Fabrication, modelling and characterization of MEMS piezoelectric vibration harvesters

✍ Scribed by M. Renaud; K. Karakaya; T. Sterken; P. Fiorini; C. Van Hoof; R. Puers

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 614 KB
• Volume: 145-146
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0924-4247
• DOI: 10.1016/j.sna.2007.11.005

✦ Synopsis

Piezoelectric converters designed for harvesting energy from mechanical vibrations have been fabricated by micromachining technologies. They are characterized by applying a sinusoidal oscillation as mechanical input and by using a resistive load to measure the output power of the system. A maximum output power of 40μW has been measured for a PZT based harvester excited by an input vibration having a frequency of 1.8kHz and an amplitude of 180nm. Preliminary experimental results on AlN based devices are also presented. A model capable of estimating the output power as a function of material parameters and device dimensions has been developed. Theoretical estimations have been compared with experimental results.