850 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 57, NO.

3, MARCH 2010
Kinetic Energy Harvesting Using Piezoelectric and
Electromagnetic TechnologiesState of the Art
Alireza Khaligh, Senior Member, IEEE, Peng Zeng, Student Member, IEEE, and Cong Zheng, Student Member, IEEE
AbstractThis paper presents the latest progress in kinetic
energy harvesting for wide applications ranging from implanted
devices and wearable electronic devices to mobile electronics and
self-powered wireless network nodes. The advances in energy
harvesters adopting piezoelectric and electromagnetic transduc-
tion mechanisms are presented. Piezoelectric generators convert
mechanical strain on the active material to electric charge while
electromagnetic generators make use of the relative motion be-
tween a conductor and a magnetic ux to induce charge in the
conductor. The existent kinetic piezoelectric generators including
human-powered and vibration-based devices are comprehensively
addressed. In addition, the electromagnetic generators which in-
clude resonant, rotational, and hybrid devices are reviewed.
In the conclusion part of this paper, a comparison between the
transduction methods and future application trends is given.
Index TermsElectromagnetic, energy harvesting, human
motion, kinetic energy, piezoelectric.
I. INTRODUCTION
T
HE MINIATURIZATION and decrease in power con-
sumption give rise to the popularity of new paradigms
of electronics, such as implanted and wearable electronic de-
vices, as well as wireless network sensors and nodes. All these
applications have a strong demand for being battery free and
self-powered because of the difculty to access the batteries or
the labor and high cost to replace a large number of batteries.
Until now, many potential solutions such as solar cells, micro-
fuel cells, microturbine generators, etc., have been introduced.
Among them, the kinetic energy harvesting owns the advantage
of being clean, stable, and of small size in comparison with
others.
This paper reviews the kinetic-energy-harvesting devices,
which capture the mechanical movement energy through piezo-
electric or electromagnetic transducers. In most machines and
biology systems, kinetic energy always exists in the form
of vibrations, regular or random displacements, and driving
forces. Vibrations also widely exist in household goods, moving
structures such as automobiles and airplanes, and structures
such as buildings and bridges, as well as human motion [1].
This paper is organized as follows. Section II is focused on
piezoelectric energy harvesting. Human-powered piezoelectric
generators, vibration-based cantilever piezoelectric generators,
Manuscript received February 19, 2009; revised May 27, 2009. First pub-
lished June 10, 2009; current version published February 10, 2010.
The authors are with the Energy Harvesting and Renewable Energies Lab-
oratory, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Illinois Insti-
tute of Technology, Chicago, IL 60616 USA (e-mail: khaligh@ece.iit.edu;
pzeng@iit.edu; czheng3@iit.edu).
Color versions of one or more of the gures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TIE.2009.2024652
and other piezoelectric-generator structures are addressed in
Section II. Section III presents the basic principles of electro-
magnetic energy harvesting. Resonant, rotational, and hybrid
generators are reviewed in Section III. Finally, the conclusion
of this paper is presented in Section IV.
II. PIEZOELECTRIC ENERGY HARVESTER
Piezoelectric materials have been used to convert mechanical
energy into electrical energy for a long time. So far, varieties of
piezoelectric generators have been proposed based on different
operation methods.
A. Human-Powered Piezoelectric Generator
To date, harvesting power from body motion for implantable
and wearable electronics has been studied extensively. Human
motion has the characteristics of large-amplitude movements
at low frequencies. The rule of thumb states that the smaller
the size of the object, the higher its resonant frequency will be.
Therefore, it is difcult to design a miniature resonant energy
scavenger to work on humans. As a result, for most piezoelec-
tric generators in human applications, the piezoelectric patch
is coupled either through direct straining or by impacting the
kinetic driving source.
Previous studies have shown that, for a 68-kg person walking
with a speed of 2 steps/s and a heel movement of 5 cm, the
maximum power that can be generated is 67 W [2]. However, if
the interference with the gait brought by the energy-harvesting
devices is taken into consideration, the energy extracted from
walking will obviously decrease. In the aforementioned case,
with a mechanical power loss of 75%, electromechanical ef-
ciency of 50%, electrical power loss of 10%, and daily rate of
16.6%, the theoretical limit of piezoelectric energy harvesting
is approximated to be 1.265 W [3].
The rst energy-harvesting devices based on human walking
for wearable electronic applications were fabricated by the
Media Lab at Massachusetts Institution of Technology (MIT)
in the late 1990s [4][6]. Researchers rst developed a sneaker
insole made of a laminate of polyvinylidene uoride (PVDF)
foil with the shape of an elongated hexagon, as shown in Fig. 1.
This stave is a bimorph built around a central 2-mm exible
plastic substrate; the top and bottom layers are sandwiched
eight-layer stacks of 28-m PVDF sheets [4].
It took advantage of the bending movement of football to
produce charge on the electrodes on either sides of the PVDF
sheet working in d
31
mode. At a bending frequency of 0.9 Hz
on football, the PVDF foil produces an average power of
0278-0046/$26.00 2010 IEEE
KHALIGH et al.: ENERGY HARVESTING USING PIEZOELECTRIC AND ELECTROMAGNETIC TECHNOLOGIES 851
Fig. 1. Layout of PVDF sneaker insole [4].
Fig. 2. Schematic of the PZT bimorph [5].
1.3 mW when connected to a resistive load of 250 k. Further-
more, Shenck and Paradiso [5], [6] developed a lead zirconate
titanate (PZT) bimorph installed at the heel of a Navy work
boot to harvest the parasitic energy of heel strike. Its structure
is shown in Fig. 2.
The bimorph is comprised of two Thunder TH6R piezoelec-
tric transducers manufactured by Face International Corpora-
tion [5]. The TH6R with a 5 cm5 cm15 m PZT strip
(70-nF capacitance) is bonded to a 5 cm8.5 cmstrip of spring
steel using a NASA-patented polyimide adhesive LaRC-SI.
The PZT and steel layers own the different thermal expansion
capabilities, which results in a naturally curved structure with
