Abstract
The paper describes a stretchable, microfabricated power generator that will be attached on the skin and will produce energy based on the movements of the human body. The device was fabricated on a polymeric, elastomeric, poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) sheet. It consists of a piezoelectric thin film of ZnO sandwiched between two stretchable gold electrodes. An innovative technique was used for the deposition of ZnO thin film on the gold electrode-coated polymeric substrate at low temperatures below 150 °C. This is the first attempt to use a uniform film of ZnO, for energy harvesting. The ZnO film had the thickness at the submicron scale and the surface at the centimeter scale. We demonstrated that under a strain of 8% the voltage output from this power generator was equal to 2 V, the power output was equal to 160 μW and the corresponding power density was 1.27 mW/cm2. This device has great potential for application in power sensors attached on the human body, such as temperature sensors or wearable electrocardiography systems.
Highlights
Flexible and stretchable electronics are attracting substantial attention because of their promising applications in many areas, such as wearable electronics, bendable displays, artificial skin, implantable biomedical devices, soft, biointegrated and bioinspired devices
Numerous researchers have focused on mechanical energy harvesting with piezoelectric materials as a source of energy for electronic circuits
The energy harvesting based on piezoelectric transducers transforms the mechanical energy absorbed by a transducer into electric voltage that is used for electric device actuation or stored in batteries for future use [1,2]
Summary
Flexible and stretchable electronics are attracting substantial attention because of their promising applications in many areas, such as wearable electronics, bendable displays, artificial skin, implantable biomedical devices, soft, biointegrated and bioinspired devices. There are many forms of energy sources in the surrounding environment, such as solar energy, mechanical energy, thermal energy, chemical and biological energy. The energy harvesting based on piezoelectric transducers transforms the mechanical energy absorbed by a transducer into electric voltage that is used for electric device actuation or stored in batteries for future use [1,2]. These harvesters are ideal to be used in micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) applications. One of the most important MEMS structures for energy harvesting is the piezoelectric cantilever beam that generates energy because of the presence of ambient vibration [2,3,4,5,6,7]
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