Enhancing Power Density through Electrode Configuration for Piezomems Energy Harvester

Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) energy harvesters have been extensively investigated over the past decade, but increasing power density and long-term reliability under high acceleration and low frequency are still major concerns. This study focused on the development of a low-frequency lead zirconate titanate (PZT) based energy harvester capable of operating at high acceleration >4 g with high power density performance. This study investigates the performance effects of altering the electrode configuration and poling configuration to maximize power density. The study investigated using four different types of electrode configuration consisting of long and short interdigitated electrodes (IDE) to operate in d
33
mode, and traditional parallel plate configuration to operate in d
31
mode. The results were numerically and experimentally validated. The results illustrate that the d
33
mode configuration was able to generate >3200 μW mm
^-3
with good reliability of up to 4 g.