Vibration-driven micro energy harvesting with piezoelectric materials

Micro energy harvesting will play an important role in maintenance-free and cost-effective sensor networks of IoT (Internet of Things). Since it does not need wiring or batteries, even though to date, sensor network systems usually use electrochemical batteries for their power supplies. From the points of view of the power supply requirements such as high output power, highly efficient transducer, and broadband, the paper outlines three promising types of vibration-driven energy harvester using piezoelectric films from our group and discusses the some of its important characteristics to realize highly efficient micro energy harvesting.