Vibration-based MEMS Piezoelectric Energy Harvester for Power Optimization

The simplicity associated with piezoelectric micro-generators makes them very attractive for MEMS applications in which ambient vibrations are harvested and converted into electric energy. These micro-generators can become an alternative to the battery-based solutions in the future, especially for remote systems. In this paper, we propose a model and present the simulation of a MEMS-based energy harvester under ambient vibration excitation using the COVENTORWARE2010 approach. This E-shaped cantilever-based MEMS energy harvester that operates under ambient excitation in frequencies of 28, 29, and 31 Hz within a base acceleration of 1g produces an output power of 0.25 milliwatts at 5kΩ load.