Piezoelectric energy-harvesting power source and event detection sensors for gun-fired munitions

This paper presents a review of piezoelectric based energy harvesting devices and their charge collection electronics for use in very harsh environment of gun-fired munitions. A number of novel classes of such energy-harvesting power sources have been developed for gun-fired munitions and similar applications, including those with integrated safety and firing setback event detection electronics and logic circuitry. The power sources are designed to harvest energy from firing acceleration and vibratory motions during the flight. As an example, the application of the developed piezoelectric based energy harvesting devices with event detection circuitry for the development of self-powered initiators with full no-fire safety circuitry for protection against accidental drops, transportation vibration, and other similar low amplitude accelerations and/or high amplitude but short duration acceleration events is presented. The design allows the use of a very small piezoelectric element, thereby allowing such devices to be highly miniaturized. These devices can be readily hardened to withstand very high G firing setback accelerations in excess of 100,000 G and the harsh firing environment. The design of prototypes and testing under realistic conditions are presented