Energy Harvesting Using AC Machines with

High Effective Pole Count

Richard Geiger and Heath Hofmann
Department of Electrical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA USA

Abstract— In this paper, we investigate ways to improve the
power conversion of small, rotating, permanent magnet AC
machines at low rotor speeds in energy harvesting
applications. One method is to increase the pole count,
which increases the generator back-emf without also
increasing the I2R losses, thereby increasing both torque
density and conversion efficiency. One machine topology
that has a high effective pole count is a hybrid stepper
motor. The impedance due to the large self inductance of
these machines can be cancelled by capacitors in series with
the stepper output. A circuit was designed and
implemented to automatically vary the series capacitance
over the entire speed range investigated. The addition of the
series capacitors improved the power output by up to 700%.
The results obtained for the stepper were compared to those
of a DCPM brushed motor of a similar size, and results
confirm that high-pole-count topologies, and specifically the
hybrid stepper configuration, are an attractive choice for
energy harvesting applications.
I. INTRODUCTION
Interest in harvesting energy from low-power, ambient
energy sources has been accelerating in recent years
[1-5]. Much of this effort has focused on harvesting
energy from ambient vibration. The vibration energy is
typically harvested by resonant oscillating devices; either
electromagnetic or piezoelectric. The power generated
by these devices are in the milliwatts, [6-7].
As the application power requirements increase to
watts or 10’s of watts, these systems become
unsatisfactory as they do not yield sufficient power
densities. One way to obtain higher power density is to
switch from translational systems to that of rotating
electromagnetic systems.
In our work, we are interested in applications where
the prime mover speed is slow, e.g. in wind, water or
human generated power. Mechanical speed amplification
through gearing can overcome the slow prime mover
speed, but the solution is costly, heavy, and decreases the
overall system reliability. Therefore, devices that
generate high power and efficiency at low rotational
speed are desired.
In this paper, we investigate the use of high pole-count
AC machines as a way to maximize the efficiency of a
small generator driven by a prime mover with low rotor
angular velocity. In particular, we investigate the use of
hybrid stepper motors operated as generators, because
their design facilitates the creation of a large number of
effective poles at relatively low cost compared to other
high pole count machines. Small size stepper motors are
readily available with step angles as small as 0.45
degrees, effectively resulting in 200 pole-pairs.
However, the hybrid stepper motor possesses two
drawbacks. First, the envisioned energy harvesting
applications require that the output voltage be DC.
Therefore, some electrical rectification is required.
Second, the hybrid stepper motor possesses a large self-
inductance that limits the output power. The impedance
due to this self inductance increases with rotor speed.
This impedance can be cancelled over a narrow speed
range by adding a single, discrete capacitor in series with
the stepper output. However, to cancel this impedance
over a wide speed range, a variable series capacitance is
required. To that end, we designed and implemented a
circuit that automatically varies the series capacitance
over the entire speed range of interest.
In this paper, we report the testing of 5 commercially
available hybrid steppers, used as generators, ranging in
size from a NEMA 8 to a NEMA 23, made by Lin
Engineering, see Fig. 1. Specifically, we report the
power versus rotor speed of a 1.8 degree NEMA 11
hybrid stepper, with and without capacitive compensation
and compare it to that of a similarly-sized, high
performance, brushed permanent magnet DC machine
(PMDC) made by Maxon Motors. We chose a PMDC
for comparison because they are available commercially
in a range of small sizes, incorporate high-power rare
earth magnets, and because they are the de-facto small
electromechanical machine.
Figure 1. Tested Motors, From Right to Left: NEMA 8 Stepper,
PMDC, NEMA 11 Stepper, and NEMA 23 Stepper