the PZT layer being compressively stressed. As the heel of the
shoe hits, the transducers are forced to deform, and as the heel
is lifted, the transducers spring back into their original shape
[7]. The PZT bimorph structure can produce an average power
of 8.4 mW when connected to a 500-k resistive load under the
up-and-down heel movement with a frequency of 0.9 Hz.
The analytical modeling of PVDF inserts has been carried
out by Mateu and Moll [8], and a PZT unimorph similar to
that shown in Fig. 2 has been modeled by Yoon et al. [9].
For PVDF inserts, under similar test conditions, the simply
supported asymmetric bimorph beam with a distributed load
can generate the maximum strain, and the power harvested is
the highest [8]. A large ratio of the thickness of the substrate to
the PVDF layer is preferred. In the case of the PZT unimorph,
more power can be generated by increasing the length over an
augment of the width [9]. Similar to the case of the PVDF beam,
a thicker substrate layer is preferred.
Fig. 3. Impact-coupling-type piezoelectric energy scavenger [10].
In addition, through the direct straining method, impact cou-
pling has been proposed for a piezoelectric transducer designed
for human applications. Renaud et al. [10] came up with such
a device comprising a movable mass conned within a xed
frame but free to slide along the groove and nally strike the
free points of the piezoelectric cantilever beams installed on
both ends of the groove to harvest the impacting energy. As
described in [11], the power level of the kinetic scavenger
can further be increased by implementing a holding force,
which lets the mass move only when the frame has reached its
maximum acceleration. As shown in Fig. 3, the holding force
is implemented by placing magnets on both sides of the frame
and using a ferromagnetic inertial mass.
The frame was 12 mm long along the sliding groove and
10 mm wide. The inertial mass was 2 mm long, 10 mm wide,
and 5 mm thick and had a mass of 750 mg. The model proposed
in [10] with a numerical solution based on the KuttaMerson
algorithm predicted that the device with a volume approaching
1 cm
3
would generate up to 40 W of useful electrical power
when positioned on the wrist of a walking person, in which case
the excitation amplitude is approximately of 10 cm at 1 Hz with
an acceleration magnitude of 0.1 m/s
2
.
Possibly the rst practical study of power-scavenging sys-
tems for implantable applications was made by Hausler and
Stein in 1984 [12]. In this investigation, the implanted PVDF
lms were used to abstract energy from the relative motion of
the ribs when respiring. In their animal experiments, the PVDF
generator was xed to the ribs of a mongrel dog, and a peak
voltage of 18 V was measured with the spontaneous breathing,
and an output power of 17 W was transferred into the resistive
load.
Another in vivo application of a piezoelectric energy scav-
enger is to extract energy from the uctuation of blood pressure
with each pulse. A design study made by Ramsay and Clark
[13] uses a square PZT-5A membrane to extract energy from
the uctuating blood pressure. For the typical blood-pressure
change of 40 mmHg at a frequency of 1 Hz, the expected
power output from a 1-cm
2
plate is calculated for a range of
thicknesses from 9 to 1100 m, along with the power output
from a 9-m-thick plate for a range of areas. The modeling
results show that a maximum power of 2.3 W can be obtained
by maximizing the area and minimizing the plate thickness. In
addition, an investigation of circular and square PVDF plates
for use in harvesting energy from changes in blood pressure has
been carried out by Sohn et al. [14]. The nite-element method
852 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 57, NO. 3, MARCH 2010
Fig. 4. Diagram of the piezoelectric bimorph beam generator [19].
(FEM) is adopted to evaluate the power generation from both
circular and square PVDF membranes. A circular diaphragm of
5.56-mmradius and an optimumthickness of 9 mis capable of
producing 0.61 W while a 10 mm10 mm square membrane
of thickness of 110 m produces 0.03 W. The results obtained
from the FEM are veried to be accurate by comparing with the
corresponding results obtained from the theoretical analysis. In
addition, experiments were undertaken by pulsing 28-m-thick
membranes at a frequency of 60 Hz by 5333-N/m
2
uniform
pressure. Output powers of 0.34 and 0.25 W are generated
for the circular and square plates, respectively.
B. Vibration-Based Cantilever Piezoelectric Generator
A piezoelectric cantilever beam is the most common geome-
try for harvesting energy from vibrations. It can be in the form
of unimorph with one piezoelectric layer on top of the beam or
in the form of bimorph with each piezoelectric layer on both the
up and down surfaces of the beam, respectively. The cantilever
structure provides low resonant frequencies, reduced further by
the addition of a mass at the end of the beam, in a low-volume
structure and high levels of strain in the piezoelectric layers [7].
The bimorph piezoelectric cantilever beam generator has
been developed and mathematically modeled by Roundy et al.
[1], [15], [16]. As shown in Fig. 4, the prototype generator
was fabricated by attaching a PZT-5A layer to each side of a
steel center shim of constant width with a proof mass made by
nickel and tungsten alloys at the free end. The driving vibration
condition is set to be 2.5 m/s
2
of input acceleration at 120 Hz,
which were found to be the typical values of the vibration
occurring in ofce buildings, manufacturing environments, and
homes. The maximum output power of the prototype is 80 W
under the 250-k resistive load. The equivalent circuit model
of such piezoelectric cantilever generator is proposed (Fig. 5),
whose analytical result has been veried to be in acceptable
agreement with that of the aforementioned experiments. This
model was then used as a basis to optimize the generator design
dimensions within an overall size constraint of 1 cm
3
. Two
designs were built from PZT-5H attached to a 0.1-mm-thick
central brass shim purchased from Piezo System, Inc. One
design using a PZT layer of 0.28-mm thickness, 3.2-mm width,
Fig. 5. Equivalent circuit model of the piezoelectric bender generator [16].
and 11-mmbeamlength produced as much as 375 Wof output
power with an input acceleration of 2.5 m/s
2
at 120 Hz. The size
of the tungsten proof mass is 471.3 mm
3
. Based on the stress
equilibrium across the beam, the dynamic motion equation can
be expressed as [15]

