Piezoelectric Vibration Harvesters Based on Vibrations of Cantilevered Bimorphs: A Review

Abstract

With the advancement in the technologies around the world over the past few years, the microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) have gained much attention in harvesting the energy for wireless, self-powered and MEMS devices. In the present era, many devices are available for energy harnessing such as electromagnetic, electrostatic and piezoelectric generator and these devices are designed based on its ability to capture the different form of environment energy such as solar energy, wind energy, thermal energy and convert it into the useful energy form. Out of these devices, the use of a piezoelectric generator for energy harvesting is very attractive for MEMS applications. There are various sources of harvestable energy including waste heat, solar energy, wind energy, energy in floating water and mechanical vibrations which are used by the researchers for energy harvesting purposes. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art in harvesting mechanical vibrations as an energy source by various generators (such as electromagnetic, electrostatic and piezoelectric generators). Also, the design and characteristics of piezoelectric generators, using vibrations of cantilevered bimorphs, for MEMS have also been reviewed here. Electromagnetic, electrostatic and piezoelectric generators presented in the literature are reviewed by taking into an account the power output, frequency, acceleration, dimension and application of each generator and the coupling factor of each transduction mechanism has also been discussed for all the devices.

A Review of Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting: Materials, Design, and Readout Circuits

“…Depending on the application and energy need, energy harvesters may draw on a variety of environmental energy sources. Figure 1 includes information about each of them [25][26][27][28][29][30]. Mechanical energy is the most common of the sources discussed since continuous or intermittent mechanical motion is an energy that is present and available to everyone in everyday life [31,32].…”

2.3.1 Characteristics of vibrations in domestic environments as sources for kinetic energy harvesters

“…A potential approach to solve this problem is energy harvesting. Kinetic energy harvesters convert energy from the mechanical to the electrical domain by, e. g., electromagnetic [2] or piezoelectric principles [3]. The resonance frequency of a resonant harvester should match the vibration frequency; otherwise, the harvested power decreases sharply and may not suffice to power a WSN node.…”

Metamodel-assisted design optimization of piezoelectric flex transducer for maximal bio-kinetic energy conversion

“…According to Harb (2011), micro-energy, which is produced on a small scale from a low carbon source, can be mechanical, electromagnetic, thermal, electrical, solar, or biological energy. Various micro-energy harvesters have been designed to harvest energy from ambient environment and to power mobile devices, such as the wearable thermoelectric generator (TEG) (Settaluri et al, 2012) and the cantilevered bimorphs piezoelectric vibration harvester (Khalid et al, 2015). The development and applications of micro-scale energy harvesters, including thermoelectric, thermo-photovoltaic, piezoelectric, and microbial fuel cell energy harvesters, have been reviewed by Selvan and Ali (2016).…”