Swee-Leong Kok et al 2009 Meas. Sci. Technol. 20 124010 doi:10.1088/0957-0233/20/12/124010
Swee-Leong Kok, Neil M White and Nick R Harris
Show affiliationsResearch into energy harvesting from ambient vibration sources has attracted great interest over the last few years, largely as a result of advances in the areas of wireless technology and low-power electronics. One of the mechanisms for converting mechanical vibration to electrical energy is the use of piezoelectric materials, typically operating as a cantilever in a bending mode, which generate a voltage across the electrodes when they are stressed. Typically, the piezoelectric materials are deposited on a non-electro-active substrate and are physically clamped at one end to a rigid base. The presence of the substrate does not contribute directly to the electrical output, but merely serves as a mechanical supporting platform, which can pose difficulties for integration with other microelectronic devices. The aim of this paper is to describe a novel thick-film free-standing cantilever structure that does not use a supporting platform and has the advantage of minimizing the movement constraints on the piezoelectric material, thereby maximizing the electrical output power. Two configurations of the composite cantilever structure were investigated: unimorph and multimorph. A unimorph consists of a pair of silver/palladium (Ag/Pd) electrodes sandwiching a laminar layer of lead zirconate titanate (PZT). A mulitmorph is an extended version of the unimorph with two pairs of Ag/Pd electrodes and three laminar sections of PZT.
85.50.-n Dielectric, ferroelectric, and piezoelectric devices
85.85.+j Micro- and nano-electromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS) and devices
Issue 12 (December 2009)
Received 1 May 2009, in final form 14 September 2009
Published 26 October 2009
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