0 1 0

k
m

b
m
m
kd
31
2mt
c
0
2t
c
d
31
Y
p

1
R
L
C
b

S
V

0
1
k
2
0

y
(1)
where S is the average strain across the beam, V is the
output voltage, k = (Y
p
/k
1
k
2
) is the equivalent spring con-
stant, and k
1
and k
2
are constants with the expressions
of k
1
= (b(2l
b
+ l
m
l
e
))/(2I) and k
2
= (l
2
b
/3b)((2l
b
+
(3/2)l
m
)/(2l
b
+ l
m
l
e
)), respectively. I is the bending sys-
tems effective moment of inertia with the expression of I =
2[(wt
3
p
/12) + wt
p
b
2
] + (
s
wt
3
sh
/12), where w, t
p
, t
sh
, b, l
b
,
l
m
, and l
e
are the geometric parameters of the cantilever
beam, shown in Fig. 4,
s
= Y
sh
/Y
p
is the ratio of the elastic
constant, i.e., Youngs modulus, for the piezoelectric mate-
rial Y
p
to the elastic constant for the center shim Y
sh
. Further-
more, it has been proved that, at an resonant angular frequency
of =
_
k/m, the maximum output power is derived as
P
PZT, max
=
1
2
C
p
_
Y
0
t
p
k
2
_
2
Y
p

m
_
_
_

m
k
2
31
_
2
+ 1 + 1
_ (2)
at an optimal resistor load of
R
L,opt
=
1
C
p
2
m
_
4
2
m
+ k
4
31
(3)
where m is the mass of the proof mass, Y
0
is the amplitude of
the driving vibration,
m
is the mechanical damping ratio, and
k
31
is the 31-mode piezoelectric coupling factor. The analytical
equation to describe the relation between the current generated
I
s
and the load resistor R
L
is given as
I
s
= 2
_
1
R
2
L
+
2
C
2
p
_1
2
A
in
Y
p
d
31

