Microsyst Technol (2012) 18:1201–1212
DOI 10.1007/s00542-012-1480-6
TECHNICAL PAPER
Battery-and wire-less tire pressure measurement
systems (TPMS) sensor
Noaman Makki • Remon Pop-Iliev
Received: 9 September 2011 / Accepted: 8 March 2012 / Published online: 30 March 2012
Ó Springer-Verlag 2012
Abstract This paper focuses on the design and devel-
opment of a tire pressure measurement systems (TPMS)
sensor powered by on-the-go piezoelectric energy har-
vesting. The prime research motivation was to achieve
replacement of a limited capacity power source such as a
battery with an on-the-go power generation method in
order to enhance TPMS lifespan and simplify the design,
with the former having greater priority. Very low cost and
highly flexible piezoceramic (PZT) bender elements are
used to generate power inside the automobile wheel
assembly thereby replacing the battery and eliminating the
need for a motion sensing mechanism and/or circuitry since
PZT harvesters only produce power during wheel rotation.
A fully operational sensor configuration which proves the
feasibility of PZT based energy harvesting as a substitute
for a permanent power source is discussed in detail.
1 Introduction
An automotive tire pressure measurement system (TPMS)
is intended to enhance driver safety by providing advanced
warning about low tire pressure. Even though tire pressure
sensors have been around for a while they still utilize a
limited capacity battery which necessitates the incorpora-
tion of power management techniques to achieve maxi-
mum possible sensor life (Velupillai and Guvenc 2007).
Power management requires use of expensive highly effi-
cient components as well as motion sensing mechanism to
N. Makki  R. Pop-Iliev (&)
Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science,
University of Ontario Institute of Technology,
2000, Simcoe St N, Oshawa, ON L1H 7K4, Canada
e-mail: remon.pop-iliev@uoit.ca
allow the sensor to enter sleep mode when the vehicle is
stationary and conserve battery power (Velupillai and
Guvenc 2007; Shaw and August 2006). Moreover, 57 % of
the battery power is consumed by the sensor during pow-
erdown mode and thus wasted (Löhndorf et al. 2007). By
harvesting energy from the tire itself using piezoceramic
(PZT) bender elements, power management methodologies
as well as motion sensing mechanisms are eliminated
resulting in cost reduction, design simplification and smaller
and lighter sensors.
Various power generation techniques have been devel-
oped over the years including electromagnetic current
generator (Volpi 2003), tensile strain piezoelectric har-
vester (Gu and Livermore 2010), impact based energy
harvesting using PZT materials (Manla et al. 2009), pres-
sure-change based harvester (Roundy et al. 2007), vibration
based PZT harvester (Wu et al. 2009), and piezoelectric
benders (Tyndall 2006; Mancosu et al. 2006; Khamendei-
far and Arzanpour 2008). Furthermore, a few methods that
rely on the transfer of electric power from the chassis to the
tire have also been devised utilizing RFID technology
(Dixon et al. 2006; Ho et al. 2009). This paper presents two
methods of energy harvesting utilizing PZT benders as well
as a novel method based on variable compression of PZT
plates for the operation of the tire pressure monitoring
sensor.
2 Power harvesting
In order to successfully eliminate the battery from TPMSs
housed inside the tire, sufficient power must be harvested
from the tire to intermittently power the TPMS to allow
transmission of the pressure reading. Furthermore, the
frequency of transmission must be at least equal to that of a
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conventional battery powered module if not higher. Latest
trend has been to generate power from the tires inherent
motion by utilizing piezoelectric material’s ability to pro-
duce charge when subjected to strain in the form of
deformation (Schwartz 2009). Two different types of PZT
elements are used in two different power generation
approaches. The first approach to power generation makes
use of PZT bender elements bonded to the tire’s inner
surface. As the name suggests, the elements produce a
charge when subjected to bending deformation. Thus, use
of elements that can be bent considerably without
mechanical failure is required. The second approach uti-
lizes smaller and stiffer elements that produce a charge
when a sudden compressive force is applied on them.
2.1 Piezoelectric material
A few commercially available PZT and PVDF piezoelec-
tric elements were compared for the practicality of their
use inside the tire. Table 1 lists a few properties of such as
service temperature range, flexibility, cost and power out-
put capacity based on piezoelectric charge constant, d31,
piezoelectric voltage constant, g31, and electromechanical
coupling factor, k31, which were determined to be most
relevant. Piezoceramic benders outperform PVDF in every
category except for piezoelectric voltage constant and
flexibility; PZT being brittle can undergo only minimal
deformation. However, PZT elements typically used in
buzzer elements manufactured by CUI Inc. (2006) are
available in very thin brass reinforced formats with a
ceramic disc diameter of 25 mm at 0.1 mm thick and have
been experimentally tested to have high repetitive end-to-
end bendability of over 10 mm (‘‘0.4’’) without any
physical damage or output degradation.
Properties of PVDF were taken from the technical
manual provided by Measurement Specialties (2009).
Properties of PZT material were taken from American
Piezo website (American Piezo 2011). Electromechanical
coupling factor is important since it determines how much
of mechanical energy applied to the piezoelectric element
can be converted into mechanical energy and vice versa, in
essence determining its efficiency. As evident, PZT are
three (3) times more efficient than PVDF and should the-
oretically produce more charge, which was proven in
another study presented at the CANSMART conference in
November, 2011. Furthermore, PZT elements are capable
of generating charge in bending as well as compressive
loading modes and thus were selected for use in the TPMS
modules.
2.2 In-wheel based power harvesting method
This method utilizes the cyclic deformation of the tire
during vehicle movement. The weight of the vehicle
deforms the tire at the tire-road interface creating what is
called the tire contact patch. As the tire rotates during
vehicle movement, a new section of the tire’s treadwall
deforms within the contact patch resulting in a cyclic
deformation and relaxation pattern. Figure 1 shows the
deformation of the tire due to the load of the vehicle acting

