New high performance vibration energy-harvesting piezoelectric microgenerators for mobile electronics applications. – PIEZO2POWER

Modern electronics is constantly pushing the boundaries of functional integration, which is particularly remarkable in many portable applications in consumer electronics, in particular. As systems continue to shrink, less energy is available on-board, leading to short device lifetime. Research continues to develop higher energy-density batteries but the amount of energy available is not only finite but also low. An increase in the operating life of devices is particularly advantageous for wireless sensor nodes and systems with limited accessibility, such as biomedical implants. With the development of ultra low-power integrated circuits, the need to reduce operating costs for embedded electronic devices, and since used batteries pose a threat to the environment, the concept of energy harvesting has gained a new relevance. Energy harvesting covers the scavenging of many low-grade ambient energy sources and their conversion into useable electrical energy. In particular, energy harvesting from ambient vibrations enables new exciting opportunities for low power nano- and microsystems (MEMS).
This project aims to the development of new high performance vibration energy-harvesting piezoelectric micro-generators. The key points and the specificity of this project are:

- Synthesis of high performance monocrystalline PZT and PMN-PT piezoelectric films on silicon and development of nano-scale AFM piezoelectric characterizations.
- New design of low-frequency resonators and technological development to reduce the stiffness of micro-machined cantilevers by means of the local nanostructuration of silicon.
- Optimization of the energy conversion efficiency by means of synchronized switching harvesting (SSH) techniques, based on nonlinear processing of the piezoelectric voltage.
- System approach for the design of CMOS low power integrated circuits for energy scavenging and for the development of innovative Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) electrical generators.