An Optimization of Electrical Output Power for Piezoelectric Energy Harvester using Different Micro-Cantilever Beam Geometries

A MEMS-based piezoelectric energy harvester is capable in producing the electrical output at certain level. The investigation on ability to successfully generating the electrical output power is highly recommended. Accordingly, an optimization on electrical output power based on micro-cantilever beam geometry is presented in this paper via simulation work using COMSOL Multiphysics software. Thus, four different geometries named as PPG 1, PPG 2, PPG 3 and PPG 4 are individually characterized. The simulation result shows the superior performances from PPG 2 which generating 393 mV of output voltage with 39 nA output current, while the output power is 15 nW at 10 MΩ optimal load and 1g vibration amplitude. The excitation frequency for PPG 2 is as low as 60 Hz. Therefore, the modification of micro-cantilever geometry is able to increase the production of electrical output power. (paper)