t
p
k
2

p
_
_
k
2
31

2
+ 2
m

R
L
C
p
_
2
+ 4
2
m

4
_. (4)
The graphical representation in Fig. 6 shows how the output
current varies with the connected resistance load.
KHALIGH et al.: ENERGY HARVESTING USING PIEZOELECTRIC AND ELECTROMAGNETIC TECHNOLOGIES 853
Fig. 6. I
s
R
L
curve of the of the piezoelectric bender generator.
A similar conguration of piezoelectric cantilever generators
just without a proof mass at the end of the beam has also
been investigated by Sodano et al. [17]. An alternative model
using energy methods and the RayleighRitz procedure is used
to model the constitutive equations of a PZT cantilever beam.
Although no analytical expression of the output power is given
in this paper, the model has been veried by evaluating a
Quick Pack QP40N plate manufactured by Mide Technology
Corporation on a shaker. The device is 38.9 cm
3
in size and
generates a maximum of 500 W into a 15-k resistance at
113 Hz and 9.8-m/s
2
acceleration magnitude. The conclusion
points out that both the mechanical structure and peripheral cir-
cuitry determine the mechanical damping, resonant frequency,
and dissipated power through shunting resistance. The error
ratio between the output current predicted by the model and the
experimental values is as less as 4.61%. Sodano et al. [18] also
fabricated a piezoelectric generator comprising a PSI-5H4E
plate with a volume of 1947 mm
3
bonded to an aluminum plate
with a volume of 3200 mm
3
. It was found that a maximum
power of 11.9 mW could be generated at its resonant frequency
of 30 Hz.
Furthermore, on the basis of the work of Sodano, Shu and
Lien [19] have derived a model for the piezoelectric cantilever
with an inertial mass on the free end, as shown in Fig. 4.
Using the principle of force equilibrium along the beam and
the conventional modal analysis, the governing equations of the
vibrator have been obtained. They have investigated the optimal
acdc power output through a rectied piezoelectric device, as
shown in Fig. 7.
The proposed analytic method demonstrates the better accu-
racy over the in-phase method [20] due to the consideration of
phase difference between the external force and the velocity of
the mass generated by a nonsmall electromechanical coupling.
The normalized power distribution using the in-phase analysis
and the analytic method is shown in Figs. 8 and 9, respectively.
The comparison shows that the in-phase approach fails to
predict the optimal operating frequencies since there are always
two optimal electric loads for each applied frequency [19].
Fig. 7. Standard acdc harvesting circuit with piezoelectric generator.
Fig. 8. Normalized power distribution with in-phase analysis.
Fig. 9. Normalized power distribution with analytic method.
In spite of the rectangular beam, the tapered cantilever
beam has the advantage of keeping a constant strain in the
piezoelectric lm along its length for a given displacement.
Glynne-Jones et al. developed a tapered cantilever as shown
in Fig. 10 [21][23]. Both sides of the 0.1-mm-thick hardened
AISI 316 stainless steel are deposited layers of piezoelectric
material, built through screen printing technology. The piezo-
electric material is a PZT-5H powder blended with Corning
7575 glass and is a suitable thick-lm vehicle to form a
screen-printable thixotropic paste [23]. The thick-lm printing
of the piezoelectric material is a low-cost batch process but
the piezoelectric properties are reduced greatly in comparison
with that of bulk piezoceramics. When loaded by an optimum
333-k resistor, this beam generator, operating in its
854 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 57, NO. 3, MARCH 2010
Fig. 10. Tapered thick-lm PZT generator by Glynne-Jones et al. [21].
Fig. 11. Vibration energy harvester released by MicroStrain, Inc.
fundamental vibration mode at a frequency of 80.1 Hz, pro-
duces a maximum of 3 W of power [22].
MicroStrain, Inc. has commercialized a vibration energy
harvester with a tapered cantilever structure, which produces
about 2000 W at a resonant frequency of 60 Hz. As shown
in Fig. 11, the tapered cantilever structure is designed to be
50 mmlong to create a nearly uniformstrain eld along the PZT
elements. A proof mass of 250 grams was afxed to the end
of the beam. Electrochemical thin-lm rechargeable batteries
were used to store energy and provide continuous power to the
connected wireless sensor node.
The piezoelectric energy harvesting from vibration generated
by the alternating magnetic eld surrounding the power cord
has been investigated by Leland et al. at the University of
California at Berkeley [24]. Linked together through a network
of low-power wireless radios, the system, which consists of
the current monitor sensors powered by such energy scavenger,
would offer a more complete and detailed picture of electric
power end use. The prototype devices were constructed from
cantilever-mount piezoelectric bimorphs and high-strength
NdFeB permanent magnets (PMs) from K&J Magnetics, as
shown in Fig. 12. The magnets couple to the alternating mag-
netic eld surrounding the power cord, driving the bimorph
to generate voltage. The active element was a Piezo Systems
T215-A4SS-103X bimorph measuring 31.8 mm 3.2 mm
0.38 mm. Custom-machined aluminum brackets were fabri-
cated to provide rigid cantilever mounts for the device.
