Design Optimization of Cantilever Based MEMS Piezoelectric Energy Harvester

Abstract

Vibration based piezoelectric energy harvester has become an important area because of its simplicity in design, operation and fabrication of devices using MEMS technology. Energy harvesting provides unending sources of energy for low power electronics such as wireless sensor nodes where replacement of batteries is not practically possible. Piezoelectric energy harvesters are widely considered because of their compact design, compatibility to MEMS devices and ability to respond to a wide range of frequencies freely available in the environment. In this paper a model for cantilever based piezoelectric energy harvester is proposed, designed and optimized using COMSOL multiphysics 4.2a (licenced version). Simulation results were obtained by applying pressure of 1 bar on the top surface of cantilever generating potential of 0.0524 volts.