Table 1 Comparison of relevant properties of PZT and PVDF elements for use within automotive wheel assembly
Material Service temperature (°C) Flexibility Cost Charge Voltage Electromechanical
constant constant coupling factor
(d31) (g31) (k31)

PZT High (up to 130) Limited $2 per element 125 11 0.35

(25 mm diameter; area = 491 mm2)
PVDF Low (up to 80) Highly flexible $330 per 216 9 280 mm sheet 23 216 0.12
($2.71 per 491 mm2)

Fig. 1 a Non-deformed tire b deformation of the tire under load and the formation of a contact patch

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Fig. 2 a PZT bender elements stacked one on top of the other b PZT benders attached to the tire side-by-side
Fig. 3 Result of capacitor charging from tire bonded PZT harvester. a 47 lF capacitor requires 17 revolutions to reach a threshold of 10 V,
while b 22 lF capacitor requires nine revolutions
on it. The tire contact patch is clearly visible in Fig. 1b
where the tire flattens to adhere to the road surface which
has been simulated in the experimental setup with a con-
veyer belt. Attaching PZT bender elements to the tire thus
allows the harvesting of energy from this innate motion of
the tire (Tyndall 2006; Mancosu et al. 2006; Khamendeifar
and Arzanpour 2008). Since the deformation of the tire can
be quite high especially when it goes over bumps and road
surface imperfections, the PZT benders must be highly
flexible. Moreover, the THUNDERÒ PZT bender previ-
ously used costs in excess of $100 resulting in an expensive
replacement of the battery (Face International). Very low
cost (\$2) and highly flexible PZT elements are bonded to
the tire with a suitable adhesive for power generation
(Makki and Pop-Iliev 2011a, b). Figure 2 shows the PZT
bender elements with circular ceramic discs reinforced
with brass to allow enhanced deformation. The total
thickness of the element is less than 0.3 mm and can
undergo an end-to-end deformation of over 8.89 mm
without damage.
For power harvesting, four PZT benders were attached
to the tire in two different configurations: (1) two benders
1203
stacked on top of each other as shown in Fig. 2a and (2)
four benders attached to the tire side by side in two rows. It
has previously been shown that the power generation from
stacking is the same as the power generation from the non-
stacked configuration (Makki and Pop-Iliev 2011a, b).
High flexible rubber adhesive was used for the bonding the
bender elements to the tire.
Power harvested from piezoelectric sources needs to be
rectified and temporarily stored in a capacitor (Kymissis
et al. 1998; Sodano and Inman 2005; Ding and Kaajakari
2009), which is then discharged as needed. The size of the
capacitor determines the duration for which a certain load
can be supported (Kymissis et al. 1998; Makki and Pop-
Iliev 2011a, b). Conversely, capacitors of different sizes
will require different time to be charged from the PZT
harvesters. Thus, a 22 and 47 lF capacitor were charged
from tire bonded PZT harvesters at a tire rotational speed
of 80 RPM to determine charging time, results of which are
presented in Fig. 3. The 22 lF capacitor requires nine tire
rotations to be charged to a predetermined threshold of
10 V while the 47 lF capacitor requires 17 rotations to
reach the same voltage.
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Fig. 4 Power delivered from tire bonded PZT harvesters into various
loads
Figure 4 shows the power delivered to various load
resistance by the PZT harvesters. Evidently, a maximum
power of 6.5 mW is deliverable to a 42 kX load. Power
calculations were done by attaching various resistance
values across the rectified output of the harvester (Makki
and Pop-Iliev 2011a, b).
2.3 Rim-wheel based power harvesting method
An alternative method of power harvesting from the
automobile wheel is explored by placing very thin brass
reinforced PZT elements at the tire bead and rim interface
(Makki and Pop-Iliev 2011a, b). On a typical tire of size
185/65R14, the bead-rim interface has a dimension of
8 mm all around the rim so the PZT elements must be
really narrow and/or of a small overall size. The idea is
similar to the previous method except that the PZT ele-
ments operate in pure compressive mode rather than
bending i.e. the acting force is perpendicular to the PZT
element and compresses it to produce a charge output. The
air pressure inside the wheel forces the tire against the rim
exerting a constant force, FCONS, as shown in Fig. 5a,
causing the PZT to operate in a prestressed mode. The
Fig. 5 a Forces experienced by
PZT harvesters at the tire-bead
and rim interface b schematic
model showing the various
factors affecting the
piezoelectric power output
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Microsyst Technol (2012) 18:1201–1212
weight of the vehicle flatten outs the tire at the contact
patch, as described earlier, as a result of which the portion
of sidewalls directly above the patch bulges out, exerting
an additional force on the tire bead and rim interface just
above the bulge area, FSIDEWALL. Thus a greater force
exists at this portion of bead rim interface directly above
the contact patch compared to the rest of the section and is
