The performance evaluation method is a very important part in the field of vibration energy harvesting. It provides the ability to compare and rate different vibration energy harvesters (VEHs). Considering the lack of a well-recognized tool, this article proposed a new systematic figure of merit for the appraisement of wideband VEHs. Extensive investigations are first performed for some classic figures for linear VEHs. With the common fundamental information obtained, the proposed figure integrates four essential factors: the revised energy harvester effectiveness, the mechanical quality factor, the normalized bandwidth and the effective mass density. Special considerations are devoted to the properties of wideband VEHs about the operation range and the average power in this domain which are related to the performance target of stable power output. Afterward, this new figure is applied to some literature VEHs and demonstrated to present good evaluations of wideband VEHs. Moreover, it exhibits the ability to point out the improvement information of the concerned VEHs further developments.
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