Spring supported piezoelectric cantilever structures (SPCS) were fabricated for vibration-based energy harvester application. We selected four elastic springs (A, B, C, and D type) as cantilever`s supporter, each elastic spring has a different spring constant (S). The C type of SPCS (SC: 4,649 N/m) showed a extremely low resonance frequency of 81 Hz along with the highest power output of 38.5 mW while the A type of SPCS (SA: 40,629 N/m) didn`t show a resonance frequency while. Therefore, it is considered that the lower spring constant lead to a lower resonance frequency of the SPCS. In addition, a tip mass (18 g) at one end of the SPCS could further reduce the resonance frequency without heavy degradation of power output.
Piezoelectric energy harvester (PEH) as a box type was fabricated in order to harvest mechanical energy imparted to roadways from passing vehicles and convert it into electricity. The PEH was composed of 72 piezoelectric cantilevers with 9 springs with elasticity stick to a bottom of the PEH. For the single piezoelectric cantilever, when a single push with approximately 5 mm displacement was incident to it, power of 0.355 mW was produced at 100 kΩ. It is found that the power from the single piezoelectric cantilever increases when spring constant is high. We investigated power of PEH when the moving vehicle passes in it. Power was increased with increasing vehicle speed. When vehicle speed is 30 km/h, power is 20.6 mW.