A linear piezoelectric actuator that utilizes the elliptical motion of the two tips of the actuator is proposed. This device is easy to fabricate owing to its simple structure, consisting of three piezo ceramic benders and is suitable for use in micro robotic applications. A π-shaped structure, which was composed of four piezo ceramic benders, was constructed. Two of the benders were positioned on the center of the actuator, and the joints were attached at the ends of the cantilever. The other two benders were positioned on the side of the actuator and were attached between the joint and the tips. The actuator structure was designed to obtain the first bending mode of the horizontal vibration and the vertical vibration at the same frequency, resulting in elliptical motions at the tips. When two sinusoidal wave voltages with a 90-degree phase difference were applied to the two pairs of the actuator benders, elliptical motions were obtained at the tips. The driving characteristics of the prototype actuator were then measured using a laser doppler vibrometer.

Energy harvesting characteristics of trapezoidal piezoelectric cantilever generator, which has a lead zirconate titanate (PZT) laminate film, were compared by longitudinal (3-3) and transverse (3-1) modes. The PZT laminate film, fabricated by a conventional tape casting process, was cofired with Ag electrode at 850℃ for 2 h. A multi-layered Ag electrode by a planar pattern and an interdigitated pattern was applied to the PZT laminate to implement the 3-3 and 3-1 modes, respectively. The energy harvesting performance of the 3-3 mode trapezoidal piezoelectric cantilever generator was better than that of the 3-1 mode. An extremely high output power density of 26.7 mW/cm³ for the 3-3 mode was obtained at a resonant frequency of 145 Hz under a load resistance of 50 ㏀ and acceleration of 1.3 G, which is ~3-times higher than that for the 3-1 mode. Therefore, the 3-3 mode is considered significantly efficient for application to high-performance piezoelectric cantilever generator.

A unimorph piezoelectric cantilever generator with an interdigitated electrode (IDE) was developed for vibration energy harvester applications driven in the longitudinal mode. Hard lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramic with a high Q_m of 1,280 was used as the piezoelectric active material. Ten PZT sheets produced by tape casting were laminated and co-fired with an Ag/Pd IDE at 1,050℃ for 2 h. The approximately 280 μm-thick co-fired PZT laminate with the IDE was attached to a stainless steel substrate with an adhesive epoxy for the fabrication of an IDE unimorph cantilever. Its energy harvesting characteristics were evaluated: an output power of 1.1 μW at 120 Hz across the resistive load of 700 k□ was obtained, corresponding to a normalized power factor of 4.1 μW/(G²·cm³).

In this study, we fabricated a micro Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT) film piezoelectric cantilever with a Si proof mass and dual beams through MEMS process. The size of the beam and the integrated Si proof mass were about 4,320 μm × 290 μm × 12 μm and 1,380 μm × 880 μm × 450 μm each. To reduce the air damping and have the larger displacement of dual beams was used for design. After mounting micro PZT film piezoelectric cantilever on shaker, we measured the resonance frequency and a output voltage while making resonant frequency changed. The resonant frequency and the highest average power of the cantilever device were 110.2 Hz and 0.36 μW each, at 0.8 g acceleration and 23.7 kΩ load resistance,respectively.

We fabricated piezoelectric unimorph cantilever generators (UCG) using Pb(Zr0.54Ti0.46)O3 + 0.2 wt% Cr2O3 + 1.0 wt% Nb2O5 (PZCN) piezoelectric thick films, which were produced by a tape casting method. The PZCN thick films were tailored with same width and thickness but different lengths from 7.7 to 57.7 mm in order to evaluate optimized UCG for energy harvesting device applications. When the length of PZCN film was increased, the resonance frequency of UCG was slightly increased from 7 Hz to 8 Hz, which could be due to enlarged area of the highly stiff piezo-ceramic film. However, the output power was proportionally increased with the length of PZCT film and it reached 4.68 mW (1.221 mW/cm3) when the film`s length was 57.7 mm under 25 g of tip mass at 8 Hz, which is sufficient for micro-scale device applications.

