PIEZO-ELECTRIC ENERGY HARVESTING

A Seminar Report

Submitted by

MANPREET SINGH
99150340014

In partial fulfilment for the award of the degree

of

BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY

IN

Electrical Engineering

At

GIANI ZAIL SINGH CAMPUS COLLEGE OF ENGGINEERING &

TECHNOLOGY

MAHARAJA RANJIT SINGH PUNJAB TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

BATHINDA

NOVEMBER 2018
 ABSTRACT
In this era of increasing energy costs and decreasing supplies of fossil fuels, emphasis on
protecting the environment and creating sustainable forms of power have become vital, high
priority projects for modern society. Thus we developed the Energy Harvesting or the Energy
Scavenging systems.Energy Harvesting systems are used to harvest the normally lost
environmental energy and to convert it into electrical energy. This approach can be attractive
where batteries are a bottleneck for the whole system (e.g. they have a finite life time and
their replacement or recharge is not feasible or too expensive). An energy scavenging system,
instead, is a theoretically endless energy source. In literature many papers describe
methodologies to realize the energy-scavenger. A lot of them focus on the conversion of the
energy associated to mechanical vibrations since they can be easily found in many
environments. We focus on a Piezoelectric transducer since it is one of the more efficient
systems to convert the energy of mechanical vibrations.

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 CONTENTS
S.No Chapter Page

1. Introduction……………………………………………………………….1
1.1 Objective………………………………………………………………......1-2
2. History……………………………………………………………………..3-5
2.1 Discovery and early research……………………………………………..3
2.2 World war 1 and post war…………………………………………………4
2.3 World war 2 and post war…………………………………………………4-5
3. Piezo-electricity..……………………………………………….………….6-9
3.1 Meaning of Piezo-electricity………………………………………………6
3.2 Various Piezo-electric materials ………………………………………….6-9
3.2.1 Natural Materials…………………………………………………………..6-7
3.2.2 Man-Made materials………………………………………………………7-9
3.2.3 Polymers…………………………………………………………………...9
4. Working ……………………………………………………………………10-12
4.1 Piezo-Electric materials working………………………………………….10
4.2 Working of Piezo-Electric energy harvester circuit ……………………..10-12
5. Piezo-electricity as an alternate energy source …………………………..13
6. Applications………………………………………………………………..13-20
7. Data of Piezo-Electric generation…………………………………………21-23
8. Merits and Demerits……………………………………………………….24
9. Conclusion …………………………………………………………………25
10. References…………………………………………………………………..25-27

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 LIST OF FIGURES
S.No Content Page

1. Fig 1.1 Picture of Jacques Qurie…………………………………………………3

2. Fig 1.2 Picture of Pierre Curie……………………………………………………3
3. Fig 2 Quartz Crystal…………………………………………………………….6
4. Fig 3 Working of Piezo-Electric Material………………………………………10
5. Fig 4 Basic Piezo-Electric harvesting circuit……………………………………11
6. Fig 5 DC-DC Step-Up converter………………………………………………..12
7. Fig 6 Practical Piezo-Electric harvester…………………………………………12
8. Fig 7 Piezo-Electric motor……..……………………………………………….12
9. Fig 8 Power generating side-walk……………………………………………….18
10. Fig 9 Piezo-Electric railway track……………………………………………….18
11. Fig 10 Piezo-Electric Shoe………………………………………………………..18
12. Fig 11 Gyms and Side-walks……………………………………………………..19
13. Fig 12 Mobile Keypad…………………………………………………………….19
14. Fig 13 Floor Mats………...……………………………………………………….20
15. Fig 14 Night Club……………...………………………………………………….20
16. Fig 15 Piezoelectric devices market share overview on applications………..…21
17. Fig 16 Market share in EU………………………………..………………………21

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 LIST OF TABLES
S.No Content Page

1 Table 1 Various Natural and Synthetic Piezo-Electric Materials………………..9

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1. INTRODUCTION
Over the last two decade, several articles have reported the use of transduction mechanisms
for low power generation from ambient vibrations.As stated by Williams and Yates,there are
mechanisms to electric energy conversion that are electromagnetic(P.Glynne-
Jones,etal,2004),electrostatic(P.Mitcheson,etal,2004)and piezoelectric transductions (S. P.
Roundy, et al, 2003).The conversion of mechanical vibration-to-electricity was first investigated
and proposed by (C. B. Williams, et al, 1996). Piezoelectric materials have been used to
transform ambient mechanical vibrations into electrical energy according to the principle of its
(S.P Timoshenko,1953)

Micro Energy Harvesters are small electromechanical devices, which harvest ambient energy
and then convert it into electrical energy. The choice of the source depends primarily on the
specification of the power requirement for an application and design feasibility (K.Finkenzeller,
2003). The process of extracting unused energy from the ambient environment and converting it
into a usable form of electrical energy is known as Energy Harvesting.

With recent growth in the development of low-power electronic devices such as

microelectronics and wireless sensor nodes, piezoelectric materials has received the most
attention for obtaining electric energy from the surrounding environment for their ability to
directly convert vibrations into electrical energy. Rectified electrical energy harvested from
piezoelectric material is very low to operate low-power electronic devices, so an interface circuit
is required, for this many studies have been devoted in the literature to optimize the interfacing
circuit to maximize the power output of a piezoelectric transducer on various resistive loads

1.1 OBJECTIVE

Our main aim is to produce light out of the force or stress applied on the piezoelectric sensor.

