Investigation on battery-less voltage of piezoelectric V-shape cantilever beam energy harvester using FEA method for pacemaker

Abstract

This paper presents an investigation on a battery-less voltage of Piezoelectric (PZT) V-shape cantilever beam Energy Harvester (EH) using human body vibration. The frequency ranges are walking (0–5 Hz), running (6–10 Hz) and motions (11–15 Hz) for human movement. Pacemaker devices typically require a lower resonant frequency with higher voltage which is powered by batteries. The battery has a limited duration during its working process and the battery is difficult to replace in the human body. To address the aforementioned issue, a V-shape cantilever beam EH has been developed as a solution to overcome these limitations. The cantilever beam was designed in COMSOL Multiphysics software 5.5 version using the Finite Element Analysis (FEA) method for experimental investigations followed by three categories of frequency ranges of the human body. The simulation results showed that the generated battery-less higher voltage was 269 mV (AC) at the resonant frequency of 14.37 Hz in the motion range of 11–15 Hz. Later, an Ultra Low Power (ULP) electronic circuits will be designed and simulated in the LTSPICE software to convert and boost-up from 269 mV (AC) to DC voltage attained. The estimated output power of the energy harvester system can be powered up (4.7 µW) for modern pacemaker applications.