The experiments proved that this device generates 208 W
of power into a 419-k load resistor when coupled to a space
heater cord carrying a root mean square (rms) of 9.4-A current
and 345 W in a 491-k load coupled to an rms of 13-A
current.
Fig. 12. Schematic of energy-scavenging generator device [24].
Fig. 13. Cross-sectional and top views of MITs MEMS-based micro-PEG.
The miniaturization trend of the electronic device increases
the demand for microelectromechanical system (MEMS) de-
vices. A series of MEMS piezoelectric energy generator (PEG)
prototypes have been designed and fabricated by the researchers
at MIT [25][27]. The structure of the cantilever generator and
the electrodes shapes are shown in Fig. 13. The cantilever was
formed from a membrane composed by layers of thermally
grown silicon oxide, deposited silicon nitride, and solgel
deposited zirconium dioxide which acts as a buffer layer. The
interdigitated Ti/Pt electrode pattern was used to convert the
original d
31
mode to d
33
mode whose d
33
coefcient is 2
2.5 times larger than the d
31
coefcient [28]. The top PZT layer
was 0.58 mm thick and was nally deposited using a solgel
process. By undercutting the deposited lms under the PZT
and membrane layer, the beam was formed through a silicon
vapor etch process to avoid sticking effects. A proof mass
was fabricated from a thick layer of polymer SU8 photoresist.
Driven by a fundamental resonant frequency of 13.9 kHz with
about 10-m/s
2
acceleration magnitude, the generator delivered
1.01 W into a 5.2-M load.
In Europe, the vibration energy scavenging group developed
a micromachined MEMS version of the piezoelectric cantilever
[29]. The device, shown in Fig. 14, consists of an inertial mass
of 1.5 mm 0.75 mm area, and the inertial mass is deep
reactive-ion etched from a silicon-on-insulator wafer with a
400-m-thick handle wafer, a 2-m-thick buried oxide, and a
5-m-thick top silicon layer.
The supporting cantilever fabricated from the top silicon
layer has a length of 750 m. The structure has been simulated
for the case of the 1-m-thick layer of aluminum nitride (AlN)
and PZT piezoelectric materials, respectively. The size of the
generator is inferior to 1 mm
3
. The modeling results predict
100 nW for the AlN device and 600 nW for the PZT device at
a resonant frequency of approximately 900 Hz.
C. Other Piezoelectric-Generator Structures
The kinetic piezoelectric energy harvesters are used not only
in typical vibrations but also in uid ows. Ocean Power
Technologies exploited strips of piezoelectric foil to harness
KHALIGH et al.: ENERGY HARVESTING USING PIEZOELECTRIC AND ELECTROMAGNETIC TECHNOLOGIES 855
Fig. 14. Micromachined silicon cantilever mass piezoelectric generator [29].
Fig. 15. Application of energy-harvesting eel in uid ows.
power from owing water, as shown in Fig. 15. The energy-
harvesting eel uses a PVDF membrane located in the wake of
a bluff body to generate electricity. The vortices in the wake
deform the PVDF membrane, which is up to 0.7 mm thick and
0.457 m long [30]. In order to generate enough power, a large-
scale uid ow is required. One of the promising applications
is to power ocean sensor buoys oating in the sea.
Another novel application of piezoelectric generators has
been explored by Schmidt who investigated the harvesting
of electrical power from the wind by mounting piezoelectric
polymers in a windmill. He found that it might be feasible to
design a wind generator based on piezoelectric polymers such
as PVDF which will operate at 1 kHz in the compression mode
at a maximumstrain of 1}%[31]. Considering losses both in the
piezoelectric material and electronic devices, it is theoretically
possible to achieve a power output on the order of 100 W/cm
3
.
Khaligh et al. [32] proposed and analyzed a novel hy-
brid energy-scavenging topology for human-powered mobile
electronics. The structure of the hybrid PZT and PM energy
scavenging is shown in Fig. 16.
In this structure, the moving mass with a PM attached is
connected to four serpentine piezoelectric beams on four sides,
and the copper coil is xed in the middle of the moving mass.
With the human bodys center of gravity up and down, both
the piezoelectric beam and the copper coil will have power
generated. The serpentine beam is 19.6 cm long, 0.4 mm wide,
and 0.18 mm thick. The proof mass is made of tungsten alloy
with 4.9 cm
3
. The turn number of the copper coil is 350. The
analytical model is proposed, and the theoretical computation
points out that, with a vibration frequency of 2 Hz and a
Fig. 16. Topology of hybrid energy scavenger [32].
vibration amplitude of 3 cm, 37 and 6 mW can be generated
from the electromagnetic and piezoelectric parts, respectively.
III. ELECTROMAGNETIC ENERGY HARVESTING
In general, electromagnetic power generators can be clas-
sied into three categories: resonant, rotational, and hybrid
devices, as shown in Fig. 17.
Resonant generators operate in an oscillating mode. They
usually utilize the relatively small displacements between a PM
and a coil to harness power from environmental vibrations.
In contrast, rotational generators operate in the same way as
the operation of large-scale magnetic generators. They have
been designed to operate using rotational power from small tur-