This can solve many problems regarding the dependency on the replenishing sources of
energy, by harvesting energy, since the world is in need of energy.

This produced light could be the solution for:

1. Growing need for renewable sources of energy,

2. Reduce dependency on battery power,

3. Lights can be used in automobiles, footwear, etc.

Today, the energy harvesting from light, thermal, magnetic or mechanical energy in
the ambient environment is an important research topic. With recent progresses in wireless,

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sensor systems are being popularly used in various areas, including human body care, bridge
or engine early health monitoring etc.
However, replacement of small power supplies and batteries in sensor systems would be a
tedious task. Therefore, it is quite interesting to supply a small amount of power for sensor
systems from environmental energy.
In addition, because of the shortage in energy sources, people are also seeking
environmental energy to replace part of the electric energy used in daily life. Therefore,
another interesting application is to harvest the mechanical energy from highway or railway
for generating electric energy, which may supply a small to medium amount of power for
powering road lights or even electric motors if there are enough vehicles/trains running.
One of the most effective methods for power harvesting systems is to use
piezoelectric materials to convert mechanical vibration or strain energy to electric energy
based on the piezoelectric effect explosion of research in the area of harvesting energy from
ambient vibrations by using the direct piezoelectric effect. Piezoelectric materials are very
good prospects for mechanical energy conversion because they have a good
electromechanical coupling effect. Piezoelectric energy harvesting devices are also much
simpler than, for example electromagnetic or electrostatic devices.
For these reasons, piezoelectric. During energy harvesting devices have attracted
much attention. Conventional piezoelectric harvesting devices are based on a piezoelectric
unimorph or bimorph cantilever configuration i.e., one or two piezoelectric elements
laminated with one long elastic plate, and they are operated in bending mode. In general,
piezoelectric cantilever type harvesters generate only a very small power output, and they
cannot work under pressure.
In 2004, Uchino’s group at Pennsylvania State University developed a piezoelectric
cymbal transducer which operated in flextensional mode for vibration energy harvesting,
which could work well under a small force load.

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2.HISTORY

2.1 DISCOVERY AND EARLY RESEARCH

The pyroelectric effect, by which a material generates an electric potential in response to a
temperature change, was studied by Carl Linnaeus and Franz Aepinus in the mid-18th century. Drawing
on this knowledge both René Just Haüy and Antoine César Becquerel posited a relationship between
mechanical stress and electric charge; however, experiments by both proved inconclusive.

The first demonstration of the direct piezoelectric effect was in 1880 by the brothers Pierre
Curie and Jacques Curie. They combined their knowledge of pyro electricity with their understanding of
the underlying crystal structures that gave rise to pyro electricity to predict crystal behavior, and
demonstrated the effect using crystals of tourmaline, quartz, topaz, canesugar, and Rochelle
salt (sodium potassium tartrate tetra hydrate).Quartz and Rochelle salt exhibited the most
piezoelectricity.

Figure 1.1 Figure 1.2

Jacques Curie Pierre Curie

The Curies, however, did not predict the converse piezoelectric effect. The converse effect was
mathematically deduced from fundamental thermodynamic principles byGabriel Lippmann in 1881. The
Curies immediately confirmed the existence of the converse effect and went on to obtain quantitative
proof of the complete reversibility of electro-elasto-mechanical deformations in piezoelectric crystals.

For the next few decades, piezoelectricity remained something of a laboratory curiosity. More work
was done to explore and define the crystal structures that exhibited piezoelectricity. This culminated in
1910 with the publication of Woldemar Voigt's Lehrbuch der Kristallphysik (Textbook on Crystal
Physics) which described the 20 natural crystal classes capable of piezoelectricity, and rigorously
defined the piezoelectric constants using tensor analysis.

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2.2 WORLD WAR I AND POST-WAR
The first practical application for piezoelectric devices was sonar, first developed during World War I.
In France in 1917, Paul Langevin and his coworkers developed an ultrasonic submarine detector.]The
detector consisted of a transducer, made of thin quartz crystals carefully glued between two steel plates,
and ahydrophone to detect the returned echo. By emitting a high-frequency pulse from the transducer,

and measuring the amount of time it takes to hear an echo from the sound waves bouncing off an object,
one can calculate the distance to that object.

The use of piezoelectricity in sonar, and the success of that project, created intense development
interest in piezoelectric devices. Over the next few decades, new piezoelectric materials and new
applications for those materials were explored and developed.

Piezoelectric devices found homes in many fields. Ceramic phonograph cartridges simplified player
design, were cheap and accurate, and made record players cheaper to maintain and easier to build. The
development of the ultrasonic transducer allowed for easy measurement of viscosity and elasticity in
fluids and solids, resulting in huge advances in materials research. Ultrasonic time-domain
reflectometers (which send an ultrasonic pulse through a material and measure reflections from
discontinuities) could find flaws inside cast metal and stone objects, improving structural safety.

