• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2010.03a
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• pp.7-7
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• 2010

Energy harvesting from the environment has been of great interest as a standalone power source of wireless sensor nodes for Ubiquitous Sensor Networks(USN). In particular, the piezoelectric energy harvesting from ambient vibration sources has intensively researched because it has a relatively high power density comparing with other energy scavenging methods. Through recent advances in low power consumption RF transmitters and sensors, it is possible to adopt a micro-power energy harvesting system realized by MEMS technology for the system-on-chip. However, the MEMS energy harvesting system has some drawbacks such as a high natural frequency over 300 Hz and a small power generation due to a small dimension. To overcome these limitations, we devised a novel power generator with a spiral spring structure as shown in the figure. The natural frequency of a cantilever could be decreased to the usable frequency region (under 300 Hz) because the natural frequency depends on the length of a cantilever. In this study, the natural frequency of the energy harvester was a lower than a normal cantilever structure and sufficiently controllable in 50 - 200 Hz frequency region as adjusting weight of a proof mass. Moreover, the MEMS energy harvester had a high energy conversion efficiency using a shear mode ($d_{15}$) is much larger than a 33 mode ($d_{33}$) and the energy conversion efficiency is proportional to the piezoelectric constant (d). We expect the spiral type MEMS power generator would be a good candidate for a standalone power generator for USN.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.25 no.10
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• pp.766-772
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• 2012

Spring supported piezoelectric cantilever structures (SPCS) were fabricated for vibration-based energy harvester application. We selected four elastic springs (A, B, C, and D type) as cantilever's supporter, each elastic spring has a different spring constant (S). The C type of SPCS ($S_C$: 4,649 N/m) showed a extremely low resonance frequency of 81 Hz along with the highest power output of 38.5 mW while the A type of SPCS ($S_A$: 40,629 N/m) didn't show a resonance frequency while. Therefore, it is considered that the lower spring constant lead to a lower resonance frequency of the SPCS. In addition, a tip mass (18 g) at one end of the SPCS could further reduce the resonance frequency without heavy degradation of power output.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.62-67
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• 2012

Owing to the rapid growth of mobile and electronic equipment miniaturization technology, the supply of micro mobile computing machine has been fast raised. Accordingly they have performed many researches on energy harvesting technology to provide promising power supply equipment to substitute existing batteries. In this paper, in order to have low resonance frequency for piezoelectric energy harvester, we have tried to make it larger than before by adopting nickel that has much higher density than silicon. We have applied it for our energy harvesting actuator instead of the existing silicon based actuator. Through such new concept and approach, we have designed energy harvesting device and made it personally by making with micromachining process. The energy harvester structure has a cantilever type and has a dimension of $10{\times}2.5{\times}0.1\;mm^3$ for length, width and thickness respectively. Its electrode type is formed by using Au/Ti of interdigitate d33 mode. The pattern size and gap size is 50 ${\mu}m$. Based on the measurement of the nickel-based piezoelectric energy harvester, it is found to have 778 Hz for a resonant frequency with no proof mass. In that resonance frequency we could get a maximum output power of 76 ${\mu}W$ at 4.8 $M{\Omega}$ being applied with 1 g acceleration.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.66 no.10
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• pp.1499-1507
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• 2017

This paper presents an impact-based piezoelectric vibration energy harvester using a freely movable metal sphere and a piezoceramic fiber-based MFC (Macro Fiber Composite) as piezoelectric cantilever. The free motion of the metal sphere, which impacts both ends of the cavity in an aluminum housing, generates power across a cantilever-type MFC beam in response to low frequency vibration such as human-body-induced motion. Impacting force of the spherical proof mass is transformed into the vibration of the piezoelectric cantilever indirectly via the aluminum housing. A proof-of-concept energy harvesting device has been fabricated and tested. Effect of the indirect impact-based system has been tested and compared with the direct impact-based counterpart. Maximum peak-to-peak open circuit voltage of 39.8V and average power of $598.9{\mu}W$ have been obtained at 3g acceleration at 18Hz. Long-term reliability of the fabricated device has been verified by cyclic testing. For the improvement of output performance and reliability, various devices have been tested and compared. Using device fabricated with anodized aluminum housing, maximum peak-to-peak open-circuit voltage of 34.4V and average power of $372.8{\mu}W$ have been obtained at 3g excitation at 20Hz. In terms of reliability, housing with 0.5mm-thick steel plate and anodized aluminum gave improved results with reduced power reduction during initial phase of the cyclic testing.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.24 no.7
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• pp.554-558
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• 2011

Piezoelectric energy harvester (PEH) as a box type was fabricated in order to harvest mechanical energy imparted to roadways from passing vehicles and convert it into electricity. The PEH was composed of 72 piezoelectric cantilevers with 9 springs with elasticity stick to a bottom of the PEH. For the single piezoelectric cantilever, when a single push with approximately 5 mm displacement was incident to it, power of 0.355 mW was produced at $100\;k{\Omega}$. It is found that the power from the single piezoelectric cantilever increases when spring constant is high. We investigated power of PEH when the moving vehicle passes in it. Power was increased with increasing vehicle speed. When vehicle speed is 30 km/h, power is 20.6 mW.

• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.179-202
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• 2023

This article presents a numerical analysis to investigate the natural frequencies and harmonic response of a perforated cantilever beam attached to two layers of piezoelectric materials by using the finite element method for the first time. The bimorph piezoelectric is composed of 3 layers; two of them at the outer are piezoelectric, and the inner isotropic material. A higher order 3-D 20-node solid element that exhibits quadratic displacement behavior is exploited to discretize the isotropic layer, and coupled piezoelectric 3D element with twenty nodes is used to mesh the top and bottom layers. CIRCU94 element is added to act as a resistor part of the model. The proposed model is validated with previous works. The numerical parametric studies are presented to illustrate the effects of perforation geometry, the number of rows, the resistance on the natural frequencies, frequency response, and power. It is found that the thickness has a positive relationship with the natural frequency. Perforations help in producing higher voltage, and the best shape is rectangular perforations, and to produce higher voltage, two rows of rectangular perforations should be applied.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.515-518
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• 2011

In this work, we designed and fabricated a multilayer thin film Pb(Zr,Ti)$O_3$ cantilever with a Si proof mass for low frequency vibration energy harvesting applications. A mathematical model of a mu lti-layer composite beam was derived and applied in a parametric analysis of the piezoelectric cantilever. Finally, the dimensions of the cantilever were determined for the resonant frequency of the cantilever. W e fabricated a device with beam dimensions of about 4,930 ${\mu}M$ ${\times}$ 450 ${\mu}M$ ${\times}$ 12 ${\mu}M$, and an integrated Si proof mass with dimensions of about 1,410 ${\mu}M$ ${\times}$ 450 ${\mu}M$ ${\times}$ 450 ${\mu}M$. The resonant frequency, maximum peak voltage, and highest average power of the cantilever device were 84.5 Hz, 88 mV, and 0.166 ${\mu}Wat$ 1.0 g and 23.7 ${\Omega}$, respectively. The dimensions of the cantilever were determined for the resonance frequency of the cantilever.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.57-66
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• 2023

In this paper, it was investigated how the amount of energy harvesting will be varied from the FTEH which has inlet area is wider than outer area and attaching cantilever type MFC (Macro Fiber Composite) using by theoretical and experimental approaches. When MFC length increased 50 % vibration displacement also increased 3.5 times. When thickness decreased vibration displacement increased 30.9 times. In underwater tank experiments FTEH with spiral screw, flexible support, vertical direction fabrication cases showed maximum energy harvesting more 5 times than the case of MFC installed horizontally without spiral screws and on rigid supports. When the flow speed of 0.24 m/s FTEH's optimal resistance applied 4,10 kΩ, energy storage in the capacitor was measured 4 ㎼·s during 350 seconds. It was confirmed that the charging energy can be increased by lengthening the capacitor charging time of the large-area MFC installed vertically on the flexible support at high flow speed.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.209-213
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• 2010

This paper describes the fabrication and characteristics of AlN piezoelectric MPG(micro power generator). The micro energy harvester was fabricated to convert ambient vibration energy to electrical power as a AlN piezoelectric cantilever with Si proof-mass. To be compatible with CMOS process, AlN thin film was grown at low temperature by RF magnetron sputtering and micro power generators were fabricated by MEMS technologies. X-ray diffraction pattern proved that the grown AlN film had highly(002) orientation with low value of FWHM(full width at the half maximum, $\theta=0.276^{\circ}$) in the rocking curve around(002) reflections. The implemented harvester showed the $198.5\;{\mu}m$ highest membrane displacement and generated 6.4 nW of electrical power to $80\;k{\Omega}$ resistive load with $22.6\;mV_{rms}$ voltage from 1.0 G acceleration at its resonant frequency of 389 Hz. From these results, the AlN piezoelectric MPG will be possible to suitable with the batch process and confirm the possibility for power supply in portable, mobile and wearable microsystems.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.311-317
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• 2019

Rotating devices are commonly installed in power plants and factories. This study proposes a self-powered sensor node that is powered by converting the vibration energy of a rotating device into electrical energy. The self-powered sensor consists of a piezoelectric harvester for self-power generation, a rectifier circuit to rectify the AC signal, a sensor unit for measuring the vibration frequency, and a circuit to control the light emitting diode (LED) lighting. The frequency of the vibration source was measured using a piezoelectric-cantilever-type vibration frequency sensor. A green LED was illuminated when the measured frequency was within the normal range. The power generated by the piezoelectric harvester was determined, and the LED operation was assessed in terms of the vibration frequency. The piezoelectric harvester was found to generate a power of 3.061 mW or greater at a vibration acceleration of 1.2 g ($1g=9.8m/s^2$) and vibration frequencies between 117 and 123 Hz. Notably, the power generated was 4.099 mW at 122 Hz. As such, our self-powered sensor node can be used as a module for monitoring rotating devices, because it can convert vibration energy into electrical energy when installed on rotating devices such as air compressors.