Design and Analysis of MEMS Based Aluminum Nitride (AlN), Lithium Niobate (LiNbO&sub&3&/sub&) and Zinc Oxide (ZnO) Cantilever with Different Substrate Materials for Piezoelectric Vibration Energy Harvesters Using COMSOL Multiphysics Software

摘要

Interest in energy harvesters has grown rapidly over the last decade. The cantilever shaped piezoelectric energy harvesting beam is one of the most employed designs, due to its simplicity and flexibility for further performance enhancement. The research effort in t he MEMS Piezoelectric vibration energy harvester designed using three types of cantilever materials, Lithium Niobate (LiNbO _( 3 ) ), Aluminum Nitride (AlN) and Zinc Oxide (ZnO) with different substrate materials: aluminum, steel and silicon using COMSOL Multiphysics package were designed and analyzed. Voltage, mechanical power and electrical power versus frequency for different cantilever materials and substrates were modeled and simulated using Finite element method (FEM). The resonant frequencies of the LiNbO _( 3 ) /Al, AlN/Al and ZnO/Al systems were found to be 187.5 Hz, 279.5 Hz and 173.5 Hz, respectively. We found that ZnO/Al system yields optimum voltage and electrical power values of 8.2 V and 2.8 mW, respectively. For ZnO cantilever on aluminum, steel and silicon substrates, we found the resonant frequencies to be 173.5 Hz, 170 Hz and 175 Hz, respectively. Interestingly, ZnO/steel yields optimal voltage and electrical power values of 9.83 V and 4.02 mW, respectively. Furthermore, all systems were studied at different differentiate frequencies. We found that voltage and electrical power have increased as the acceleration has increased.