Recent Advancement and Comparative Performance Analysis of Energy Harvesting Technique

In the recent years, obtaining a sustainable form of energy to power up the various autonomous `zero-power' wireless and portable sensors have been intensively investigated to create new functional realizable microdevices. This paper discusses energy harvesting or energy scavenging as an efficient approach to provide the energy needs of sensor nodes. A comparison of various ambient sources for harvesting energy is done with an insight into some applications. The compatibility associated with the piezoelectric micro-generators makes it prominent choice for MEMS applications. Piezoelectric energy harvesting is one of the most promising future applications of piezoelectric MEMS. This review covers the current state in the field of energy harvesting, with a major focus on piezoelectric energy harvester which are capable of converting the mechanical energy scattered in environmental vibrations into electric power. The issues in terms of conversion performance, operability on a frequency range of vibrations, selection of proper material and design geometry are discussed in this paper. The comparative analysis of the properties of conventional material with the new emerging material with their mode of vibrations is discussed in this paper. The biocompatibility and CMOS compatibility of the emerging materials in the field of piezoelectric MEMS opened up new door for sustainable green and implantable devices. The performance metrics that are needed to enhance the power density of the piezoelectric energy scavengers are also reported in this review. The design strategies to maximize the trapping of energy with minimum coupling losses are also reported in this paper.