Energy harvesting from stray power-frequency magnetic field employing a piezoelectric unimorph based heterostructure

An energy harvester using a piezoelectric unimorph based heterostructure is presented to convert stray power-frequency (50 Hz or 60 Hz) magnetic field energy into electrical energy. The harvester consists a piezoelectric unimorph and a U-shaped mass structure. The U-shaped mass structure with two parallel bar magnets leads to a large rotary inertia for the given proof mass. An enhanced exciting torque is induced on the unimorph and the response of the harvester to the external magnetic field is strengthened. Under the resonant frequency of 50 Hz, the harvester produces a power of 154.6 µW with a matching load resistance of 199 kΩ at a magnetic field of 0.5 Oe. Through an up-conversion management circuit, the energy harvester can successfully drive a wireless sensor node with high power consumption (90 mW at transmitting and 18 mW at receiving) at a duration of 205 ms.