equal in magnitude to the sum of the constant pressure
force and the extra force from the sidewall:
FT ¼ FCONS þ FSIDEWALL ð1Þ
As the tire rotates, a PZT element placed at the bead-rim
interface as shown in Fig. 6b, c experiences a force that
fluctuates between FCONS and FT and thus produces a
charge due to the net difference in the applied force.
Figure 7 shows the result of charging a 22 lF capacitor by
this method. At 80 RPM, it takes 200 s to reach the 10 V
threshold, much higher compared to the 9 s time required by
the primary method described in the previous section.
Nonetheless, power can be harvested by this method and
with further improvements possibly utilized for use in TPMS.
Figure 5b shows a schematic model showing the various
factors that affect the piezoelectric power output as well as
the interrelation between different factors. The vehicle
weight acting on the tire determines the magnitude of
FSIDEWALL i.e. a greater load will result in a greater force on
the rim exerted by the tire. On the other hand, a higher
pressure would negate the effect of greater load by making
the overall tire stiffer. The effect of the sidewall bulging
out actually exerts a pressure force on the section of bead-
rim interface contained within dashed lines in Fig. 1b; the
Force, FSIDEWALL, is constant on the area of the rim con-
tained within those dashed lines. Thus, if this entire area is
covered by PZT material it would result in a higher power
output per revolution. Finally, the effect of vehicle speed
factors in simply because of higher frequency of FSIDEWALL
application at higher vehicle speed.
Microsyst Technol (2012) 18:1201–1212
Fig. 6 a Compressive PZT harvester from tire-bead rim interface, b PZT harvester installed on a 185/65R14 tire, and c graphical representation
of PZT harvester placement
Fig. 7 22 lF capacitor being charged from the tire-bead and rim PZT harvester
3 Testing dynamometer
In order to measure the charge output capacity of various
PZT harvesters mounted in different configurations on the
wheel assembly a lab-scale custom designed developed and
built dynamometer was used (Makki and Pop-Iliev 2011a, b).
The basic idea was to spin the tire on a conveyer belt that is
driven by a DC motor to allow different wheel rotational
speeds. In order to create a tire contact patch, vehicle weight
is simulated onto the tire using a 80 mm bore pneumatic
piston. A constant contact commutator-like assembly is used
to maintain electrical connections from the spinning tire to
the oscilloscope. Detailed description of the dynamometer as
well as various electrical connections has already been dis-
cussed in earlier publications (Makki and Pop-Iliev 2011a, b).
4 Tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) sensor
The TPMS consist of regular sensing circuitry comprising
of a pressure gauge that is read by the Microcontroller
1205
(MCU) which then sends the results to the onboard receiver
via a low power wireless transmitter (TX). The main dif-
ference between a conventional TPMS and PZT energy
harvesting TPMS lies in the power source and conditioning
circuitry i.e. the battery is replaced by a PZT harvester,
rectifier and an appropriately sized storage capacitor. A
silicone controlled rectifier (SCR) is also required to pre-
vent premature discharging of the capacitor before it
reaches the predetermined threshold value of 10 V. A
linear voltage regulator, MAX666 is used to deliver a
stable 3.0 V output required to power the sensing compo-
nents. The TPMS block diagram showing its various
components is presented in Fig. 8.
4.1 Sensor operation algorithm
As the vehicle moves, the tire rotates increasing the voltage
of the storage capacitor, C1, with each revolution as shown
in Fig. 3. The SCR prevents C1 from draining before its
voltage rises to 10 V as determined by the 9.0 V Zener
diode, Z1, at the gate of the SCR and the voltage drop
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Fig. 8 TPMS block diagram
Fig. 9 TPMS system schematic
across the SCR itself. Once the threshold is reached at the
gate of the SCR, it connects the ground (GND) of the
regulator to the negative terminal of C1 allowing it to
conduct. The regulator supplies 3.0 V to the MCU turning
it on while leaving the TX and the pressure gauge disabled,
which are in turn powered by the MCU. This is done to
permit power management of the TX and pressure gauge
minimizing power consumption by allowing them to be
disabled when not needed. The pressure gauge is directly
supplied by the MCU as shown in the schematic in Fig. 9,
while the TX is mainly supplied by the regulator but has a
power down (PDN) pin which can be pulled up to 3.0 V to
enable it or pulled down to GND disabling the TX.
The entire process from the start of the sensor to the
completion of data transfer is depicted in Fig. 10. As soon
as the MCU powers up it enables the pressure gauge, which
requires between 10 and 15 ms to stabilize its output.
While the pressure gauge stabilizes, the MCU is pro-
grammed to configure the rest of its ports and communi-
cation modules. Then the MCU converts the pressure
gauge value into a digital signal via its analog-to-digital