978-1-4244-1668-4/08/$25.00 ©2008 IEEE 2229

 II. BACKGROUND As for increasing the number of pole-pairs, for
conventional topologies there is a practical limit to the
The mechanical power available from the prime mover number of wound poles that can physically fit inside a
is given by: small motor. This is also true for hybrid “steppers.”
However, because each wound pole is castellated, it is
easy and virtually free to add a large effective number of
PMech = τωr (1) pole pairs (see Fig. 2.) However, as with conventional
motors, as the number of poles increase, the amount of
therefore, the electrical power becomes, flux “leaking” between adjacent poles rather than
crossing the air gap increases, thereby reducing φPM. We
PElec = τω rη , (2) will address the issue of power factor in the following.
Looking back at (2), we see that the harvested power
can be increased by increasing speed and / or efficiency.
where τ is the torque, ωr is the rotor speed and η is the
It should be noted that, although we are limiting our
efficiency. Typically, energy harvesting applications are
focus to low prime mover speed, the hybrid stepper
associated with low rotational speeds of the prime mover,
mechanical design works quite well at high speeds. The
e.g., wind or water turbines. Therefore, direct connection
magnets in a stepper machine can be easily contained
between the prime mover and the generator results in low
(unlike with surface mount PM machines.)
rotor speed. The rotor speed can be increased by the use
For energy harvesting applications, obtaining high
of mechanical gearing. However, mechanical gearing
efficiency energy conversion is also critical. Since we
increases the system cost, complexity, and size, while
are limiting our focus to low speed, we will neglect core
reducing the overall reliability. Gearing also decreases
efficiency by adding additional mechanical losses which losses which are roughly proportional to ωr2. In addition,
result from tooth friction and lubricant churning. the core losses can be mitigated by making the rotor and
If we assume that the rotor shaft is moving with a low stator irons out of thin laminations. Also, we will neglect
angular velocity, then maximizing the electrical power mechanical losses, which in any event would be less than
results from maximizing either torque, efficiency, or that of a commutated machine. Therefore, the efficiency
both. of a single phase of an AC generator is given by
For a permanent magnet machine, the torque is given
by: ( E A I A ) PF − I A2 RA
η= (4)
( E A I A ) PF
P
τ= NφPM I A ( PF ) , (3)
2
To maximize the efficiency of the machine for a given
Where P/2 is the number of pole-pairs, N is the number power factor, one therefore needs to maximize the back-
of turns in the winding, φPM is the RMS value of the AC emf. For a permanent magnet machine, the back-emf is
component of the permanent magnet flux density, IA is proportional to the number of turns, the flux generated by
the RMS phase current and PF is the power factor the rotor, the number of pole-pairs, and the rotor speed.
associated with the operating point.
Increasing the current would increase I2R losses, as
would increasing the number of turns, since the winding
resistance RA increases as the square of the turns.
Therefore, to fix the current density in the machine, we
hold the number of turns times the current equal to a
constant. Then, to maximize the torque we must
maximize the flux density, the number of pole-pairs, or
the power factor.
For small machine sizes, permanent magnet machines
have higher flux densities, and hence higher back-emfs,
compared to other topologies. This is due to the
difficulty in obtaining the necessary current densities
required to achieve the same flux level with small
electromagnets [8]. The flux density is maximized by
using rare earth permanent magnets, such as
Neodymium-Iron-Boron (NdFeB).
Figure 2. NEMA Hybrid Stepper Construction Details, Showing Many
Effective Poles per Wound Pole

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 P voltage versus speed of a machine is quite easy; therefore
E A = Nφ PM ωr . (5) (10) can be a quick and useful indicator of energy
2 harvesting performance of a specific machine.
Similarly to the expression (3) for torque, the back-emf
and hence the efficiency can be increased by increasing III. CIRCUIT IMPLEMENTATION
the number of pole-pairs.
As seen in expressions (3) and (4), increasing the As seen in (6) the output power is maximized when the
power factor will increase the power harvested. For each inductive impedance is cancelled by the insertion of a
phase winding, the power delivered to a resistive load is capacitor in series with the phase inductance. According
given by to (7), the required value of capacitance varies
RLOAD continuously, decreasing in magnitude with increasing
Pout = 2
E A2 . (6)
rotor speed. However, nearly the same performance
⎛P ⎞
[( RLOAD + R A ) + ⎜ ω r LA ⎟ ]
2
improvement can be obtained by decreasing the
⎝2 ⎠ capacitance in discrete steps rather than continuously.
The circuit shown in Fig. 4 was designed, implemented,
To improve the power factor for a given speed, we can and tested toward that end. One phase of the stepper
completely cancel this inductive impedance by inserting a generator is represented by the equivalent circuit inside
capacitor in series with the motor terminals, see Fig. 3. the dashed line, where Rs and Ls represent the phase
The value of the appropriate capacitor is given as resistance and inductance, respectively. A parallel array
of discrete capacitors, all but one, in series with a
1 controllable, normally open switch, is inserted in series
C= 2
. (7) with the generator output. The total capacitance is then
⎛P ⎞ the sum of the capacitances of each branch with a closed
⎜ ω r ⎟ LA switch. The one branch that does not have a switch
⎝2 ⎠ corresponds to the minimum series capacitance of the
circuit.
When the series capacitance is equal to that shown in (7), The switch control portion of the circuit monitors the
the output power becomes motor speed and opens the switches, one at a time, as the
speed increases and closes them in reverse order as the
RLOAD speed decreases. A full bridge diode rectifier converts
Pout = EA2 , (8) the output to DC and then the power is dissipated through
( RLOAD + RA )2 a near optimum load resistor.
The circuit developed up to this point is not powered
which is maximized when RA = RLOAD. The maximum from the output, but is powered by an external 5.0 Vdc
power for one phase is therefore, supply. The externally powered portion of the circuit
consumes a maximum of 355mW at 5Hz rotor speed. As
E A2 the speed increases and the switches open one by one, the
Pmax = , (9) total power consumption decreases to a minimum of
4 RA