bines or heat engines, which can provide continuous rotational
motion under a steady driving torque. Lastly, hybrid devices
convert linear motion into rotational motion using an imbal-
anced rotor. Based on different operating conditions, the power
generated by rotation from these devices may be continuous,
resonant, or chaotic. Several types of small-scale electromag-
netic power-generation systems have been developed during the
last decade. These are demonstrated and compared in this paper.
A. Resonant Generators
Resonant generators usually operate at relatively low elec-
trical frequencies and, hence, low power densities. The basic
resonant generator consists of a mass mounted on a spring,
which vibrates relative to the housing when driven by an
external vibration force. The mechanical energy of the moving
mass is transformed to electrical energy by having the mass
move a magnet relative to a coil. To achieve maximum power
generation in these types of generators, the input vibration
frequency should match the mechanical resonant frequency.
In 1995, Williams et al. at the University of Shefeld rst
proposed one type of resonant generator for small-scale ap-
plication [33][35]. This resonant generator has dimensions of
5 mm 5 mm 1 mm; this is shown in Fig. 18.
For a typical device, the predicted power generation was
1 W with an excitation frequency at 70 Hz and 100 W at
330 Hz. Later on, they fabricated a generator based on this
design. It comprises a exible circular membrane, which
was bulk micromachined on a GaAs substrate coated with a
7-m layer of polyimide. A SmCo magnet with dimensions of
1 mm 1 mm 3 mm and a weight of 2.4 mg was attached
to the underside of the membrane. The planar Au coil of
13 turns was patterned on a separate wafer. Experimental results
856 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 57, NO. 3, MARCH 2010
Fig. 17. Three different categories of PM power-generator topologies. (a) Resonant generator operating in oscillating mode under vibration force. (b) Rotational
generator operating under steady torque. (c) Hybrid generator to convert linear motion into rotational motion.
Fig. 18. Schematic of the electromagnetic generator by Williams et al. [33].
showed that this device could generate 0.3 W at an excitation
frequency of 4.4 kHz [34]. The measured electrical power
output was lower than the predicted value due to the nonlinear
effects of spring stiffening, which occurred as the excitation
amplitude was increased.
Shortly thereafter, plenty of devices were developed in order
to scavenge energy based on human motion. Amirtharajah and
Chandrakasan at MIT designed a 23.5-cm
3
electromagnetic
generator using off-the-shelf spring, wire, and PM components
[36]. They reported 400 W of power generation for 2-cm
amplitude vibrations at 2 Hz and a successfully powered low-
power digital signal processor circuit. A team from the Uni-
versity of Tokyo investigated a 500-cm
3
prototype generator
which utilizes a variable air gap magnetic yoke [37]. One
unique aspect of their approach was the method of dynamically
switching the electrical load impedance to maintain optimum
output power. An output power of 95 mW was achieved at 6 Hz.
Fig. 19 shows a traditionally manufactured resonant can-
tilever beam design, investigated by a team from the University
of Southampton [38][40]. In one design, a pair of NdFeB PMs
was connected by a U-shaped iron core to provide a steady eld
across an air gap. This magnetic assembly was placed on a
cantilever beam and vibrated with respect to a stationary coil
winding. With a vibration amplitude of only 25 m at 322 Hz,
the 240 mm
3
device presented 0.53 mW of power generation
[38]. Another design with a size of 840 mm
3
and consisting
of four PMs demonstrated a 157-W output power generation
when mounted on the engine block of a car [39].
A group from the University of Illinois at Urbana
Champaign [41], [42] designed a human-powered backpack
generator unit to harness energy from center-of-mass motion
induced by walking. The structure is much similar to that in
Fig. 19(b). The stator was comprised of a back iron made of
Fig. 19. (a) Cross section of beam/PM assembly topology and (b) four-PM-
based generator.
electrical steel and PMs xed on the iron. The slider was a
plastic coil case with a copper coil wound around it. When
walking, the generator placed in the backpack followed the
updown motion of the human shoulder position so that the
slider attached would generate a voltage across the coil. A
prototype device based on the design with ceramic magnets
instead of PMs was fabricated for experimental purposes. Av-
erage power outputs from 90 to 360 mW were achieved for
different walking patterns for a 1-kg swing weight.
Scherrer et al. at Boise State University [43] investigated
the possibility of using low-temperature cored ceramics to
fabricate a compact multilayer screen-printed coil to power an
electromagnetic-energy-harvesting device. A cross section of
the device is shown in Fig. 20. The coil consisted of 96 tape
layers containing a total of 576 turns. It was held in between two
copper beryllium springs and was designed to move vertically
under an input excitation, thereby cutting the ux lines of four
externally mounted magnets. The springs act as a pathway for