converter (ADC). At this point the data is ready to be
transmitted to the onboard receiver for which the TX needs
to be powered on while the pressure gauge is no longer
needed. The MCU disables the pressure gauge, enables the
TX and sends the data.
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After data transmission completes, the MCU stays on
until the capacitor voltage drops below 3.0 V at which
point the regulator ceases operation dropping the load. This
sharp reduction in the load causes the SCR to undergo
natural commutation and break the GND path from the
regulator to perform energy storage into the capacitor. The
capacitor then recharges from the PZT harvester until 10 V
threshold is reached and the cycle repeats itself.
4.2 Electrical performance
The use of higher data transfer rates of 4,800 bps allows
2 byte (16 bits) of data to be exchanged between the MCU and
TX in a short span of 3.33 ms theoretically. The actual time
required to transmit 2 bytes of data is about 8 ms as evident
from Fig. 11. This is because of the required computing time
for the MCU itself as well as the fact that 2 bytes are sent to the
TX 1 byte at a time further increasing the processing time.
The serial communication mode set as default on the
MCU uses ‘high’ output to indicate no data or ‘‘0’’ and
sinks low for a ‘‘1’’ bit. The transmission pin goes high,
Fig. 12, as soon as serial communication is enabled on the
MCU and stays high until the time of first transmission.
Even though only 15 ms are required by the pressure
sensor to deliver a stable reading, a time delay of over
30 ms is used to minimize measurement errors.
Microsyst Technol (2012) 18:1201–1212
Fig. 10 Flow of operation of TPMS module
4.2.1 Storage capacitor sizing
The analog pressure gauge consumes 1.5 mA at 3 V sup-
ply. It takes 15 ms to stabilize from the moment power is
supplied to it and returns the actual pressure reading. The
MCU reads the sensor value as an analog signal and con-
verts it into a 10-bit digital reading between 0 and 1,024
which is then transmitted wirelessly to the receiver. The
1207
Fig. 11 Time required to transmit 2 byte of data at 4,800 bps
baudrate
Fig. 12 A 16.9 lF capacitor being discharged into the TPMS. Total
TPMS run time is 55 ms
MCU also needs to transmit a 1-byte long unique address
to distinguish the sensor from other sources of data e.g.
other pressure sensors. The total time of sensor operation
from powering up of the system to the end of transmission
is the sum of time duration of all the processes. Micro-
controller takes 2 ms to initialize and power the pressure
sensor. The pressure sensor requires 15 ms to stabilize
followed by 2 ms for ADC conversion and then the dura-
tion required to send the 2 bytes of address and data to the
TX, which sends bytes as it receives. At a data transmission
rate of 4,800 bps it takes 8 ms to transmit 2 bytes of data
from the MCU to the TX as shown in Fig. 11. Thus the
total time of sensor operation is 31 ms (2 ? 20 ?
2 ? 5 ? 2). This is 3 times as short the duration of 90 ms
previously reported (Makki and Pop-Iliev 2011a, b). The
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Fig. 13 A 22 lF capacitor being discharged into the TPMS. Total
TPMS run time is 80 ms
capacitor needs to be sized appropriately to allow the
operation of the entire sensor for at least 30 ms.
It has been experimentally determined that a 16.9 lF
capacitor allows adequate time for the transmission of one
pressure reading. Three capacitors: 10, 4.7 and 2.2 lF were
connected in parallel to achieve the required capacitance
and the results were verified through the oscilloscope,
Fig. 12, as well the wireless transmission. However, to
allow for more address bytes for unique identification of
each TPMS module a larger capacitance value of 22 lF is
selected as an appropriate size as it allows the sensor
operation for more than 80 ms as shown in Fig. 13. The
capacitor values decrease from 10 V down to the minimum
while the TX line of the MCU goes high as soon as the
transmission is enabled. In Figs. 12, 13, the TX line goes
low (0 V) during data transmission and rises to the 3 V
level upon completion.
4.2.2 Power consumption
Power consumption of various components was noted from
their respective datasheets. ATMEGA328P consumes
2.5 mA current at a 3 V supply voltage (Atmel 2009) while
the Linx Technologies LR series transmitter 3.4 mA on
average (LINX 2010). The pressure gauge has a maximum
consumption of 1.5 mA at 3.0 V (measured) resulting in a
total consumption of 7.4 mA. The MCU runs throughout
the TPMS operation while pressure gauge and TX run in a
mutually exclusive manner. The total theoretical power
consumption while MCU and pressure gauge operate is
about 4 mA while that during TX and MCU operation is
about 5.9 mA.
The actual average power consumption of the TPMS
module can be determined from the capacitor discharge
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Microsyst Technol (2012) 18:1201–1212
time given in Table 1. Since a 22 lF capacitor can support
the TPMS load for 80 ms, average power draw can be
calculated from the capacitor energy storage equation:
 
