Affiliations: [a] Microsystem Research Center, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China | [b] National Center for International Research of
Micro/Nano-System and New Material Technology, Chongqing, China | [c] National Key Laboratory of Fundamental Science of
Micro/Nano-Device and System Technology, Chongqing, China
Abstract: Piezoelectric vibration energy harvester as an autonomous power
source for various types of sensors, actuators and MEMS devices has been
investigated over the last decade. Traditional MEMS-based PZT single beam
vibration energy harvester has low voltage output (usually less than 1~V) which
cause rectifier circuit to consume most of power or turn off in practical
applications. In this paper, to improve the voltage output as well as ensure
high power output of the MEMS-based PZT vibration energy harvester, a PZT beam
array configuration is proposed. Based on Hamilton's principle and
Euler-Bernoulli beam theory, mathematical model for the proposed vibration
energy harvester is established, and then the model is verified through finite
element model implemented by program ANSYS. Both mathematical model and ANSYS
simulation show that the voltage output of the proposed vibration energy
harvester is 5 times of the traditional vibration energy harvester and the
mathematical model also show that the power output of the proposed vibration
energy harvester is the same as the traditional vibration energy harvester.
From the mathematical model, the voltage output of the proposed vibration
energy harvester increase linearly with the total number of the beams.
Keywords: Vibration energy harvester, PZT, beam array, MEMS