2.3 WORLD WAR II AND POST-WAR

During World-War-II, independent research groups in the United States, Russia,
and Japan discovered a new class of synthetic materials, called ferroelectrics, which exhibited
piezoelectric constants many times higher than natural materials. This led to intense research to
develop barium titanate and later lead zirconate titanate materials with specific properties for particular
applications.

One significant example of the use of piezoelectric crystals was developed by Bell Telephone
Laboratories. Following World War I, Frederick R. Lack, working in radio telephony in the engineering
department, developed the “AT cut” crystal, a crystal that operated through a wide range of
temperatures. Lack's crystal didn't need the heavy accessories previous crystal used, facilitating its use
on aircraft. This development allowed Allied air forces to engage in coordinated mass attacks through
the use of aviation radio.

Development of piezoelectric devices and materials in the United States was kept within the
companies doing the development, mostly due to the wartime beginnings of the field, and in the interests
of securing profitable patents. New materials were the first to be developed — quartz crystals were the
first commercially exploited piezoelectric material, but scientists searched for higher-performance
materials. Despite the advances in materials and the maturation of manufacturing processes, the United
States market did not grow as quickly as Japan's did. Without many new applications, the growth of the
United States' piezoelectric industry suffered.

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 In contrast, Japanese manufacturers shared their information, quickly overcoming technical and
manufacturing challenges and creating new markets. In Japan, a temperature stable crystal cut was
developed by Issac Koga. Japanese efforts in materials research created piezoceramic materials
competitive to the United States materials but free of expensive patent restrictions. Major Japanese
piezoelectric developments included new designs of piezoceramic filters for radios and televisions, piezo
buzzers and audio transducers that can connect directly to electronic circuits, and the piezoelectric
igniter, which generates sparks for small engine ignition systems and gas-grill lighters, by compressing a
ceramic disc. Ultrasonic transducers that transmit sound waves through air had existed for quite some
time but first saw major commercial use in early television remote controls. These transducers now are
mounted on several car models as an echolocation device, helping the driver determine the distance
from the car to any objects that may be in its path.

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3.PIEZO-ELECTRICITY

3.1 MEANING OF PIEZO-ELECTRICITY

Piezoelectric means “Pressure Electricity”-the generation of electricity by the application of
pressure.Piezoelectricity is observed if mechanical stress is applied to a solid by bending, twisting
or squeezing

3.2 VARIOUS PIEZO-ELECTRIC MATERIALS

3.2.1 Naturally occurring crystals:

 Quartz
 Berlinite (AlPO4), a rare phosphate mineral that is structurally identical to quartz
 Sucrose (table sugar)
 Rochelle salt
 Topaz
 Tourmaline-group minerals
 Lead titanate (PbTiO3). Although it occurs in nature as mineral macedonite,it is synthesized
for research and applications.

Figure 2 Quartz Crystal

The action of piezoelectricity in Topaz can probably be attributed to ordering of the (F,OH)
in its lattice, which is otherwise centrosymmetric: orthorhombic bipyramidal (mmm). Topaz has
anomalous optical properties which are attributed to such ordering.
Bone:-
Dry bone exhibits some piezoelectric properties. Studies of Fukada et al. showed that these
are not due to the apatite crystals, which are centrosymmetric, thus non-piezoelectric, but due
to collagen. Collagen exhibits the polar uniaxial orientation of molecular dipoles in its structure and
can be considered as bioelectret, a sort of dielectric material exhibiting quasipermanent space charge
and dipolar charge. Potentials are thought to occur when a number of collagen molecules are stressed
in the same way displacing significant numbers of the charge carriers from the inside to the surface
of the specimen. Piezoelectricity of single individual collagen fibrils was measured using

6
piezoresponse force microscopy, and it was shown that collagen fibrils behave predominantly as
shear piezoelectric materials.
The piezoelectric effect is generally thought to act as a biological force sensor.This effect
was exploited by research conducted at the University of Pennsylvania in the late 1970s and early
1980s, which established that sustained application of electrical potential could stimulate both
resorption and growth (depending on the polarity) of bone in-vivo. Further studies in the 1990s
provided the mathematical equation to confirm long bone wave propagation as to that of hexagonal
(Class 6) crystals.
Other natural materials:-

Biological materials exhibiting piezoelectric properties include:

 Tendon
 Silk
 Wood due to piezoelectric texture
 Enamel
 Dentin
 DNA
 Viral proteins, including those from bacteriophage. One study has found that thin films of M13
bacteriophage can be used to construct a piezoelectric generator sufficient to operate a liquid
crystal display.