1 1 22
E ¼ CV 2 ¼ ð10Þ2 ¼ 1:1 mJ ð2Þ
2 2 1; 000; 000
This is the total energy stored in the capacitor. Since
power is rate of usage of this energy, power consumption is
given as:
E 1:1 mJ
P¼ ¼ ¼ 1:375 mW ð3Þ
time 0:08 s
13.75 mW of power consumed at a regulated voltage of
3.0 V gives average total current consumption of 4.58 mA.
However, the TPMS does not use all of the 13.75 mW
since power is also lost in the linear regulator. The
efficiency of linear regulator is given as:
Powerloss ¼ ðVin  Vout ÞðLoadcurrentÞ ð4Þ
The higher the input voltage, VIN, the higher the power
dissipation in the regulator and less efficient the overall
system. One method of reducing this loss is to use a higher
capacitance ([47 lF) with a lower threshold voltage
instead of 10 V e.g. 6 V. A better approach would be to
substitute the linear voltage regulator with a more efficient
switching Buck regulator.
4.2.3 Pressure gauge
Honeywell CPX100G pressure gauge is used for pressure
measurement (Honeywell 2004). The sensor can measure
pressures up to 100 pounds per square inches (PSI) and
outputs an analog voltage between 0 and 295 mV rated at
an excitation voltage of 5.0 V. Lower excitation voltages
are possible whereby the maximum output threshold needs
to be adjusted according to the following equation:
VEXCITATION
max output voltage = 0:295  ð5Þ
5
The sensor has been tested to operate with an excitation
voltage of 3.0 V with a maximum output voltage of
177 mV as calculated from Eq. 5. Since the sensor has a
range of 100 PSI, the change in output voltage per PSI
pressure is about 1.77 mV neglecting temperature
adjustments.
4.2.4 Microprocessor—pressure gauge interface
Since the pressure gauge is read directly by the MCU
without any amplification, the resolution of the MCU’s
ADC needs to be taken into account. Atmega328 MCU has
a 10-bit ADC allowing 1,024 distinct steps (210). The MCU
is powered from a 3.0 V regulated source resulting in ADC
resolution of 2.93 mV. Comparing this resolution to mV
Microsyst Technol (2012) 18:1201–1212 1209

