Control of piezoelectric energy harvesting characteristics via the materials properties or geometry modification

Piezoelectric energy harvesting has been attractive for powering the wireless sensor node in Ubiquitous Sensor Networks. The piezoelectric energy harvesting characteristics can be controlled by changing the material properties or material geometry. For example, by changing the material property, the electromechanical coupling coefficient, large electric power can be generated even with the same mechanical energy. Instead of ceramic material, we used the PMN-PT single crystal for the cantilever type energy harvester and characterized the energy harvesting properties of PMN-PT single crystals for different electric boundary conditions. Piezoelectric materials are featured as a small current and high voltage generator. In this presentation, we will show one example to increase the current by making the multi-layer ceramics.