Pyroelectric Materials: Scaling of Output Power With Dimensions and Substrate Clamping

Abstract

An understanding of the power that can be harvested from pyroelectric materials and its dependence on material properties, geometry and boundary condition is crucial to the design of energy harvesting devices using these materials. In this paper, simple analytical expressions are developed for ideal voltage, power and power densities as a function of pyroelectric constant, permittivity, surface area, thickness, temperature variation and rate of change for unclamped samples. Experiments are performed to specifically study the effect of geometry and are compared with theoretical predictions.

A modified figure of merit for pyroelectric energy harvesting

“…It is of interest to note that compared to the voltage (Fv) and current (Fi) responsivities, the harvesting FOM, FE, does not include the volume heat capacity. Atulasimha et al [19] have also provided a simple but effective analysis of the influence of harvested power on factors such as geometry, clamping conditions and material properties.…”