Energy Harvesting is a technology that can convert wasted energy such as vibration, heat, light, electromagnetic energy, etc. into usable electrical energy. Among them, vibration-based piezoelectric energy harvesting (PEH) has high energy conversion efficiency with a small volume; thus, it is expected to be used in various autonomous powering devices, such as implantable medical devices, wearable devices, and energy harvesting from road or automobiles. In this study, wasted vibration energy in an automobile is converted into electrical energy by high-power piezoelectric materials, and the generated electrical energy is found to be an auxiliary power source for the operation of wireless sensor nodes, LEDs, etc. inside an automobile. In order to properly install the PEH in an automobile, vibration characteristics includes frequency and amplitude at several positions in the automobile is monitored initially and the cantilever structured PEH was designed accordingly. The harvesting properties of fabricated PEH is characterized and installed into the engine part of the automobile, where the vibration amplitude is stable and strong. The feasibility of PEH is confirmed by operating electric components (LEDs) that can be used in practice.

Characteristics of a wireless sensor powered by the IDE (interdigitated electrode) embedded piezoelectric cantilever generator were analyzed in order to evaluate its potential for use in wireless sensor applications. The IDE embedded piezoelectric cantilever was designed and fabricated to have a self-resonance frequency of 126 Hz and acceleration of 1.57 G, respectively, for the mechanical resonance with a practical conveyor system in a thermal-power plant. It produced maximum output power of 2.81 mW under the resistive load of 160 Ω at 126 Hz. The wireless sensor module is electrically connected to a rectifier capacitor with capacity of 0.68 farad and 3.8 V for power supply by the piezoelectric cantilever generator. The unloaded capacitor could be charged as a rate of approximately 365 ㎶/s while the capacitor exhibited that of 0.997 mV/min. during communication under low duty cycle of 0.2%. Therefore, it is considered that the fabricated IDE embedded piezoelectric cantilever generator can be used for wireless sensor applications.