per PSI change in pressure sensor output of 1.77 mV, a
minimal pressure change of 2 PSI can be detected limited
only by the resolution of the MCU’s ADC.
4.2.5 Frequency of operation
Table 2 entails the number of tire revolutions to charge
capacitors of various values as well the duration for which
the TPMS load can be supported respectively. The 22 lF
capacitor requires nine revolutions to charge to a threshold
of 10 V initially. However, since the capacitor only dis-
charges down to 3.0 V instead of 0 V, less revolutions are
required to charge it back to 10 V from there on. Since
only six revolutions are required between transmission of
pressure data this results in a high transmission frequency
that is unmatched by any battery powered TPMS. The
frequency of TPMS operation is shown in Fig. 14. Even for
a vehicle travelling at linear speed of 10 km/h the TPMS
can transmit every 6 s. As the speed increases, the trans-
mission frequency increases as well as expected to every
second for 6 km/h and less than every 750 ms for 100 km/
h.
Since such high frequencies may not be required for
TPMS, the size of the PZT harvesting patch can be
significantly reduced. Theoretically predicting the effects
of PZT elements reduction from 4 to 1 should reduce the
frequency from every 6 s to every 24 s (ratio of 1 to 4),
which would still be very acceptable.
4.2.6 Elimination of motion detection circuitry
Piezoceramic harvesters, whether bonded to the tire or
placed at the bead-rim interface, produce power only when
the tire rotates during vehicle movement. This means that
no power is produced when the vehicle is sitting idle and
the TPMS does not operate. Moreover, since a permanent
limited power source is replaced with on-the-go energy
harvesting motion detection circuitry which is a vital
component of battery powered TPMS is eliminated
resulting in a simpler design through reduction of required
circuit components. The overall weight of the sensor may
also be significantly reduced as long as the PZT elements
weight less than the battery. The flexible benders bonded to
the tire weight less than 10 g which is less than typical
Lithium coin cell batteries weighing 20 g (drillspot battery
store).
4.3 Mechanical performance