3.2.2 Man-made ceramic :

 Langasite (La3Ga5SiO14), a quartz-analogous crystal
 Gallium orthophosphate (GaPO4), a quartz-analogous crystal
 Lithium niobate (LiNbO3)
 Lithium tantalate (LiTaO3)
Synthetic ceramics
Ceramics with randomly oriented grains must be ferroelectric to exhibit piezoelectricity.The
macroscopic piezoelectricity is possible in textured polycrystalline non-ferroelectric piezoelectric
materials, such as AlN and ZnO. The family of ceramics with perovskite, tungsten-bronze and
related structures exhibits piezoelectricity:
 Barium titanate (BaTiO3)—Barium titanate was the first piezoelectric ceramic discovered.
 Lead zirconate titanate (Pb[ZrxTi1−x]O3 with 0 ≤ x ≤ 1)—more commonly known as PZT,
lead zirconate titanate is the most common piezoelectric ceramic in use today.
 Potassium niobate (KNbO3)

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  Sodium tungstate (Na2WO3)
 Ba2NaNb5O5
 Pb2KNb5O15
 Zinc oxide (ZnO)–Wurtzite structure. While single crystals of ZnO are piezoelectric and
pyroelectric, polycrystalline (ceramic) ZnO with randomly oriented grains exhibits neither
piezoelectric nor pyroelectric effect. Not being ferroelectric, polycrystalline ZnO cannot be
poled like barium titanate or PZT. Ceramics and polycrystalline thin films of ZnO may
exhibit macroscopic piezoelectricity and pyroelectricity only if they are textured (grains are
preferentially oriented), such that the piezoelectric and pyroelectric responses of all
individual grains do not cancel. This is readily accomplished in polycrystalline thin films.
Lead-free piezoceramics
More recently, there is growing concern regarding the toxicity in lead-containing devices
driven by the result of restriction of hazardous substances directive regulations. To address this
concern, there has been a resurgence in the compositional development of lead-free piezoelectric
materials.
 Sodium potassium niobate ((K,Na)NbO3). This material is also known as NKN. In 2004, a
group of Japanese researchers led by Yasuyoshi Saito discovered a sodium potassium niobate
composition with properties close to those of PZT, including a high TC. Certain compositions
of this material have been shown to retain a high mechanical quality factor (Qm ≈ 900) with
increasing vibration levels, whereas the mechanical quality factor of hard PZT degrades in
such conditions. This fact makes NKN a promising replacement for high power resonance
applications, such as piezoelectric transformers.
 Bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3) is also a promising candidate for the replacement of lead-based
ceramics.
 Sodium niobate NaNbO3
 Barium titanate (BaTiO3)—Barium titanate was the first piezoelectric ceramic discovered.
 Bismuth titanate Bi4Ti3O12
 Sodium bismuth titanate NaBi(TiO3)2
So far, neither the environmental effect nor the stability of supplying these substances have
been measured.
III–V and II–VI semiconductors
A piezoelectric potential can be created in any bulk or nanostructured semiconductor crystal
having non central symmetry, such as the Group III–V and II–VI materials, due to polarization of
ions under applied stress and strain. This property is common to both
8
the zincblende and wurtzite crystal structures. To first order, there is only one independent
piezoelectric coefficient in zincblende, called e14, coupled to shear components of the strain.
In wurtzite, there are instead three independent piezoelectric coefficients: e31, e33 and e15. The
semiconductors where the strongest piezoelectricity is observed are those commonly found in
the wurtzite structure, i.e. GaN, InN, AlN and ZnO. ZnO is the most used material in the recent field
of piezotronics.
Since 2006, there have also been a number of reports of strong non linear piezoelectric
effects in polar semiconductors]Such effects are generally recognized to be at least important if not
of the same order of magnitude as the first order approximation.
3.2.3Polymer:
Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF): PVDF exhibits piezoelectricity several times greater
than quartz. Unlike ceramics, where the crystal structure of the material creates the piezoelectric
effect, in polymers the intertwined long-chain molecules attract and repel each other when an
electric field is applied.

NATURAL SYNTHETIC

1.Quartz Zinc Oxide [ZnO]

2.Topaz Lead Zirconate Titanate[PZT]

3.DNA Potasium Niobate[KNbO3]

4.Silk Sodium Tungstate[na2WO3]

5.Dentin Lead Titanate[PbTiO3]

6.Rochelle Salt Langasite[La3Ga5SiO14]

7.Tendon Barium Titanate[BaTiO3]

Table 1 Various Natural and Synthetic Piezo-Electric Materials

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4 WORKING

4.1 Working of Piezo-Electric materials

Under normal conditions thr charges in a piezoelectric material are balanced even if the
material is not symmetrically arranged.The opposite charges cancel each other leaving no net
charge on the crystal. If a mechanical stress is applied on the crystal surface the charges no
longer cancels each other and there will be a net positive or negative charge on the crystal.A
voltage will be produced on the crystal surface across it’s opposite faces and that’s known as
PIEZOELECTRICITY.

By the application of the mechanical pressure we forces the charges out of balance.

Figure 3 Working of Piezo-Electric material

4.2 Working of Piezo-electric energy harvester

DC-DC converter circuits have been implemented to match the actual load to the impedance
of the piezoelectric transducer, thus maximizing the power transfer (G. Ottman, et al, 2002).
Comparison of one-stage and two-stage energy harvesting schemes were studied and
investigated. The results show that one-stage energy harvesting scheme can achieve higher
efficiency than the two-stage scheme as DC–DC converter consume a certain part of collected
energy (M J Guan,et al,2007). The paper is also organized as follows: Section II describes the
modeling of piezoelectric based Energy Harvesting system, such as piezoelectric element, AC-
DC rectifier, temporary storage devices, DC-DC Converter

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 Figure 4 Basic Piezo-electric Harvesting Circuit

Piezoelectric element
The piezo term comes from a Greek word piezein for pressure. Most common type of piezoelectric
material used in energy harvesting applications is lead zircon ate titan ate, piezoelectric ceramic, or piezo
ceramic also known as PZT. When pressure is applied on PZT, it converts the applied pressure into
electrical potential difference, which is irregular function of time (i.e. AC signal) and having very less
amplitude. For converting AC signals to stable DC, an AC to DC full wave rectifier is used.

