool functions and their changes over tool life. Furthermore, the influence of the tool groove angle on the tool wear was investigated. One of the main results is that the wear is largest during the last phase of each bonding process, when the contact area between tool and wire is largest.

Reliable Manufacturing of Heavy Copper Wire Bonds Using Online Parameter Adaptation

Usage of copper wire bonds allows to push power boundaries imposed by aluminum wire bonds. Copper allows higher electrical, thermal and mechanical loads than aluminum, which currently is the most commonly used material in heavy wire bonding. This is the main driving factor for increased usage of copper in high power applications such as wind turbines, locomotives or electric vehicles. At the same time, usage of copper also increases tool wear and reduces the range of parameter values for a stable process, making the process more challenging. To overcome these drawbacks, parameter adaptation at runtime using self-optimization is desired. A self-optimizing system is based on system objectives that evaluate and quantify system performance. System parameters can be changed at runtime such that pre-selected objective values are reached. For adaptation of bond process parameters, model-based self-optimization is employed. Since it is based on a model of the system, the bond process was modeled. In addition to static model parameters such as wire and substrate material properties and vibration characteristics of transducer and tool, variable model inputs are process parameters. Main simulation result is bonded area in the wire-substrate contact. This model is then used to find valid and optimal working points before operation. The working point is composed of normal force and ultrasonic voltage trajectories, which are usually determined experimentally. Instead, multiobjective optimalization is used to compute trajectories that simultaneously optimize bond quality, process duration, tool wear and probability of tool-substrate contacts. The values of these objectives are computed using the process model. At runtime, selection among pre-determined optimal working points is sufficient to prioritize individual objectives. This way, the computationally expensive process of numerically solving a multiobjective optimal control problem and the demanding high speed bonding process are separated. To evaluate to what extent the pre-defined goals of self-optimization are met, an off-the-shelf heavy wire bonding machine was modified to allow for parameter adaptation and for transmitting of measurement data at runtime. This data is received by an external computer system and evaluated to select a new working point. Then, new process parameters are sent to the modified bonding machine for use for subsequent bonds. With these components, a full self-optimizing system has been implemented.

Validated simulation of the ultrasonic wire bonding process

Ultrasonic wire bonding is an indispensable process in the manufacturing of power semiconductor devices. These devices consist of one or more semiconductors in a common housing with integrated connectors. To interconnect individual components, wire bonds are used. Bonding machines form a joint between bond wire and components using ultrasonic vibration. In high power applications, such as electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar power systems, the thermal and mechanical limits of aluminum interconnects are nearing. The limits could be overcome using copper wire bonds, but their manufacturing poses challenges due to the harder material, which leads to increased wear of the bond tools and to less reliable production. Parameter values for which a stable process can be maintained can only be changed within a small range, making it necessary to compute suitable parameters beforehand. To this end, and to gain insights into the process itself and allow automated process parameter adaptation at runtime, the ultrasonic bonding process is modeled. The process model is composed of several partial models, which were introduced before. This paper focuses on the validation of a coupled point contact model which is used to calculate the friction and bond formation in a discretized bonding area. By doing this, new insights into the bonding process can be shown. For example, the growth of the welded area in the interface of wire and substrate during the bonding can be shown for different points in time. At the end, an experimental validation of the process model reveals a high model quality. This is one major step towards truly understanding the parameter influences on bond quality.

An efficient simulation technique for high-frequency piezoelectric inertia motors

Piezoelectric inertia motors use the inertia of a body to drive it by means of a friction contact in a series of small steps. These motors can operate in “stick-slip” or “slip-slip” mode, with the fundamental frequency of the driving signal ranging from several Hertz to more than 100 kHz. To predict the motor characteristics, a Coulomb friction model is sufficient in many cases, but numerical simulation requires microscopic time steps. This contribution proposes a much faster simulation technique using one evaluation per period of the excitation signal. The proposed technique produces results very close to those of timestep simulation for ultrasonics inertia motors and allows direct determination of the steady-state velocity of an inertia motor from the motion profile of the driving part. Thus it is a useful simulation technique which can be applied in both analysis and design of inertia motors, especially for parameter studies and optimisation.