Design of an FM Transmitter Powered By Piezoelectric Energy

This work demonstrates wireless transmission over the Frequency Modulation (FM) broadcast band using piezoelectric energy harvesting. In some operations, usually covert or hidden, recording devices are installed in remote areas to pick up ambient human voice signals and record them. However, such voice signals are only recorded and cannot be listened to in real-time. This problem can be remedied using a remote listening device based on FM transmitter operations comprising a microphone (for receiving the ambient voice signals), FM transmitter device, and a microcontroller device such as the ATmega328P. In order to have the remotely installed system to function for extended periods of time, a piezoelectric energy harvester is integrated with the transmitter device. Thus, powering the device from the environmental vibrations or stresses making it suitable for high vibration environments like vehicles, machine rooms, air conditioner sets, appliances with rotating parts such as fans. etc. The result shows that the piezoelectric harvester can be suitable to power the FM transmitter efficiently.