This expression leads to the development of an indicator

S5 C5
of a machines’s energy harvesting capability.
...

S3
V2 C3
PIND = ocRMS , (10) NEMA Stepper
R AW S2 C2
D1 D3
RS LS
S1
C1
where W is the mass of the machine in kg.
Measuring mass, phase resistance, and the open circuit + + 1 mF
EA C0 RLOAD
-
Phase 1
NEMA Stepper
+ D4 D2
RRS LS C D1 D3
Switch Control _

+ + 1 mF drive S1
EA R drive S2
- L
Phase 1
drive S3
...

D4 D2
drive S5

Figure 3. Series Capacitor with Diode Rectifier Figure 4. Auto-select Variable Capacitor Circuit

2231
40mW at 30Hz. Each switch circuit consumes 31mW
when the switch is on.
The same schematic was duplicated for each phase of
the stepper generator.
IV. CIRCUIT DESIGN
A. Capacitor Array
We chose to select discrete values of capacitance equal
to 59.6, 26.5, 14.9, 9.5, 6.6, and 4.9μF. which were
determined by solving (7), at discrete rotor speeds of 10,
15, 20, 25, and 30Hz, for the NEMA 11 stepper machine
used in this experiment. In addition, we wanted to reduce
the ripple in the output power versus speed. Listing the
target values of capacitance in the branches starting with
C0 and progressing to C6, they were as follows: 4.9, 1.7,
2.9, 5.4, 11.6, and 33.1μF. Initially, all the switches are
on, combining the capacitance from all the branches. As
the speed increases, one branch is switched off at a time.
Because the voltage across the capacitors can be
significantly large, monolithic ceramic chip capacitors
with voltage ratings of at least 25 volts were used for the
series capacitors in the array. For each branch, several
smaller capacitors were used in parallel to yield the
desired capacitance for that branch.
resistors and capacitors, the resulting output (pin 1) is a
DC voltage which is linearly proportional to the electrical
frequency of the stepper generator.
This DC voltage is then applied to a series of 2MΩ
voltage dividers, one for each branch of the capacitor
array. As mentioned previously we chose to adjust the
capacitance in discrete steps. Therefore, the voltage
divider for each separate branch is tuned so that its output
voltage is equal to the reference voltage of a separate
LTC1540 comparator at the desired switching
frequencies. Then, as the generator frequency increases,
one branch after another automatically switches out of the
array, lowering the capacitance to the minimum. The
exact selection of switching speeds will be discussed in a
later section.
D. Diode Rectifier
The full-bridge rectifier was constructed using Vishay
SL12 Schottky diodes with a low forward voltage drop of
0.445V at 1.0A, and 20V repetitive reverse blocking
voltage. The output of the diode rectifier was dissipated
across various load resistors. A 1000uF electrolytic
capacitor was added in parallel with the load resistor to
minimize the output voltage ripple.
V. TEST SETUP

B. Switches The stepper motors and the comparison PMDC motor

Each series capacitor in the array, except C0, is in
series with an International Rectifier PVN012A series
photovoltaic relay. The relays are normally open, require
a minimum control current of 5mA for stable operation,
and can pass 4A AC current.
A low-pass filter on the input of each relay is used to
remove high frequency oscillations in the comparator
output, thus providing crisp switching from closed to
open.
C. Switch Drive Control
tested for this paper are listed along with some of their
relevant specifications in Table 1.
The prime mover for the tests reported in this paper
was a U12 series Kollmorgen DC servo disk motor
powered by a high power, variable dc supply. A US
Digital optical encoder was used to monitor the stepper
rotor frequency. The output voltage waveforms were
measured using a digital oscilloscope.
Table 1. Tested Motor Data
o
NEMA 23 0.45