extracting the electrical energy out of the coil and through the
housing. The theoretical maximum output power was predicted
to be 7 mW, when operated at a resonant frequency of 35 Hz.
A team from the University of Barcelona, Spain [44], re-
ported a device very similar in structure to the original design
of Williams et al. [33][35], which consisted of a printed
circuit board structure with Al coils and a conventional movable
NdFeB magnet mounted on a Kapton membrane. The device
is shown in Fig. 21. The initial prototype device generated
KHALIGH et al.: ENERGY HARVESTING USING PIEZOELECTRIC AND ELECTROMAGNETIC TECHNOLOGIES 857
Fig. 20. Electromagnetic generator reported by Scherrer et al. [43].
Fig. 21. Device reported by the University of Barcelona [44].
0.2 W of power for 6.8-m vibrations at 360 Hz, and an
optimized device is being pursued.
Lastly, there are several commercial products that utilize res-
onant electromagnetic power-generation schemes. Perpetuum,
a U.K. spin-off company from Southampton University, mar-
kets a 130-cm
3
vibration-based harvester tuned to 100- or
120-Hz vibration frequency that delivers 4.5 mW at 0.98 m/s
2
(rms) vibrations [45]. Ferro Solutions Company in the U.S.
offers a similar 77-mm
3
product that can produce 10.8 mW for
0.98-m/s
2
vibrations at 21 Hz [46].
B. Rotational Generators
In comparison with resonant generators, rotational genera-
tors rely on a steady source of rotational mechanical energy
(e.g., from a uid-powered turbine or heat engine). Because
of their relatively smaller size, they often operate at higher
rotational speeds and, hence, higher electrical frequencies com-
pared with resonant generators. These higher speeds enable the
generators to meet or exceed the power density of their large-
scale counterparts.
In 1996, Wiegele proposed a gas-ow-powered planar micro-
turbogenerator intended to be operated as a switched reluctance
power generator [47]. The authors predicted 17 mW of power
output with requirements of at least 4.6 10
3
N m/m (nor-
malized over the thickness of the device) torque to maintain
a constant velocity and, hence, a constant power output and a
reservoir pressure of 29.7 kPa, resulting in an angular velocity
of 70 000 r/min. A prototype 3.5-mm diameter turbine was
fabricated using Lithographie, Galvanoformung, Abformung
(LIGA) in which all structures were electroplated copper. This
design could operate at speeds up to 4.5 kr/min, but the power-
generation portion was never implemented.
More recently, Holmes et al. [48] at Imperial College de-
veloped an axial-ow microturbine power-generation system
Fig. 22. Schematic cross section of the axial-ux PM generator proposed by
Holmes et al. [48].
Fig. 23. Cross section of the PM planar microgenerator proposed by
LEG [49].
Fig. 24. Schematic view of AGS introduced by Seiko in Japan.
utilizing an axial-ux PM generator. The cross section of the
device is shown in Fig. 22.
The fabrication process involved silicon micromachining,
multilayer electroplating for the stator parts, and laser etching
for the SU-8 rotor. Traditional millimeter-size NdFeB PMs
were located in a 7.5-mm-diameter laser-etched SU-8 rotor in
the prototype device. The rotor, supported by conventional ball-
race bearings, was located between the upper and lower halves
of the stator having electroplated Cu windings. In operation, the
rotor magnets generate a time-varying magnetic ux into the
stator coils. The overall machine was 0.042 cm
3
and demon-
strated 1.1 mW of power generation per stator with a rotation
rate at 30 kr/min when placed in an airow of 35 L/min. This
generator demonstrated a power density up to 26.2 mW/cm
3
.
Others have worked on coin-sized three-phase axial-ux PM
generators intended for monolithic integration with microscale
turbine engines. A French team at Laboratoired Electrotech-
nique de Grenoble (LEG) adopted a previously reported planar
brushless micromotor [49] for use as a microgenerator [50]. The
device is based on planar three-phase double-layer electroplated
858 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 57, NO. 3, MARCH 2010
TABLE I
SUMMARY OF PIEZOELECTRIC ENERGY HARVESTERS
Cu coils using deep lithography and silicon etching technique;
this is shown in Fig. 23.
A solid 8-mm-diameter disk of SmCo
5
or NdFeB was
fabricated using microelectrodischarging machining and then
selectively magnetized with north and south poles [51]. The
machine operated similarly to the device by Holmes et al. [48],
but with a mechanically continuous magnetic rotor, rather than
discrete magnets. A prototype microturbogenerator driven by a
combination of air and magnetic bearings produces 14.6 mW
of electric output power at 58 kr/min. Higher speeds and power
KHALIGH et al.: ENERGY HARVESTING USING PIEZOELECTRIC AND ELECTROMAGNETIC TECHNOLOGIES 859
were limited by the small torque provided by the simple turbine.
Therefore, a slightly improved device was tested by utilizing a
high-speed dental drill to spin the rotor, which generated 5 W
at 380 kr/min. Therefore, a power density of 220 W/cm
3
was
observed by this machine.
C. Hybrid Generators
Vibration energy harvesters are attractive because they can
generate power without the requirement of a prime mover
source (turbine or engine). However, in order to create maxi-
