A MEMS based piezoelectric vibration energy harvester for fault monitoring system

Normally, the ambient vibrations demonstrates low acceleration amplitude (< 1 g) and low frequency (60–300 Hz), so most researchers focus on the study of the low frequency vibration energy harvester at present. However, the power output of the low frequency vibration energy harvester is low and thus difficult to meet the application requirement. In this paper, a MEMS based piezoelectric vibration energy harvester was designed and fabricated for the application of the fault monitoring system for ship engine which vibrates at high acceleration amplitude and high frequency. Firstly, the vibration characteristics of the ship engine was tested. Under normal operating conditions, the vibration frequency and acceleration of the ship engine are 600–700 Hz and 2–4 g, respectively. And then a MEMS based high frequency piezoelectric vibration energy harvester was designed under the vibration environment. Finally, the designed harvester was fabricated and evaluated. The voltage and power output of the fabricated harvester is 5.81 V and 660.1 μW, which meet the application requirements of the fault monitoring system.