Increasing Energy-harvesting ability of piezoelectric unimorph cantilevers using Spring Supports

Abstract

We fabricated a spring-supported piezoelectric unimorph cantilever (SPUC) with enhanced energy-harvesting characteristics by using a 0.69Pb(Zr0.47Ti0.53)O3–0.31Pb(Ni0.6Zn0.4)1/3Nb2/3)O3 + CuO (0.5 mol%) thick film sintered at 950 °C; a spring having a spring constant of 14,320 N/m was used as the cantilever support. The SPUC could generate an output power as high as 29 mW with a spring constant of 14,320 N/m across a resistance of 150 kΩ; this corresponded to a power density of 34 mW/cm3. We, therefore, that the thus-fabricated SPUCs when supported by a spring can harvest increased levels of energy.