mum power generation, the resonant generators are operated at
only one particular frequency and, therefore, are not suitable for
a time-varying frequency vibration. Furthermore, the mechani-
cal resonance of small MEMS resonators may exceed the range
of naturally occurring vibrations (1 Hz1 kHz). Therefore,
nonresonant generator technologies are required in order to
use linear vibrations over a wide frequency spectrum. This
can be achieved using an imbalanced rotor, which will rotate
under forced acceleration of the turning point. Those types
of devices are called hybrid generators because they respond
to resonant mechanical motion but generate power via rotary
machines.
The Automatic Generating System (AGS), introduced in
1988 by Seiko in Japan is a well-established hybrid gener-
ator technology intended to power wrist watches [52][54].
The device is shown in Fig. 24. Human movement causes
imbalanced rotor rotation, and a speed-up gear train increases
the rotational speed by 100 to spin a small PM generator.
The generator comprises a small disklike PM that rotates in a
magnetic armature in order to yield current in a coil winding.
The current is rectied and stored into a capacitor, which sup-
plies the electricity to drive the timekeeping circuits and watch
hand movement. Technical details are not widely available, but
estimates indicate 510 Wof average power generation during
normal human activity [37], [54].
IV. CONCLUSION AND TRENDS
Kinetic-energy-harvesting applications are expanding and
becoming more attractive due to their vast applications. With
the ubiquitous existence of mechanical vibration, power har-
vesting from the environment to replace batteries completely
or partly depends on the applications and the available kinetic
energy resources. Piezoelectric and electromagnetic transduc-
tion methods are two most promising approaches for kinetic
energy harvesting. Both of them have advantages and chal-
lenges to be conquered in the future. Piezoelectric generators
have the advantages of simple structure, easiness to fabricate,
and less peripheral components. Moreover, it is easy to be
integrated into silicon devices and further fabricated with the
microelectronic circuits on the same chip because the process
for depositing both thin and thick piezoelectric lms is a mature
technology. On the other hand, although the output voltage is
very high, the current owing out from piezoelectric generators
is too low to be used due to the very high impedance of such
materials (< 100 k). Table I summarizes the technical ratings
of the existent piezoelectric generators.
The electromagnetic generators can generate high output-
current levels but the voltage is very low (typically < 1 V).
Macroscale devices are readily fabricated using high-
performance bulk magnets and multiturn coils. However, cali-
brating microscale systems is difcult due to the relatively poor
properties of planar magnets, the restrictions on the number of
planar coil turns, and the too small vibration amplitudes. Both
kinetic harvesting techniques have been shown to be capable
of delivering power to the load from microwatts to milliwatts.
With the development of the microelectronic low-power de-
sign and progress of the fabrication process, the harvested
power of such level is possible to drive the microcontroller
units, sensors, or other devices directly. The most promising
applications include ambient intelligence, condition monitoring
devices, implantable and wearable electronics, and wireless
sensor networks.
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Alireza Khaligh (S04M06SM09) received the
B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering (with
highest distinction) from Sharif University of Tech-
nology, Tehran, Iran, and the Ph.D. degree in electri-
cal engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology
(IIT), Chicago.
He is an Assistant Professor and the Director
of the Energy Harvesting and Renewable Energies
Laboratory (EHREL), Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering, IIT, where he has established
courses and curriculum in the area of energy harvest-
ing and renewable energy sources. He was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in
the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois,
UrbanaChampaign. He is the principal author/coauthor of over 70 journal and
conference papers.
Dr. Khaligh is the recipient of the 2009 Armour College of Engineering
Excellence in Teaching Award from IIT. He is also an Associate Editor of the
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY.
Peng Zeng (S07) received the B.S. degree in elec-
trical engineering and the M.S. degree in microelec-
tronics engineering from Xian Jiaotong University,
Xian, China, in 2000 and 2003, respectively. He is
currently working toward the Ph.D. degree in the
Energy Harvesting and Renewable Energies Labora-
tory, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago.
His research work includes the vibration dynamic
system modeling and small-volume high efcient
power-energy-harvesting system design.
Cong Zheng (S07) received the B.Sc. degree in
electrical engineering from Tsinghua University,
Beijing, China, in 2005 and the M.S. degree from
Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, in 2009.