The designing of a micro-windmill that generates wind energy may soon become an innovative solution to cell phone batteries

The designing of a micro-windmill that generates wind energy may soon become an innovative solution to cell phone batteries constantly in need of recharging and home energy generation has been done by UT Arlington research associate and an engineering professor. Smitha Rao and J.-C. Chiao have designed and built the device that is about 1.8 mm at its widest point. 10 such tiny wind-mills can be embedded inside a grain of rice and hundreds of the windmills could be embedded in a sleeve for a cell phone. Wind, created by waving the cell phone in air or holding it up to an open window on a windy day, would generate the electricity that could be collected by the cell phone’s battery.

Rao’s designs have a blend of origami concepts into conventional wafer-scale semiconductor device layouts so complex 3-D moveable mechanical structures can be self-assembled from two-dimensional metal pieces utilizing planar multilayer electroplating techniques that have been optimized by WinMEMS Technologies Corporation.

Rao commented,” The Company was quite surprised with the micro-windmill idea when we showed the demo video of working devices. It was something completely out of the blue for them and their investors.” She also said,”It was very gratifying to first be noticed by an international company and second to work on something like this where you can see immediately how it might be used. However, I think we’ve only scratched the surface on how these micro-windmills might be used.”