• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.30 no.12
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• pp.768-775
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• 2017

Energy harvesting characteristics of trapezoidal piezoelectric cantilever generator, which has a lead zirconate titanate (PZT) laminate film, were compared by longitudinal (3-3) and transverse (3-1) modes. The PZT laminate film, fabricated by a conventional tape casting process, was cofired with Ag electrode at $850^{\circ}C$ for 2 h. A multi-layered Ag electrode by a planar pattern and an interdigitated pattern was applied to the PZT laminate to implement the 3-3 and 3-1 modes, respectively. The energy harvesting performance of the 3-3 mode trapezoidal piezoelectric cantilever generator was better than that of the 3-1 mode. An extremely high output power density of $26.7mW/cm^3$ for the 3-3 mode was obtained at a resonant frequency of 145 Hz under a load resistance of $50{\Omega}$ and acceleration of 1.3 G, which is ~3-times higher than that for the 3-1 mode. Therefore, the 3-3 mode is considered significantly efficient for application to high-performance piezoelectric cantilever generator.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.620-626
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• 2023

Energy harvesting technology, which converts wasted energy sources in everyday life into usable electric energy, is gaining attention as a solution to the challenges of charging and managing batteries for the driving of IoT sensors, which are one of the key technologies in the era of the fourth industrial revolution. Hybrid energy harvesting technology involves integrating two or more energy harvesting technologies to generate electric energy from multiple energy conversion mechanisms. In this study, a hybrid energy harvesting device called TMPPEG (thermo-magneto-piezoelectric-pyroelectric energy generator), which utilizes low-grade waste heat, was developed by incorporating PVDF polymer piezoelectric components and optimizing the system. The variations in piezoelectric output and thermoelectric output were examined based on the spacing of the clamps, and it was found that the device exhibited the highest energy output when the clamp spacing was 2 mm. The voltage and energy output characteristics of the TMPPEG were evaluated, demonstrating its potential as an efficient hybrid energy harvesting component that effectively harnesses low-grade waste heat.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.193-193
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• 2008

Wearable and ubiquitous micro systems will be greatly growing and their related devices should be self-powered in order to avoid the replacement of finite power sources, for example, by scavenging energy from the environment. With ever reducing power requirements of both analog and digital circuits, power scavenging approaches are becoming increasingly realistic. One approach is to drive an electromechanical converter from ambient motion or vibration. Vibration-driven generators based on electromagnetic, electrostatic and piezoelectric technologies have been demonstrated. Among various generator types proposed so far, piezoelectric generator possesses considerable potential in micro system. To overcome low mechanical-to-electric energy conversion, the piezoelectric device should activate in resonance mode in response to external vibration. Normally, the external vibration excretes at low frequency ranging 0.1 to 200 Hz, whereas the resonant frequencies of the devices are fixed as constant. Therefore, keeping their resonant mode in varying external vibration can be one of important points in enhancing the conversion efficiency. We investigated the possibility of use of multi-bender type piezoelectric devices. To match the external vibration frequency with the device resonant frequency, the various devices with different resonant frequency were chosen.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.22 no.7
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• pp.513-518
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• 2016

The piezoelectric actuating device is known for its large power density and simple structure. It can generate a larger force than a conventional actuator and has also wide bandwidth with fast response in a compact size. To control the piezoelectric actuator, we need an analog signal conditioning circuit as well as digital microcontrollers. Conventional microcontrollers are not equipped with an analog part and need digital-to-analog converters, which makes the system bulky compared with the small size of piezoelectric devices. To overcome these weaknesses, we are developing a single-chip controller that can handle analog and digital signals simultaneously using mixed-signal FPGA technology. This gives more flexibility than traditional fixed-function microcontrollers, and the control speed can be increased greatly due to the parallel processing characteristics of the FPGA. In this paper, we developed a floating-point multiplier, PWM generator, 80-kHz power control loop, and 1-kHz position feedback control loop using a single mixed-signal FPGA. It takes only 50 ns for single floating-point multiplication. The PWM generator gives two outputs to control the charging and discharging of the high-voltage output capacitor. Through experimentation and simulation, it is demonstrated that the designed control loops work properly in a real environment.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.68-79
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• 2018

Currently, hybridization of energy generator and storage devices is considered to be one of the most important energy-related technologies due to the possibility of replacing batteries or extending the lifetime of a batteries in accordance with increasing battery demand. This review aims to describe current progress on the mechanical energy generator and hybridization of energy generator and energy storage devices for self-powered electronics. First, the research trends related to energy generation devices using piezoelectric and triboelectric effect that convert physical energy into electric energy is introduced. In addition, integration of energy generators and energy storage devices is introduced. In particular, self-charging energy cells provide an innovative approach to the direct conversion of mechanical energy into electrochemical energy to decrease energy conversion loss.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.219-219
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• 2008

