Output power of piezoelectric MEMS vibration energy harvesters under random oscillations

Environmental vibrations include random oscillations of different frequencies and amplitudes. Energy harvesters recover the energy associated with these vibrations. Properties of the vibrations and output power are characterized for cantilever-type piezoelectric vibration energy harvesters using (100)-orientated BiFeO3 films subject to both ideal and random oscillations. The displacement and output power under random oscillations were smaller than those under ideal oscillations. This decrease originates with the decreasing acceleration of the fundamental wave with the spurious component having little influence on the resonance response.