Energy Harvesting

ACI’s Harvestor™ line of products provide perpetual electric power from vibration by means of a compact unit that harvests mechanical energy using piezoelectric fiber composites and proprietary power management circuits. This renewable power provides the microelectronics industry with an exciting, new source of energy on the go (e.g. walking, flying, driving, riding, manufacturing, hauling, etc), and for stationary industrial and infrastructure applications where a perpetual power source is extremely valuable (e.g. wireless sensing and monitoring).

The PFC (piezoelectric fiber composite) transducers are highly efficient and robust in creating electric power and actuation (compared to other piezoelectric products). Due to the high flexibility of PFCs, they are easy to design into products and systems. Piezo power generated by ACI’s fiber composites can be used to self-power electronic loads, dampen vibrations and morph structures. Harvested mechanical energy (vibration, compression or flexure) can be tapped to deliver extremely long life span power in places where this was previously impossible.

Piezoelectric fiber composite transducers have a number of advantages over bulk ceramics:

• Due to their composite nature, piezoelectric fiber composites are lighter, more flexible and robust than bulk piezoelectric ceramics.

• Piezoelectric fiber composites have higher fracture tolerance and therefore, can generate more power at higher vibration levels safely compared with bulk ceramics.

• Higher piezoelectric voltage coefficients (g33) can be obtained from piezoelectric fiber composites than from bulk piezoelectric ceramics. This means more voltage can be generated.

• Transducers can be inexpensively created to user-defined shapes (including complex shapes).

Piezoelectric fiber composite transducers may be used as a single, or with multiple units in parallel, to accumulate electric power over an extended period of time for energizing low power microelectronics.