Monomorph piezoelectric wideband energy harvester integrated into LTCC

In this paper the first fully LTCC embedded piezoelectric vibration harvester is demonstrated and characterized. Using ordinary LTCC processes a 39 mm × 39 mm × 3 mm package containing 25 mm co-fired PZT discs was made. Three laser cut beams of different lengths provided a 5.4% frequency bandwidth for 3 dB attenuation and a power of 32 μW at 1 g acceleration delivered into a 33.9 kΩ resistive load. The packaged structure was compared to a bare monomorph reference sample and showed less crosstalk, better frequency control and more power generated. The experiments showed that integration of LTCC and PZT bulk materials by co-firing is a very feasible way to realise energy harvesters for wireless technologies, sensors and autonomous System-On-a-Package.