Energy Harvesting with Piezo Actuators

First Steps Towards a Self-Sufficient Energy Supplier

PI Ceramic: Does a machine vibrate? Does a plate or a pipe oscillate? In that case, the released energy could be used to locally supply an electronic component with energy and thus dispense with batteries! In this way, for example, wireless sensors can monitor entire plants even in difficult-to-access places and thereby support automation.

The energy from vibrations and oscillations can be utilized with the piezoelectric effect. The sturdy, plastic-laminated DuraAct piezo transducers from PI Ceramic (PIC) are ideally suited to this. They are easy to handle and process even displacements in the millimeter range. At the same time, they are especially reliable and durable.

A newly available evaluation set contains corresponding transducer and storage electronics in addition to the piezo element. The energy harvesting system works in a wide frequency range from a few hertz to several thousand hertz. For a short time, it achieves an electrical output power of up to the milliwatt range, which can be tapped at a stable output voltage of between 1.8 and 5 V. This can be used to operate many commercially available electric circuits and systems.

Once a system has been successfully qualified, it can then be optimized for a specific application: The size and frequency range of the piezo transducer can be adjusted to the application, and the electronics can be adapted as desired.

Since 1992, PI Ceramic (PIC) has been developing and manufacturing piezo ceramic materials and components for standard and OEM solutions: Piezo components, ultrasonic transducers, actuators, and system solutions. The PICMA® multilayer actuator technology, which received an award for its reliability, is one of many innovations of PIC. PI Ceramic, a subsidiary of PI (Physik Instrumente), is located in the city of Lederhose, Thuringia, Germany.