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2013 UKSim 15th International Conference on Computer Modelling and Simulation

Shape Optimization of Cantilever-based MEMS Piezoelectric Energy Harvester for Low Frequency Applications
Salem Saadon
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, CEDEC Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Pinang, Malaysia saadonsalem@yahoo.com

Othman Sidek
Collaborative Microelectronic Design Excellence Center (CEDEC) Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Pinang, Malaysia Othman@cedec.usm.my

Abstract The ambient vibration-based micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) piezoelectric harvester has become an important subject in most research publications. Providing a green and virtually infinite alternative power source to traditional energy sources, this harvester will significantly expand the applications of wireless sensor networks and other technologies. Using piezoelectric materials to harvest the ambient vibrations that surround a system is one method that has seen a dramatic rise in the power-harvesting applications. 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 approaches. This E-shaped cantilever-based MEMS energy harvester that operates under ambient excitation in frequencies of 12.8, 17.1, and 21.3 Hz within a base acceleration of 1 m/s2 produces an output power of 1.0 W at 2k load. KeywordsPiezoelectric materials; Energy conversion; shaped cantilever; MEMS

I. INTRODUCTION The exibility associated with piezoelectric materials makes them very attractive for power harvesting. Piezoelectric materials possess a large amount of mechanical energy that can be converted into electrical energy, and they can withstand large strain magnitude. Many methods have been reported to improve the harvested power of micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) micro-generators. One of these methods is the selection of a proper coupling mode of operation, which involves two modes. The first mode, called 31mode, considers the excited vibration force being applied perpendicular to the poling direction (pending beam). The other mode is called the 33mode in which the force is applied on the same side as the poling direction. Between the two modes, the 31mode is the most commonly used, which produces a lower coupling coefficient k than the 33mode.

The second method to improve harvested power requires changing the device configuration, accomplished by adding multiple piezoelectric materials to the harvester. Johnson et al. [1] demonstrated that, a highest power could be generated using this configuration under lower excitation frequencies and load resistance. Two combinations of the bimorph structures are possible, namely, the series and the parallel types. Series and parallel triple-layer bimorph structures were presented by Ng and Liao [2, 3], The series triple-layer bimorph was made of a metallic layer sandwiched between two piezoelectric materials, and the piezoelectric patches were electrically connected in series. For the parallel triple-layer bimorph, which was also sandwiched between two piezoelectric layer bimorphs, the piezoelectric materials were connected in parallel. The parallel triple-layer bimorph generates the highest power under medium excited frequencies and load resistance, whereas the series triple-layer bimorph produces the highest power when excited under higher frequencies and load resistance. The series connection method will increases the device impedance as well as improve the delivered output power at higher loads. Several researchers have carried out studies to improve the bimorph efficiency. Jiang et al. [4] investigated a bimorph cantilever with a proof mass attached to its tip. Their results showed that reducing the bimorph thickness and increasing the attached proof mass decreased the harvester resonant frequency and produced a maximum harvested power. Similarly, Anderson and Sexton [5] found that varying the length and width of the proof mass affected the output of the harvested power. The cantilever geometrical structure also plays an important role in improving the harvesters efficiency. Rectangular-shaped cantilever structures are most commonly used in MEMS-based piezoelectric harvesters. They are easy to implement and effective in harvesting energy from ambient vibrations, as proposed in the review paper by Saadon and Sidek [6]. However, the study conducted by Mateu and Moll [7] showed that a triangular-shaped cantilever beam with a small free end can withstand higher strains and allows

978-0-7695-4994-1/13 $26.00 2013 IEEE DOI 10.1109/UKSim.2013.125

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maximum deections, resulting in higher power output compared with the rectangular beam with the width and length equal to the base and height of the corresponding triangular cantilever beam. Roundy et al. [8] discovered that the strain on a trapezoidal-shaped cantilever beam can be more distributed throughout its structure. They also observed that, for the same volume of lead zircon ate titan ate (PZT), the trapezoidal cantilever beam can deliver more than twice the energy than the rectangular-shaped beam can. Similarly, Baker et al. [9] experimentally tested a nearly triangular trapezoidal-shaped cantilever beam, along with a rectangular-shaped beam of the same volume. They found that 30% more power could be achieved using the trapezoidal beam than that using the rectangular one. Another method of improving the efficiency of a power harvester is by tuning the device so that its resonant frequency matches the ambient vibrationresonant frequency. Shahruz [10, 11] designed a power harvester that can be resonated at various frequency ranges without the need for any adjustment. This device consisted of different cantilever beams with different lengths and different tip masses attached to its common base frame such that each cantilever has its own resonant frequency. This configuration resulted in a mechanical band-pass filter, which led to the increase in size and cost of the device. Rastegar et al. [12] designed a passive tuning system that had a two-stage system in which a very low frequency (0.2 Hz to 0.5 Hz) can be converted into potential energy and then transferred to the system at a higher natural frequency. Similar works on the modeling, design, fabrication, and simulations of shaped cantilevered structure MEMSbased piezoelectric power harvesters were conducted by other authors [1329]. II. TYPICAL CANTILEVERED-BASED MEMS HARVESTER To achieve an optimal output power of the cantilevered harvester, the resonant frequency should be taken into consideration. The dimensions of the cantilever and the mass decide the desirable resonant frequency of the harvester. Any slight deviation from the resonant frequency will cause a large reduction in the output power of such harvester. Thus, this resonant frequency should be calculated carefully to match the excitation frequency of the harvester and meet the optimal conditions for its output harvested power, which is the main objective of this paper. To determine the value of resonant frequency of any cantilevered piezoelectric energy harvester, important parameters should be defined from its structure as denoted on figure1.

