Shoe-mounted vibration energy harvester of PZT piezoelectric thin films on metal foils

This paper describes shoe-mounted piezoelectric vibration energy harvesters (PVEHs). The PVEHs were fabricated from Pb(ZrTi)O3 (PZT) thin films which were directly deposited onto Pt/Ti-coated stainless steel foil by rf-magnetron sputtering. We experimentally and theoretically evaluated impulse responses of the PVEHs by applying a simple impulse input on the energy harvesters, typical damped free vibration behaviour was clearly observed, and the output signal was in good agreement with the theoretical value. We measured the output power by applying the impulse input with an optimal load resistance of 33.9 kΩ. The maximum output power was approximately 20 μW, which correspond with the calculated value based on theoretical equation. From these results, the theoretical equation we derived might be helpful for design purposes of the shoe-mounted PVEHs.