Self-Charging Structures Using Piezoceramics and Thin-Film Batteries

This paper presents the investigation of a novel concept involving the combination of piezoelectrics and new thin-film battery technology to form multifunctional self-charging, load-bearing energy harvesting devices. The proposed self-charging structures contain both power generation and energy storage capabilities in a multilayered, composite platform consisting of active piezoceramic layers for scavenging energy, thin-film battery layers for storing scavenged energy, and a central metallic substrate layer. Several aspects of the design, modeling, fabrication, and evaluation of the self-charging structures are reviewed. A focus is placed on the evaluation of the load-bearing capabilities of the fabricated self-charging structures through both classical static failure testing as well as dynamic vibration failure testing.