Fig. 1. Typical MEMS-based cantilevered piezoelectric energy harvester

Usually, the resonant frequency of a piezoelectric cantilever expressed by Equation 2.1 [30]

Where n and n are the nth mode of the resonant frequency and the eigenvalue respectively, l is the cantilever length, E is the modulus of elasticity (Youngs modulus), I is the area moment of inertia about the neutral axis, and m is the mass per unit length of the cantilever. Equation 2.1 can be rewritten in terms of the bending modulus per unit width (Dp) as follows:

A cantilever consists of two different material layers. Thus, the mass per unit area (m) is calculated by the sum of the products of the density and thickness of each layer. ptp is the product of the density and thickness of the piezoelectric layer, whereas sts is the product of the density and thickness of the support layer. As expressed by [31], the bending modulus Dp is a function of both Youngs moduli and the thicknesses of the two layers, i.e.,

Where Ep and Es are the Youngs moduli of the two materials, whereas tp and ts are the thicknesses. The purpose attaching a proof mass at the tip of the cantilever is to lower its resonant frequency and to provide a large displacement at the cantilever tip. The resonant frequency in this case is calculated by Equation (2.5) [30]

Where , K, and me are the angular frequency, the spring constant at the tip, and the effective mass of the cantilever, respectively. The resonant frequency approximation when the size of the attached proof mass is smaller than the cantilever length is expressed in [31] as,

whereas the effective mass me = Where 0.236mwl by considering the axial velocity that acts on the length or the width (w<<l). The spring constant K can be written as,

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When the center of the proof mass has a concentrated load, its distance is lm/2 from the tip, and the effective spring constant at this point is expressed in Equation (2.8) [32]

A. Materials declaration Some materials were already defined previously can be found in the materials database folder of the program, where as some materials could be filled by the users. Two materials have been used in this design, such as Silicon and Lead zircon ate titan ate (PZT), whereas all the supported layer and the mass are of the same material (Si) due to the higher density of silicon, and a high electromechanical coupling of PZT compared to other piezoelectric materials. Two main materials have been used throughout all processes, namely, PZT and silicon; their significant properties are presented in Table 1.
TABLE I MATERIAL PROPERTIES

Therefore, by substituting the spring constant (K) in Equation (2.7) with the effective spring constant (K), the resonant frequency of the cantilever with a proof mass is expressed by Equation (2.9)

Thus, the low resonant frequency of the cantilever beam can be determined either by increasing the cantilever length or by attaching a larger proof mass at its tip. Based on the previously mentioned equations, the design of a cantilever-based piezoelectric harvester demands a beam with high mechanical strength against vibration, as well as a higher mass density to meet the highefficiency requirement.

Materials PZT Silicon

Density (kg/m3) 7.55e-15 2.5e-15

Modulus of Elasticity (MPa) 8.9e+4 1.69e+5

Poissons ratio 0.25 0.3

B. Modeling processes The masks are shown on the process editor window, all thicknesses of the layers are edited sequentially according to their location at the proposed design of the harvester from down to up. The process name can be directly selected from the left side menu of the process editor as shown in figure 3.

III. MODELING OF E-SHAPED CANTILEVER-BASED MEMS ENERGY HARVESTER

Fig. 2. Typical design flow

Fig. 3. Process editor of E-shaped cantilever

The finite element analysis was performed within coventorware 2010, this program allows the user to edit the materials database by inputting user-defined values for the material properties as shown at step (1) of the design flowchart shown in figure 2. All the mentioned steps will be explained in details throughout the design and simulation steps on the coming sections.

C. Two dimension design creation The top view of the harvester is shown in Fig. 4, where the cantilever lengths are equal to 6.832 2.180 mm, and the three proof masses have equal thicknesses and widths but different lengths.

