Energy Harvester of 1.5 cm3 Giving Output Power of 2.6 mW with Only 1 G Acceleration

Abstract

The question that drove this work is the following: ‘What is the maximum possible output power of an energy harvester of 1 cm × 1 cm × 1 cm for 1 G acceleration?’ Several design ideas were then introduced in order to maximize the power output of a piezoelectric energy harvester. A highly effective electromechanical structure was designed and a prototype is presented (patent pending). A single degree of freedom lumped model was used in order to predict energy harvesting effectiveness, and parameter identification on fabricated device was performed. The device was then tested near resonance frequency under acceleration 0.1-1 G. We show a 2.6 mW power for 1 G acceleration using a standard interface. SSHI technique provides an improvement of output power of 50% leading to almost 4 mW.