226754 PMDC
o

o
NEMA 23 1.8

NEMA 23 0.9

NEMA 11 1.8

o
NEMA 8 1.8
5718M-02S

5704M-02

211-20-02

208-17-01
570M-02s

A voltage linearly proportional to motor frequency is

used to control the switches and decrease the series
capacitance as the speed increases. To accomplish this,
the stepper generator lead connected between diodes D2 Amp/Phase 2.1 2.1 1.8 1.3 0.8 0.691

and D3 is applied to the non-inverting input of a Linear R phase [ohm] 1.8 1.6 3 1.9 5.4 4.99
Technology LTC1540 micro power comparator. The
L phase [mH] 5.2 5.8 3.3 1.7 1.5 0.464
inverting input is connected to the negative terminal of
the DC output voltage. The resulting output voltage of Weight [kg] 0.68 0.68 0.68 0.2 0.06 0.16
the comparator is a full rail-to-ground square wave with a Pole-pairs 50 100 200 50 50 N/A
frequency equal to the generator electrical frequency.
Manufacturer Lin Engineering Maxon
This voltage waveform is then applied to the input (pin 6)
of a National Instruments LM331, used here as a Diameter [mm] 57.2 57.2 57.2 28 20.3 29
frequency to voltage converter. By the choice of external Cost [USD] 27 27 27 24 58

2232
 VI. TEST RESULTS
8000
Capacitance [μF] .
7000
From (8), the maximum power delivered to a resistive 62.8
26.41
load would occur when RL equals RA. For the NEMA 11 6000 14.51

Total Power [mW]

9.62
stepper, the phase resistance RA is reported as 1.9 ohms. 5000 6.01
However, the peak power according to (8) was found to 4.89
4000 NO SERIES CAP
vary with speed. Solving (7) for ωr yields
3000

1 2000
ωr =
P 1000
LAC
2 0
For seven discrete values of series capacitance, the rotor
speed corresponding to (11) was determined. The speed
was then held constant while varying the output load
resistance. The data show that for the NEMA 11 stepper,
the optimum load resistance increases with rotor speed,
(see Fig. 5.) The optimum load resistance over the speed
range varies between approximately 2 and 7 ohms and is
relatively insensitive near the peak. One possible
explanation for the optimum load resistance increasing
with speed is that the phase inductance of the stepper
machine is not constant, but varies with rotor position.
As a result, a constant capacitance cannot completely
cancel the electromotive force generated by this
inductance. For the remaining tests on the 1.8 degree
NEMA 11 stepper we arbitrarily chose an “average” load
resistance of 5Ω.
For the 1.8 degree NEMA 11 stepper, a plot of power
dissipated through a 5 ohm load resistor, with no series
capacitance, is shown in Fig 6. The total power delivered
by both phases into the 5 ohm resistive loads peaks at
about 500mW. Next, various discrete capacitors were
added in series with each phase of the stepper and the
voltage across the load measured versus rotor speed.
Total power delivered by both phases to the load resistors
is plotted versus rotor speed again in Fig 6. Each discrete
capacitor provides an improvement over a limited speed
range, but for best results over the entire speed range, the
capacitance must vary with speed.
The choice of speed, where switching from one
capacitor value to another occurs, was determined from
8 8000
Load Resistance for Max Power [ohms]
. (11)
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Rotor Speed [Hz]
Figure 6. Total Power versus Rotor Speed with Discrete Capacitors
the results shown in Fig. 6. The switching speed from
one capacitor value to the next was chosen to occur at the
intersection of adjacent plots of power versus rotor speed
for the two capacitor values to be switched between. For
example, the plots of power versus speed for 9.6μF and
that of 6.6μF occurs at approximately 25Hz. Therefore,
the voltage divider for the 2.9μF branch should be tuned
to equal Vref at 25Hz, thereby turning off the relay and
removing the 2.9μF branch. This would reduce the total
series capacitance to 6.6μF as desired. From Fig. 6, the
switching speeds were chosen to be approximately 11,
16, 21, 25, and 31Hz.
The results for the auto-selectable capacitor are shown
in Fig. 7. Compared to the results of the NEMA 11
stepper alone, a large improvement was obtained over the
entire speed range. Power delivered to the load increased
by 40 percent at 5 Hz rotor speed and by 700 percent at
27 Hz rotor speed. The power generated by each phase
of the stepper motor differed by less than 5% over the
entire range.
As a comparison, the power delivered to an optimized
load resistor versus rotor speed for a precision DC
brushed motor is also shown in Fig. 7. As can be seen,
the stepper machine with series capacitors yielded
approximately 2 times the power of the DC motor over
the entire speed range. If the power is normalized with
cost, the stepper produces approximately 5 times the
1.8 deg NEMA 11 with auto-select capacitor