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Fig. 4. X-Y dimensions of E-shaped cantilever

The mask layers are arranged from down to top according to the process modeling shown in figure 4. The purpose of the anchor fixed at the substrate surface to support all the cantilever layers of the system. Where as each layer properties was defined previously at the process editor window and their lengths and widths can be reading in microns due to the implemented rulers at the X-Y dimensions. This structure of the harvester is similar to the arrayed cantilever based structure of the previously discussed structures of several researchers, but in fact, here the proposed structure is more different, such that the coated piezoelectric layer PZT is deposited along all the supported layer structure, while in the case of arrayed cantilever is deposited separately to each section of the array. D. Three Dimensions Model and finite element Meshing In this paper, the design of a shared PZT layer and silicon (support layer) suspended with different sizes of silicon proof masses at the tip were used to construct an Eshaped cantilever harvester, as shown in Fig. 5(a). The thicknesses of the silicon-support layer, the PZT layer, and the proof masses are 10, 5, and 20 m, respectively. The effect of the shared piezoelectric layer laid between the E-shaped cantilever branches connected to the different proof masses at their tips decreases the overall resonant frequency of the harvester to meet the excited lower frequency of the ambient vibration. Figure 5(a) shows the Coventor2010 design module. Figure 5(b) shows that the three-dimensional model of the harvester used in this design is the mesh type Manhattan bricks.

Fig. 5. E-shaped Piezoelectric Energy harvester: (a) three dimensional design model, and (b) Mesh model using Manhatan bricks.

E. Boundary conditions The applied force and acceleration as boundary conditions that affect the deflection magnitude of the cantilever depends upon the proof mass size connected to the tip end and the base acceleration of the harvester. The acceleration in this case adjusted to 1.0 m/s2 as a base acceleration. Three different values of load resistances were connected across the upper and lower surfaces of the piezoelectric material PZT, those have values from 100 Ohms to several kilos Ohms to control the variation of the power harvested according to different loads.

IV. SIMULATION RESULTS Using the Analyzer/MemMech module of the COVENTORWARE, all boundary conditions should be declared successfully before performing the analysis. Further, the connected loads across the lower and upper surfaces of the piezoelectric material should be defined. The results from the MemMech module were compared with the analytical results and showed that both methods yielded similar electrical and mechanical behavior of the harvester. In this case, connected output loads of 100, 500, 1,000, and 2,000 were used to determine the effect of the short- and open-circuit conditions of the output current and power of this harvester. The damping factor of = 0.01 was estimated.

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In the COVENTORWARE, the base excitation simulations were constrained by some specific magnitudes of acceleration; in this case, the base acceleration was 1 m/s2. A. Modal harmonic analysis results

The main benefits of this E-shaped cantilever structure is the deflection effects of one cantilever part on the other adjacent parts of the E-cantilever which will generate a wide frequency band as well as more power harvested can be achieved due to a high strain that can be developed. B. Output voltage, current and power

In this type of analysis, each branch of the cantilever has its own resonant frequency where the maximum deflection can be achieved at a modal damping coefficient of 0.01. The mode frequencies due to these three branches are 12.8, 17.1, and 21.3 Hz, indicated as mode_1, mode_2, and mode_3, respectively, as shown in Fig. 6. The lower frequency excitation at ambient vibrations in this frequency band will be captured and converted into electrical power, a method that can be applied to select more than one input frequency, as used in previously published works.

By increasing the magnitude of the load across the harvester output terminals, the current magnitude was also reduced gradually from 4 A across the 100 to 0.02 A across the 2 k load resistance at the 15 Hz first mode resonant frequency, as shown in Fig. 8(a). The output power was reduced from 15 W to 1 W at the same resonant frequency of the harvester due to an increasing in the load resistances, as shown by the response curve in Fig. 8(b). The output voltage fluctuated between two peak values of 0.05 V to remain at approximately 0.1 V peak-to-peak among all the natural frequencies of the harvester, as shown in Fig. 8(c).

Fig. 6. Frequency modes of E-shaped cantilever

The generalized displacement results obtained from these three modes with respect to the frequency variations can be shown as a three different color curves plotted in figure 7.

Fig. 7. Tip mass displacement vs. frequency

8. Graphical output response: (a) output current, (b) output power, and (c) output voltage with time variation.

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V. CONCLUSIONS The Analyzer/MemMech model predicts that the maximum obtained output voltage was in the open circuit limit, the limit that actually simulated using TiePotential Surface BC. This reported output voltage from the Analyzer/MemMech simulation is about 0.45 volts, which gives an agree results compared to other researchers using MEMS scale simulations. The power through the resistor is the more important in this paper, since the maximum power is produced at the loads below the open circuit limits, the base acceleration amplitude will affect the power limitations of the harvester. The Analyzer/MemMech prediction is 0.25 milliwatts across the load of 5 kilo-ohms. Thus, by increasing the cantilever branches will increase the frequency band of the harvester, but causes more difficulties in MEMS fabrication process. ACKNOWLEDGMENT This work is supported by Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) fellowship and the Postgraduate Research Grant Scheme (PRGS), 1001/PELECT/8044039. REFERENCES
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