AC-DC rectifier circuit

The efficiency of full wave bridge rectifier circuit is very low i.e. the forward voltage drop of diode is
higher than the applied input signals. To eliminate this problem, Schottky barrier diodes are used to get
suitable DC voltage. Normal diodes have forward voltage drop of 0.7 volts and Schottky barrier diodes
have forward voltage drop of 0.3 volts. In our research, we have used Schottky barrier diodes to design
AC-DC rectifier circuit. The rectified output is applied to DC-DC step up converter, which provides the
higher output than applied input. Figure shows the proposed block diagram of the AC-DC rectifier.

DC-DC step-up converter

The third block of the energy harvesting circuit is the DC-DC step-up converter and its schematic
diagram shown in Figure.The corresponding block diagram is shown in Figure and results shown. The
development of DC-DC converter provides a boost-up output while input voltage is too low. The
development of DC-DC converter used the DC input (Vin) = 0.133V.The switch (T1) remains in open
state till the maximum mechanical pressure is applied on the piezoelectric element. At that position, the
switch is turn to close position and the capacitance of the piezoelectric element and inductor together
constitute an oscillator working on resonance frequency. The switch is kept closed until the voltage on the
piezoelectric element has been reversed.

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 Figure 5 DC-DC Step Up Converter

Very high energy harvesting capacity at the output can be obtained from this circuit arrangement. The
advantage of new developed DC-DC boost converter is that it is able to increase the DC voltage using
very low input source. We used (T1) transistor and trigger pulse (Tp) is V1=0V, V2=0.8V TD=500us,
TR= 8m, TF=500us, PW=8ms as a switching purpose for open and close of switch. If a large capacitor
(C1) is connected across the load as the output voltage is continuous and Vout becomes the average value
that the voltage across the load can be stepped up by varying the duty cycle and the minimum output
voltage is Vin when duty cycle = 0. We used inductor (L1) of 100mH for storage the current, Resistor
(R1) is 100kΩ used for the better output, we used capacitor (C1) of 10uF for storing voltage and
providing filtering actions. Finally we achieve the output voltage Vout of 4.29 V after using the DC-DC
converter (Step-up).

Figure 6 Practical Piezo-Electric harvester

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5. Piezo-Electricity as an alternate source

Redirecting routes to integrate the principle of piezoelectric devices to urban roads is

significant, at this stage. Focusing on the transition of energy to piezoelectric integrated roads,
a renewable energy harvesting method, will lead the next power generation into a feasible and
more reliable source of energy.

The term Energy Harvesting or Renewable Energy, such as solar panels or wind turbine, is a
method of producing electrical energy by utilizing the energy surrounding the environment from
the sun and wind, for example . However, energy formed from various vibration machines,
objects in motion, or any other source of mechanical energy is not being captured. Therefore, this
source of energy is dispersed and thus wasted. As an effective method to utilize this loss,
piezoelectric material is used to absorb the wasted mechanical energy and convert it to electrical
energy .

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6.APPLICATIONS
Due to the intrinsic characteristics of piezoelectric materials, there is a wide range of
applications such as sensors, actuators, crystal oscillator, ultrasonic application, piezo-motor ect.
Sensors and actuators have great importance in instrumentation and automotive sectors. Crystal
oscillator is used in almost all microprocessor based systems. Before 2010 demand of piezo
electric devices was very high but material productions are not significant. Now piezoelectronics
is experiencing the fastest growth. Here some of the applications fields and respective examples
are explained. Some of the examples are explained later in detail.

1.As High Voltage Power Source

Some piezoelectric substances like quartz can generate potential differences of thousand
volts, during sufficient mechanical stress is applied. This high voltage pulse can be used to
generate spark, micro scale energy harvesting, piezoelectric transformer. Following are some
examples of uses-

 LPG stove Lighter and Cigarette lighter

 Energy harvesting in micro scale
 Piezoelectric transformer

Advantages:-

 This method of creating spark doesn’t require any power source like battery.
 High voltage pulse can be generated without any electrical instrument.

Disadvantages:-

 Only the disadvantage is that voltages only can be produce in form of pulses.

2.Sensors and Actuators:

Piezoelectric materials can be used to convert pressure, acceleration, temperature, strain or
force direct to electrical emf. Hence the above parameters can be sensed or measured by means
of such materials. Piezoelectric sensors are versatile tools for the measurement of various
processes. They are used for quality assurance, process control and for research development in
many industries. Generally after 1950 piezoelectric effect was started to be used as sensors and
transducers. Some of the examples of piezo sensors are given below-

 High precision piezoelectric microphones

 . Electric guitar pickup
 Piezoelectric micro balance (very sensitive chemical and biological sensors)
 Electronic drum pad VI. Pressure sensors
 Accelerometer
 In automobile Engine Management Systems(Knock sensor, Vibration sensor)

An actuator is the mechanism by which a control system acts upon an environment. Actuator
operated by a source of energy typically electric current, hydraulic fluid pressure or pneumatic

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pressure and converts that energy to motion. In piezoelectric actuators converse effect is used.
By applying voltage the material changes its shape and this concept can be used to provide
pressure in micro scale at very high precision than hydraulic and pneumatic pressure. We can use
this technology to control operating of small nozzles (ink jet printer), micro scale movement. The
advance version of piezoelectric actuator is amplified piezoelectric actuator. These don’t require
any lubricants . Some examples-

 Loud speaker (voltage causes the vibration of piezoelectric polymer film)

 In high precision microscope for movement of lenses III. Inkjet printer (to drive the
ejection of ink towards paper)
 X ray shutter
 Camera lens movement

Advantages:

 Accuracy is very high than other sensors.

