Fabrication and characterization of free-standing thick-film piezoelectric cantilevers for energy harvesting

Kok, Swee Leong and White, Neil and Harris, Nick (2009) Fabrication and characterization of free-standing thick-film piezoelectric cantilevers for energy harvesting. Measurement Science and Technology, 20 (doi:10). ISSN 0957-0233

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Abstract

Research into energy harvesting from ambient vibration sources has attracted great interest over the last few years, largely as a result of advances in the areas of wireless technology and low-power electronics. One of the mechanisms for converting mechanical vibration to electrical energy is the use of piezoelectric materials, typically operating as a cantilever in a bending mode, which generate a voltage across the electrodes when they are stressed. Typically, the piezoelectric materials are deposited on a non-electro-active substrate and are physically clamped at one end to a rigid base. The presence of the substrate does not contribute directly to the electrical output, but merely serves as a mechanical supporting platform, which can pose difficulties for integration with other microelectronic devices. The aim of this paper is to describe a novel thick-film free-standing cantilever structure that does not use a supporting platform and has the advantage of minimizing the movement constraints on the piezoelectric material, thereby maximizing the electrical output power. Two configurations of the composite cantilever structure were investigated: unimorph and multimorph. A unimorph consists of a pair of silver/palladium (Ag/Pd) electrodes sandwiching a laminar layer of lead zirconate titanate (PZT). A mulitmorph is an extended version of the unimorph with two pairs of Ag/Pd electrodes and three laminar sections of PZT.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	thick-film technology, PZT, microgenerator, low level vibrations, free-standing structure, multimorph cantilever
Subjects:	T Technology > TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering
Divisions:	Faculty of Electronics and Computer Engineering > Department of Industrial Electronics
Depositing User:	Dr. Swee Leong Kok
Date Deposited:	20 Jul 2012 02:46
Last Modified:	03 Jan 2022 15:43
URI:	http://eprints.utem.edu.my/id/eprint/4365
Statistic Details:	View Download Statistic

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