TITLE:
Piezoelectric Vibration Harvesters Based on Vibrations of Cantilevered Bimorphs: A Review
AUTHORS:
Anam Khalid, Amit Kumar Redhewal, Manoj Kumar, Anupam Srivastav
KEYWORDS:
Piezoelectric Generator, Micro Electromechanical Systems (MEMS), Power Output, Frequency, Voltage
JOURNAL NAME:
Materials Sciences and Applications,
Vol.6 No.9,
September
29,
2015
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.