 Construction is easy.
 Actuators don’t need lubricants due to absence of moving parts.

Disadvantages:

 The actuators may require voltages of 100v range.

 Only micro scale movement is possible.

3.As Frequency standard:

Some piezoelectric crystals like quartz vibrate in a defined natural frequency when pulse is
applied. They use both direct and reverse piezoelectric effect. As the result of vibration they
provide reverse pulse. The mechanism can be used to mark the time and hence can be used as
frequency standard

 General quartz clock

 Crystal oscillator to provide reference clock pulse to microprocessor based devices.

4.Sonic and ultrasonic applications:

By providing voltage pulse of high frequency to a piezoelectric material film it vibrates in
frequency providing sonic and ultrasonic sound wave which can be used for

 Underwater submarine detection

 Ultrasound in medical technology
 Metal fault detection

5.Piezoelectric motor:
Although piezoelectricity was a known concept “Ultrasonic piezoelectric motor” was a
completely new concept during 21st century. A piezoelectric motor or piezo motor is a type of
electric motor based upon the change in shape of a piezoelectric material when an electric field is

15
applied. Piezoelectric motors make use of the converse piezoelectric effect whereby the material
produces acoustic or ultrasonic vibrations in order to produce a linear or rotary motion due to
friction. Different types of motors such as Speed and precision motor, Stepper motor, low speed
and high torque motor have respective different designs and principle of operation but basic
mechanism is same as described above.

Piezoelectric motors are used in sigh precision rotation and linear movement such as

 Movement of camera lens

 Rotation of radar
 Very small scale valve control
 Laser movement in case of biomedical modern operations

Advantages:

Negligible effect from external magnetic or radioactive fields, and also no generation of these
fields

 High resolution and high accuracy

 Rapid response, dynamic range of 4kHz
 Wide range of angular steps and angular velocities
 Scalable customizable design

Disadvantages:

 Necessity for a high frequency power supply

 Large scale devices are impossible

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 Other Future Applications

Human civilisation needs development of technology and development of technology needs

more energy production. The country is regarded as more developed which has more energy
(electrical energy) production. There are many ways of electrical energy production that may be
from renewable or non-renewable energy sources. Renewable energy sources are now being
encouraged by govt because they are pollution free. Some of them are solar, tidal, wind ect.
These can be generated either in large or in small scale. When we go for small scale energy
generation battery comes first, but battery is chemical powered and causes harm to our
environment. Although we can’t get rid of batteries but we can make its use limited. Hence
rechargeable batteries are being used. Batteries require charging, replacement and other
maintenance efforts. For example, in the applications such as villages, border areas, forests, hilly
areas, where generally remote controlled devices are used, continuous charging of the microcells
is not possible by conventional charging methods .So, some alternative methods needs to be
developed to keep the batteries full time charged and to avoid the need of any consumable
external energy source to charge the batteries.

To resolve such problems, Energy harvesting technique is proposed as the best alternative.
There exists variety of energy harvesting techniques but mechanical energy harvesting happens
to be the most prominent. This technique utilizes piezoelectric components where deformations
produced by different means are directly converted to electrical charge via piezoelectric effect.
Subsequently the electrical energy can be regulated or stored for further use. The proposed work
in this research recommends Piezoelectricity as an alternate energy source. The motive is to
obtain a pollution-free energy source and to utilize and optimize the energy being wasted.We
know that when stress is applied on a piezoelectric material, electrical emf is produced.The
output voltage obtained from a single piezoelectric crystal is in milli volt range, which is
different for different crystals. And the wattage is in microwatt range.So in order to achieve
higher voltages, the piezoelectric crystals can be arranged in cascading manner, that is, in series.
The energy thus obtained is stored in lithium batteries or capacitors. This is the working principle
behind piezoelectric energy harvesting system.At first we have to find out the sources of
vibration at which we can put piezoelectric material for electricity production. Followings are
some of sources of vibration

A. Power Generating Sidewalk

The piezoelectric crystal arrays are arranged underneath pavements, sidewalks and other high
traffic areas like highways, speed breakers for maximum voltage generation. The voltage thus
generated from the array can be used to charge the chargeable Lithium batteries, capacitors etc.
These batteries can be used as per the requirement.

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 Figure 8 Power generating sidewalk

B. Railway Track
We all must have seen the vibrating rails when train goes on it. This is one of the best
examples of source of vibration. Hence there we can use the piezoelectric energy harvesting
concept at stations.

