Vacuum-packaged piezoelectric vibration energy harvesters: damping contributions and autonomy for a wireless sensor system

Abstract

This paper describes the characterization of thin-film MEMS vibration energy harvesters based on aluminum nitride as piezoelectric material. A record output power of 85 µW is measured. The parasitic-damping and the energy-harvesting performances of unpackaged and packaged devices are investigated. Vacuum and atmospheric pressure levels are considered for the packaged devices. When dealing with packaged devices, it is found that vacuum packaging is essential for maximizing the output power. Therefore, a wafer-scale vacuum package process is developed. The energy harvesters are used to power a small prototype (1 cm3 volume) of a wireless autonomous sensor system. The average power consumption of the whole system is less than 10 µW, and it is continuously provided by the vibration energy harvester.