2019 Volume 27 Issue 2 Pages 188-193
Mouthguard type sensors have been developed to monitor the healthcare-related information. In order to realize a battery-less sensor system, we propose a sheet form generator driven by occlusal force to supply electrical power for mouthguard type sensors. The proposed generator is made by stacking an electret and a dielectric elastomer. It converts mechanical energy applied by occlusion to electrical energy by electrostatic induction. In this study, the generator sheet was designed and its ability of power generation was evaluated experimentally. The prototype generator achieved 6.2 μW under the force equivalent to occlusal force. The generated power was 190 times as large as that of piezoelectric type. Although the achieved power is not sufficient to provide energy for mouthguard sensors so far, the output power will be improved by optimizing shape of dielectric elastomer and surface voltage of electret. The experimental results sufficiently support the possibility to realize the battery-less sensor system.
