A piezoelectric micro generator worked at low frequency and high acceleration based on PZT and phosphor bronze bonding

Abstract

Recently, piezoelectric energy harvesters (PEHs) have been paid a lot of attention by many researchers to convert mechanical energy into electrical and low level vibration. Currently, most of PEHs worked under high frequency and low level vibration. In this paper, we propose a micro cantilever generator based on the bonding of bulk PZT wafer and phosphor bronze, which is fabricated by MEMS technology, such as mechanical chemical thinning and etching. The experimental results show that the open-circuit output voltage, output power and power density of this fabricated prototype are 35 V, 321 μW and 8664 μW cm−3 at the resonant frequency of 100.8 Hz, respectively, when it matches an optimal loading resistance of 140 kΩ under the excitation of 3.0 g acceleration. The fabricated micro generator can obtain the open-circuit stable output voltage of 61.2 V when the vibration acceleration arrives at 7.0 g. Meanwhile, when this device is pasted on the vibrating vacuum pump, the output voltage is about 11 V. It demonstrates that this novel proposed device can scavenge high vibration level energy at low frequency for powering the inertial sensors in internet of things application.

Piezoelectric Thick Film Based on Bonding technologies for Energy Harvester

“…For example, a small microwave oven works at a resonant frequency of 121 Hz, a washing machine at 109 Hz, a kitchen blender casing at 121 Hz, and a CD on notebook computer at 75 Hz. (49) Meanwhile, silicon is brittle and cannot withstand high acceleration. Phosphor and beryllium bronze, as alloys of copper, have good electrical conductivity and resistance to fatigue, so phosphor bronze can replace silicon as the substrate of energy harvesters operating at low frequencies and high vibration levels.…”

Two-degree-of-freedom Piezoelectric MEMS Energy Harvester Based on Bulk PZT Film

“…To obtain a sufficiently powerful PMEH, bulk PZT bonding and thinning techniques have been developed. (14)(15)(16)(17) In our previous work, we reported a PMEH with a 14-μm-thick bulk PZT film based on a silicon substrate, which was realized by low-temperature (175 °C) bonding and thinning techniques. (14) Because silicon is relatively brittle and not suitable for high-vibration-acceleration applications, in later research, we proposed a PMEH based on PZT and phosphor bronze bonding that could work at low frequencies and high acceleration.…”

Antimony Oxide-Doped 0.99Pb(Zr0.53Ti0.47)O3–0.01Bi(Y1−xSbx)O3 Piezoelectric Ceramics for Energy-Harvesting Applications

“…Piezoelectric material selection is crucial in the design of piezoelectric energy harvesters. Numerous researchers are working in this area, but most of the solutions being employed have low power (nW) and high frequency [1,2]. Among the various piezoelectric materials, lead zirconate titanate (PZT) based ceramic is one of the most widely used because of its fast electro-mechanical response, relatively low power requirements, high generative force, and inherent durability [3][4][5][6][7].…”

“…Xu et al proposed a new figure of merit (FOM), which combines the transduction efficiency and the energy-conversion capacity, for comparing piezoelectric materials for energy-harvesting applications [11]. Priya et al proposed a FOM for a polycrystalline piezoelectric energy-harvesting device, which can be expressed by the following Equations (1) and (2) [12]: u = 1/2 (d.g) (F/A) 2 (1)…”

“…. The BYS(x) was then ball milled in distilled water using a ZrO 2 media for 24 h. The same specimens of BYS(x) were also prepared by using Sb 2 (PZT) and BiYO 3 (BY) were described in previous work [13]. The pre-synthesized PZT and BYS(x) powders were weighed according to reaction stoichiometry to fabricate PZT-BYS(x), and ball-milled for 72 h. The dried powders were pressed as a disk of 15 mm diameter and then cold isostatically pressed (CIP) under a pressure of 147.2 MPa.…”