Figure 9 Piezo-Electric railway track

C. Power Generating Boots or Shoes

In United States Defense Advance Research Project Agency (DARPA) initiated a innovative
project on Energy harvesting which attempts to power battlefield equipment by piezoelectric
generators embedded in soldiers' boots. However, these energy harvesting sources put an impact
on the body. DARPA's effort to harness 1-2 watts from continuous shoe impact while walking
were abandoned due to the discomfort from the additional energy expended by a person wearing
the shoes.

Figure 10 Piezo-Electric Shoe

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D. Gyms and Workplaces
Researchers are also working on the idea of utilizing the vibrations caused from the machines
in the gym. At workplaces, while sitting on the chair, energy can be stored in the batteries by
laying piezoelectric crystals in the chair. Also, the studies are being carried out to utilize the
vibrations in a vehicle, like at clutches, gears, seats, shock-ups, foot rests.

Figure 11 Gyms and Side-walks

E. Mobile Keypad and Keyboards

The piezoelectric crystals can be laid down under the keys of a mobile unit and keyboards.
With the press of every key, the vibrations created can be used for piezoelectric crystal and
hence can be used for charging purpose. Now smart phones are coming with touch screens but it
can be applied to computer keyboards.

Figure12 Mobile Keypads

F. Floor Mats, Tiles and Carpets

A series of crystals can be laid below the floor mats, tiles and carpets which are frequently
used at public places, dance clubs. When a bulk of people use this dance floor, enormous amount
of voltage is generated which can be used to power the equipments of the night club.

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 In Netherlands, Rotterdam’s new club WATT has a floor that harnesses the energy created by
dancer’s steps. Designed by Dutch company called the Sustainable Dance club, the floor is based
on the piezoelectric effect. As club goers dance on floor, the floor is compressed by less than half
an inch. It makes contact with the piezoelectric material under it and generates around 2-20 watts
of electricity which is being used to lighten up the decorated floor LEDs.

Figure 13 Floor Mats

GNight Clubs

Several nightclubs, mostly in Europe have already begun to power their strobes and stereos
using the force of hundreds of people pounding on piezoelectric lined dance floors

Figure 14 Night Club

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7.DATA OF PIEZO-ELECTRIC GENERATION
One of the most widely used smart materials is piezoelectric materials because of their wide
band width, fast electro mechanical response, relatively low power requirements and high
generative forces. Figure 1 presents a market review on piezoelectric materials corresponding to
their applications and market share (%) in 2007.

Figure 15 Piezo-Electric devices market share

As it can be seen in Figure 15, information technology/robots is the leader of the market with
31.7% global market share while acoustic devices and resonators have the lowest share in the
market with 3.1%. The others in the global market between these two applications can be given
from high market share to low; semiconductor manufacturing and precision machines (18.6%),
sonar (12.5%), bio/medical (11.1%), ecology and energy harvesting (7%), accelerators and
sensors (5.8%), non-destructive testing (5.7%) and miscellaneous which includes gas igniters,
piezo printing heads and telecommunication devices (4.5%). It has been reported by Innovative
Research and Products (iRAP) Inc. that the global market for piezoelectric devices equals to
US$10.6 billion and a high growth is expected over a 5-year period and to reach a value of
US$19.5 billion by 2012.

Figure 16 Market share in EU

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 Energy harvesting applications for piezoelectric devices is less than 10% however it can change
dramatically if the importance of piezoelectric materials is recognised for alternative energy from
nature with zero carbon foot print.

Piezoelectric behaviour was first found in some crystals. According to historical reviews on
piezoelectricity Charles Coloumb was the first person who theorized in 1817 that electricity may
be produced by the application of pressure to certain types of materials. However, it was only a
notion until the actual discovery of the “direct-piezoelectric phenomenon” on quartz by Pierre
and Jacque Curie. They placed weights on the crystals and detected some charges on the surface
and also observed that the magnitude of detected charge was proportional to the applied weight.

Lippmann predicted that if a material could generate electrical charge when a is pressure
applied, the reverse effect may be possible so that a mechanical strain could be developed when
an electrical charge is applied and this notion was then supported by Curie brothers’
experimental results . These two domains had been known as “direct pressure-electric effect” and
“converse pressure-electric effect” until Hankel suggested the name “piezoelectricity”.
Piezoelectricity comes from the Greek words “piezo” and “electricity” that the word “piezo” is a
derivative of a Greek word which means “to press” and “electricity” has the same meaning as
English word “electricity”.

Piezoelectric effect exists in two domains; namely, direct piezoelectric effect and converse
piezoelectric effect. Direct piezoelectric effect describes the ability to convert mechanical energy
to electrical energy which is also known as generator or transducer effect while the converse
piezoelectric effect describes the ability of transforming electrical energy to mechanical energy
which is also known as motor/actuator effect. The electrical energy generated by direct
piezoelectric effect can be stored to power electronic devices and it is known as “energy/power
harvesting”.

Piezoelectric materials are member of ferroelectrics so that the molecular structure is oriented
such that the material exhibits a local charge separation, known as electric dipole. Electric
dipoles in the artificial piezoelectric materials composition are randomly oriented, so the material
does not exhibit the piezoelectric effect. However, the electric dipoles reorient themselves when
a strong electrical field is applied.

