Abstract
The potential of impact-driven frequency up-conversion in a MEMS EH is evaluated using numerical simulations. The investigated design is compared to a conventional cantilever EH in terms of output power and loss rate. The upshifting can lead to significantly increased output power at a similar loss rate but as the time scale for the loss is long, the benefit is limited. This also requires an effective upshifting process. The design of the impact introduces a length scale that must be selected with excitation, gravity, and pre-stress taken into account. This makes this type of EH application-dependent as a non-optimal choice may result in low output power.
Highlights
One way to power sensors is with piezoelectric energy harvesters (PEHs), where PZT cantilevers is a common choice [1]
In a PEH by Gu and Livermore [7], power was mainly harvested during impact
It was found that the upshifting can lead to significantly increased output power at a similar loss rate, implying that a higher fraction of the available energy is obtained as useful output
Summary
One way to power sensors is with piezoelectric energy harvesters (PEHs), where PZT cantilevers is a common choice [1]. Further benefits are the mechanical robustness and the uniform PZT strain, which is higher at a given deflection than in a comparable cantilever [3, 4]. Another concept is the use of impacts to obtain frequency upshifting.. The PZT-H, generated little power (30 nW) compared to the PZT-L (145 nW). This makes the approach questionable since the space needed for the PZT-H could be used to optimize the PZT-L. In a PEH by Gu and Livermore [7], power was mainly harvested during impact
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