Energy harvesting from the environment has been of great interest as a standalone power source of wireless sensor nodes for ubiquitous sensor networks (USN). There are several power generating methods such as thermal gradients, solar cell, energy produced by human action, mechanical vibration energy, and so on. Most of all, mechanical vibration is easily accessible and has no limitation of weather and environment of outdoor or indoor. In particular, the piezoelectric energy harvesting from ambient vibration sources has attracted attention because it has a relative 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 hassome 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. In this case, the energy harvester has a lower natural frequency under 200 Hz than a normal cantilever structure. Moreover, it has higher an energy conversion efficient because shear mode ($d_{15}$) is much larger than 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 as a standalone power generator for USN.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.31 no.7
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• pp.462-468
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• 2018

The piezoelectric energy harvesting characteristics of a trapezoidal cantilever generator with lead zirconate titanate (PZT) laminate were investigated with various Ag inner electrodes. The piezoelectric mode of operation was a transverse mode by using a planar electrode pattern. The piezoelectric cantilever generator was fabricated using trapezoidal cofired-PZT/Ag laminates by five specimens of 2, 3, 4, 7, and 13 layers of Ag. As the number of Ag electrodes increased, impedance and output voltage at resonant frequency significantly decreased, and capacitance and output current showed an increasing tendency. A maximum output power density of $7.60mW/cm^3$ was realized for the specimen with seven Ag layers in the optimal condition of acceleration (1.2 g) and resistive load ($600{\Omega}$), which corresponds to a normalized power factor of $5.28mW/g^2{\cdot}cm^3$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.261-261
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• 2007

Wearable and ubiquitous micro systems will be greatly growing and their related devices should be self-powered in order to avoid the replacement of finite power sources, for example, by scavenging energy from the environment. With ever reducing power requirements of both analog and digital circuits, power scavenging approaches are becoming increasingly realistic. One approach is to drive an electromechanical converter from ambient motion or vibration. Vibration-driven generators based on electromagnetic, electrostatic and piezoelectric technologies have been demonstrated. Among various generator types proposed so far, piezoelectric generator possesses considerable potential in micro system. To overcome low mechanical-to- electric energy conversion, the piezoelectric device should activate in resonance mode in response to external vibration. Normally, the external vibration excretes at low frequency ranging 0.1 to 200 Hz, whereas the resonant frequencies of the devices are fixed as constant. Therefore, keeping their resonant mode in varying external vibration can be one of important points in enhancing the conversion efficiency. We investigated the possibility of use of multi-bender type piezoelectric devices. To match the external vibration frequency with the device resonant frequency, the various devices with different resonant frequency were chosen. Under an external vibration acceleration of 0.1G at 120 Hz, the device exhibited a peak-to-peak voltage of 2.8 V and a power of 0.5 mw in resonance mode.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2008.04a
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• pp.747-752
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• 2008

Fiber-guided sensor system using a generator and a receiver can detect the amplitude of load or pressure. However, this type of sensor can show some difficulties in detecting the location of damages and pressure loadings. To overcome this weakness of this type, the ultrasonic active fiber sensor, which has an integrated ultrasonic generator and sensing part, was developed in this study. By using this sensor system, the location of mechanical loads can be exactly detected. Moreover, the ultrasonic active fiber sensor is more cost-effective than an ultrasonic fiber sensor using two piezoelectric transducers which are used as a generator and a receiver, respectively. Two applications of the ultrasonic active fiber sensor are demonstrated: cure monitoring of lead and measurement of liquid level. Present results showed that the active fiber sensor can be applied for various environmental sensing.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.66 no.7
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• pp.1059-1065
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• 2017

In this paper, the energy harvester with a piezoelectric materials is modeled as the electric equivalent circuit, and performances of a standard DC method and a Parallel-SSHI method are verified through experiment under variable force and load conditions. Piezoelectric generator consists of mass, damper and spring constant, and it is modeled by electrical equivalent circuit with RLC components. Standard DC and Parallel-SSHI are used as power conversion methods, and standard DC consists of full-bridge rectifier and smoothing capacitor. Parallel-SSHI method is composed of L-C resonant circuit, zero-crossing detector and full-bridge rectifier. In case of simulation under $100k{\Omega}$ load condition, the harvested power is $500{\mu}W$ in Standard DC and $670{\mu}W$ in Parallel-SSHI, respectively. In experiment, the harvested power under $100k{\Omega}$ load condition is $420{\mu}W$ in standard DC and $602{\mu}W$ in Parallel-SSHI. Harvested power of Parallel-SSHI is improved by approximately 40% more than that of standard DC method.