The orientation is dependent on the applied electrical field which is known as poling. Once the
electric field is extinguished, the dipoles maintain their orientation and the material then exhibit
the piezoelectric effect so that an electrical voltage can be recovered along any surface of the
material when the material is subjected to a mechanical stress. However, the alignment of the
dipole moments may not be perfectly straight because each domain may have several allowed
directions. The piezoelectric property gained is stable unless the material is heated to or above its
Curie temperature (Tc). However, it can be cancelled by the application of an electric field that is
opposite to the direction of the material.

The sun is the most abundant renewable energy source in the World. The solar energy which
the Earth receives in an hour is greater than the energy consumed in a year. If we need to present

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the situation by numbers, the received solar power is about 120,000 Terawatts while the global
energy consumption is about 13 Terawatts.

The importance of renewable energy generation increases significantly with an increase in

global warming, air and water pollution etc. The most of the European countries have started
using PV cells for their electrical energy need. Figure 6 clearly shows the dramatic increase in
the PV cell production in Europe over a 10-year period. Increasing demand on the solar cell
production has shown a steady increase since 2000. This may be a result of the increased
awareness of global warming and the need for using environmentally friendly materials and
techniques. The number of solar cell production in EU countries was more than doubled in a year
between 2009 and 2010.

Figure shows the projected solar power generation in European countries. It is clear that the
largest solar power generator is Germany followed by Italy, Czech Republic and France.
Although Spain is known as a sunny country, the production of power from solar cells is almost
20 times less than that of Germany. Mostly dull and cloudy countries like Latvia and Estonia
pointed as “Rest of the EU” in the figure and United Kingdom have much lower solar power
generation and their portion is under 1%.

Photovoltaic effect was first observed by Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel in 1839 when he

subjected an AgCl electrode in an electrolyte solution to the light. The word “photo” is a Greek
word used for light and “voltaic” named after Alessandro Volta. The beam of sunlight contains
photons which may contain different amount of energy related to the different wavelengths of the
solar spectrum. When a photovoltaic material is exposed to sunlight, photons may be reflected,
absorbed or transmitted. Only the absorbed photons with energy greater than the bandgap energy
can generate electricity by causing the

Global Warming – Impacts and Future Perspective

Breakage of covalent bonds and dislodging of the electrons from the atoms of the cell. The
free electrons start moving through the cell and during this movement they create and fill in the
cell’s vacancies to generate electricity. The ability of materials to absorb photons and convert
into electricity is known as photovoltaic effect . Two fundamental processes of PV effect, light
absorption and charge separation, are the basis of all inorganic PV cells.

The proportion of sunlight energy is significant for the conversion efficiency of a PV cell
which converts sunlight energy to electrical energy. The efficiency of PV energy is important to
make PV energy competitive with more traditional sources of energy, such as fossil fuels. For
comparison, the earliest PV devices converted about 1%-2% of sunlight energy into electric
energy. Today, it is likely to produce photovoltaic structures made of pure silicon with 24.7%
efficiency however, due to the rigidity of silicon based solar cells and pursuit of light weight and
flexible photovoltaic materials for curved structures, applications are limited. Photovoltaic
materials based on conjugated polymers, due to ease of processing, low-cost fabrication, being
light weight and flexible, are evolving into a promising alternative to silicon based solar cells.

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7.MERITS AND DEMERITS

 MERITS
 It’s a pollution free source of power generation.
 It can be used at any remote place.
 It minimises the use of other pollution causing sources.
 The centralization of power is minimised.
 Saves money.
 Reduces environment pollution

 DEMERITS
 It needs constant inspection.
 Its operation is effected at higher temperatures.
 Maintenance is difficult.
 Crystals are prone to damage due to overstress.
 They can pick-up stray voltages.

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8.CONCLUSION
Piezoelectricity is not a new concept in engineering but it is a revolutionary concept in the
field of sensors and transducers. Now we can find the use of piezoelectricity not only in every
individual houses but in many industries, aeronautics, automobiles ect. There are also some of
the concepts those need to be developed such as piezoelectric accelerometer, motor, underwater
acoustic transducers, piezoelectric transformers ect. As piezoelectricity is a simple concept and
materials are easy to produce, Indian industries should take a step towards it. This is not only
related to electrical and electronics but also very much related to mechanical engineering.
Mechanical strain gauges, micro scale displacement sensors, small valve switches, sensitive
balance are possible only due to piezoelectricity. There are some lead free piezoelectric materials
which can replace those materials having lead and hence it will be eco-friendly

When the pressure is applied on the face of the device, there is a deformation of charge carriers
inside the crystals which will result in Electric field, and therefore an Electric potential is
developed across the face, and this electric potential is used to produce electric current which is
used to glow the lights, LED,s, and further this we can charge the battery of our mobile or cell
phones by connecting the device to the cell phone via. some USB Device.The ability of
piezoelectric equipment to convert motion from human body into electrical power is
remarkable.It is a great hope that energy harvesting will rule the next decade in the technical
field.We thereby conclude upon the project by generating light out of the stress applied on the
piezoelectric material.This can solve many problems regarding the dependency on batteries, also
to harvest energy , since the world is in need of energy.

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[4]Some Energy Harvesting Research @NUS.

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