Luciola: a light-emitting particle moving in mid-air based on ultrasonic levitation and wireless powering

Abstract

In this paper, we present an approach to realize the levitation of a small object with an embedded electronic circuit. Luciola is a light-emitting particle with a diameter of 3.5mm and a weight of 16.2mg moving in mid-air. The novelty of this paper is the ultrasonically levitated electronic object powered by resonant inductive coupling. To enable the levitation of a particle, a custom IC chip is essential in reducing the size and weight of the particle. Ths custom IC chip is designed to achieve an intermittent lighting of the LED, which increases the maximal distance between the transmitter and the receiver coils. Luciola is applied to a self-luminous pixel in a 3-dimensional (3D) mid-air display and the drawing of characters in mid-air is also demonstrated.