Spring supported piezoelectric cantilever structures (SPCS) were fabricated for vibration-based energy harvester application. We selected four elastic springs (A, B, C, and D type) as cantilever`s supporter, each elastic spring has a different spring constant (S). The C type of SPCS (SC: 4,649 N/m) showed a extremely low resonance frequency of 81 Hz along with the highest power output of 38.5 mW while the A type of SPCS (SA: 40,629 N/m) didn`t show a resonance frequency while. Therefore, it is considered that the lower spring constant lead to a lower resonance frequency of the SPCS. In addition, a tip mass (18 g) at one end of the SPCS could further reduce the resonance frequency without heavy degradation of power output.

A road energy harvester was designed and fabricated to convert mechanical energy from the vehicle load to electrical energy. The road energy harvester is composed of 16 piezoelectric cantilevers. We fabricated prototypes using a vehicle load transfer mechanism. Applying a vehicle load transfer mechanism rather than directly installing energy harvesters under roads decreases the area of road construction and allows more energy harvesters to be installed on the side of the road. The power generation amount with respect to the vehicular velocity change was assessed by installing the vehicle load transfer mechanism form and underground form. The energy harvester installed in the underground form generated power of 4.52mJ at the vehicular velocity of 50 km/h. Also, power generation of the energy harvester installed in the vehicle load transfer mechanism form was 48.65mJ at the vehicular velocity of 50 km/h.

A road energy harvester was designed and fabricated to convert mechanical energy from the vehicle load to electrical energy. The road energy harvester is composed of 24 piezoelectric cantilevers and a vehicle load transfer mechanism. Applying a vehicle load transfer mechanism rather than directly installing energy harvesters under roads decreases the area of road construction and allows more energy harvesters to be installed on the side of the road. The power generation amount with respect to the vehicular velocity change was assessed by installing the vehicle load transfer mechanism and the energy harvester in the form of speed bumps and underground. The energy harvester installed in a speed bump form generated power of 7.61 ㎽at the vehicular velocity of 20 km/h. Also, power generation of the energy harvester installed in the underground form was 63.9 ㎽at the vehicular velocity of 28 km/h. Although the number of piezoelectric cantilevers was reduced by 1/3 to 24 in comparison to the previous research results with 72 piezoelectric cantilevers, similar power generation characteristic value was obtained within the vehicular velocity of 20 km/h by altering the vehicle load transfer mechanism and cantilever vibration method.

A cantilever-type piezoelectric generator has advantages of simple structure, ease of fabrication and large displacement by transverse vibration of a beam. It is easy to control the natural frequency, and also possible to increase the output power by changing the length, width, and thickness of the generator. In particular, the length increases, the natural frequency sharply decreases, and vice versa. Hence, the natural frequency can widely be controlled by using change in the length of elastic body. In this paper, the generator was designed and fabricated to change natural frequency using the slides of the case. In addition, the generating characteristics were confirmed through finite element analyses and vibration experiment. As a result, the maximum output characteristics could be generated due to resonance phenomenon although any frequency of external force was applied.

Piezoelectric energy harvester (PEH) as a box type was fabricated in order to harvest mechanical energy imparted to roadways from passing vehicles and convert it into electricity. The PEH was composed of 72 piezoelectric cantilevers with 9 springs with elasticity stick to a bottom of the PEH. For the single piezoelectric cantilever, when a single push with approximately 5 mm displacement was incident to it, power of 0.355 mW was produced at 100 kΩ. It is found that the power from the single piezoelectric cantilever increases when spring constant is high. We investigated power of PEH when the moving vehicle passes in it. Power was increased with increasing vehicle speed. When vehicle speed is 30 km/h, power is 20.6 mW.

In this work, we designed and fabricated a multilayer thin film Pb(Zr,Ti)O(3) cantilever with a Si proof mass for low frequency vibration energy harvesting applications. A mathematical model of a multi-layer composite beam was derived and applied in a parametric analysis of the piezoelectric cantilever. Finally, the dimensions of the cantilever were determined for the resonant frequency of the cantilever. We fabricated a device with beam dimensions of about 4,930 μm × 450 μm × 12 μm, and an integrated Si proof mass with dimensions of about 1,410 μm × 450 μm × 450 μm. The resonant frequency, maximum peak voltage, and highest average power of the cantilever device were 84.5 Hz, 88 mV, and 0.166 μWat 1.0 g and 23.7 Ω, respectively. The dimensions of the cantilever were determined for the resonance frequency of the cantilever.