7 7000
PMDC 29mm
6 1.8 deg NEMA
6000
Total Power [mW]

5 5000

4 4000

3 3000

2 2000

1 1000

0 0
0 10 20 30 40 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Rotor Speed [Hz] Rotor Speed [Hz]

Figure 5. Optimum Load Resistance versus Rotor Speed for NEMA 11 Figure 7. Total Power versus Rotor Speed with a Discretely
stepper Variable Capacitor Circuit

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 800
300.0
1.8 deg NEMA 23
Total Power Normalized to Cost [mW/USD]

1.8 deg NEMA 11 with auto-select capacitor

700
250.0 PMDC 29mm Nema 11
1.8 deg NEMA NEMA 8
600

Voc2 /RA /mass [W/kg]

200.0
500

150.0
400

100.0 300

50.0 200

100
0.0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 0
Rotor Speed [Hz] 0 10 20 30 40 50
Rot or Speed [Hz]
Figure 8. Total Power versus Rotor Speed with a Discretely
Variable Capacitor Circuit, Normalized to Cost Figure 9. Specific Power Indicator versus of 1.8ο Step, NEMA Hybrid
Steppers

power per dollar as the PMDC motor, as shown in Fig. 8.

To compare the potential power of various stepper
generators we use (10), which is normalized to the mass
of the machine. The results for all 3 1.8 degree step,
hybrid steppers are plotted in Fig. 9. At 25Hz, we see
that the value of this indicator (10), is roughly 30W/kg
for the NEMA 8 machine and roughly 140W/kg for the
NEMA 11 machine. In other words, the NEMA 11
would be expected to produce about 140/30 or 3.7 times
the specific power of the NEMA 8 machine. From our
results, the NEMA 11 produced approximately 4.6 times
the specific power as the NEMA 8 machine. The
discrepancy can be understood when realizing that the
diode drops in the rectifier were a larger percentage of the
output voltage of the smaller machine.
Using this rationale and data shown in Fig. 9, we
expect the NEMA 23 stepper to produce 9 times the
specific power as the NEMA 11.
Again, (10) was used to generate a comparison
between the three different motors. The results are
shown in Fig. 10. This plot indicates that the optimum
number of pole-pairs for use as a generator might be
between 50 and 100, and that the small steps of the 200
pole pair machine do not work nearly as well for a
generator. This is likely because the castellated teeth
have become so small that a large percentage of the
permanent magnet flux is flowing into adjacent poles
rather than across the air gap.
VII.
The results shown in this paper indicate that the power
output of a stepper machine can be superior to a
similarly-sized DCPM brush machine in low power
energy harvesting applications. The stepper was shown
to be superior to the brushed PMDC motor at a specific
speed with the inclusion of some amount of series
capacitance. In addition, a simple switching circuit was
designed and implemented which allows the device to
deliver high power over the entire speed range of interest.
Furthermore, when delivered power is normalized with
cost, (based on quoted prices of 1000 units) the advantage
of the stepper machine increases to approximately 5 times
higher power per dollar. In addition, stepper machines
should also possess superior reliability when compared to
PMDC machines due to the lack of a mechanical
commutator. Also, with the hybrid stepper topology the
armature windings are on the stator, making them easier
to cool as compared to the windings of a typical DC
machine. This makes it easier to increase the power
density.
The results presented here show the power density for
the NEMA 23 machine might be as much as 9.5 times the
power density as that of the NEMA 11. Finally, the data
taken on the three different step size NEMA 23 motors
indicate that the optimum number of effective poles
might be between 50 and 100.
Future efforts will be to make the variable capacitor
system a stand alone circuit. Furthermore, the stepper
machine tested in this paper was not designed to be a
generator; therefore, future efforts will be directed
towards optimizing the geometry of the hybrid stepper
motor for energy harvesting applications.
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[1] Roundy, S, “On the effectiveness of vibration-based energy
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[2] Beeby, S.P., Tudor, M., White, N., “Energy harvesting vibration
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and Technology, Vol. 17, No. 12, Dec 1, 2006, p R175-R195
CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK Saha, C, O’Donnell, T., Loder, H, Beeby, S., Tudor, J.,
“Optimization of an electromagnetic energy harvesting device”,
IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, v 42, n 10, October, 2006, p
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[3] Duffy, M., Carroll, D., “Electromagnetic generators for power
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[4] Poulin, G., Sarraute, E., Costa, F., “Generation of electrical energy
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[6] www.perpetuum.co.uk/
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