Design, Simulation & Optimization of a MEMS Based Piezoelectric Energy Harvester

Abstract

Energy harvesting is defined as a process of acquiring energy surrounding a system and converting it into electrical energy for usage. Piezoelectric energy harvesting is a very important concept in energy harvesting in microelectronics. In this report, an analysis of the cantilever type piezoelectric energy harvester is conducted using the finite element method (FEM) based software COMSOL Multiphysics. A unimorph type cantilever beam of the silicon substrate, structural steel as proof mass and support, and PZT-5A material as piezoelectric constitute the physical system.

Simulation and Analysis of Piezoelectric Energy Harvester with Various Proof-Mass Geometries

“…Using piezoelectric material, mechanical vibrations are converted to electrical energy. An investigation was made and acquired an analysis of unimorph type cantilever beam type of piezoelectric energy harvester is conducted using a finite element method (FEM) which consist of Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT-5A) as piezoelectric material, the substrate as silicon and support and proof mass as structural steel was designed for a frequency of 181.11Hz, the voltage of 129.9mV [14]and the other paper is of a macro scale unimorph piezoelectric power generator prototypes consist of an active piezoelectric layer, stainless steel substrate, and titanium proof mass was designed for a frequency of 153.22Hz, a voltage of 123.2mV, and energy of 5.815X10 76 J [15]. And the other paper is of a bimorph cantilever located on a vibrating host structure, to generate electrical energy from base excitations using different combinations of the affecting parameters using Taguchi's orthogonal array for optimization of the parameters in COMSOL 2D, a piezoelectric material as piezo-ceramics, support, and proof mass of stainless steel was designed for a frequency 75Hz and voltage of 5mV [16].…”

Study on a Base-galloping Hybrid Excitation Piezoelectric Vibration Energy Harvester

“…The fixed-point response and the stability of piezoelectric vibration energy harvester were designed by Garg et al [7] under combined parameter resonance which combined with Galerkin method and multi-scale method. Based on the finite element simulation analysis, Das et al [8] studied the effect of different design parameters on resonance frequency of a cantilever beam piezoelectric energy harvester. For improving the stress-strain distribution and electrical output performance, Yahyapour et al [9] proposed a multilayer hybrid piezoelectric energy trap with non-piezoelectric layer.…”