The adhesive used to bond the PZT element to the tire is of

Table 2 Charging and discharging time of various capacitor sizes utmost importance since it is responsible for keeping the
Capacitance # of revolutions # of revolutions Discharge PZT bender from falling off, prevent the formation of
(lF) to charge from 0 to charge from 3 time TPMS localized stiff region compared to the surrounding tire tread
to 10 V to 10 V load (ms) and tolerate the frequent change in temperature. Rubber
100 32 23 300 cement typically used for tire repair and patchwork is used
57 20 16 193 to bond the PZT element to the inner treadwall of the tire
47 16 12 170 and provides excellent adhesion. The centripetal forces
22 9 6 80 generated during tire rotation pushes the element against
16.9 7 5 55
the tire (instead of pulling it away) assisting the adhesive in
keeping the element in place. The only failure mode for the

Fig. 14 Frequency of pressure

transmission using tire bonded
PZT harvester

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Fig. 15 a TPMS transmitter and b receiver modules

Fig. 16 a TPMS sensor module

mounted on the tire with a foam
layer protection the rigid
electronics board from
deformation. b Electronics
board mounted onto the rim
while piezoelectric elements are
placed either on the tire or at the
bead-rim interface

adhesive is through repetitive stretching during cyclic
deformation of the tire. Extensive life cycle testing has not
been performed to determine the number of kilometers
before the adhesives gives way, partly because of the
identification of a better alternative energy harvester that
can entirely be mounted onto the rim rather than the tire.
The deformation of the tire at the contact patch requires that
a 40 mm long PZT element attached to it be able to undergo
2.5 mm of end-to-end deflection. The PZT elements
employed for energy harvesting in the TPMS module are
capable of withstanding 10 mm of end-to-end deformation
without physical damage, which is far greater than the
requirement ensuring a long life for the elements themselves.
At high speeds during highway driving, the tire tem-
perature may rise up to 70 °C (Todoroki et al. 2003). CUI
Inc. (2006) provides test data for CEB44D06 PZT bender
element demonstrating no effect in the performance of PZT
elements at temperatures up to 80 °C while the depolar-
ization temperature for PZT is the neighborhood of 130 °C.
Even if the charge output from the PZT element reduces
over time due to physical damage or wear through repeti-
tive deformation it will not disable the TPMS sensor
entirely rather just result in lower transmission frequencies.
However, it has already been demonstrated that current
TPMS sensor module configuration has very high trans-
mission frequencies compared to conventional battery
powered modules and even a 29 reduction in frequency of
operation would be more than adequate.
4.3.1 TPMS sensor module
Figure 15a shows the TPMS transmitter module. The left
half comprises of TX IC along with the low profile chip
antenna while the right half consists of the TQFP MCU
package along with the pressure sensor and the voltage
regulation circuitry near the top. Figure 15b shows the
receiver module that consists of the wireless receiver
connected to a microcontroller. The transmitter has a
footprint of 44.5 mm by 89 mm, which can be reduced
down to one-forth through tighter packaging.
4.3.2 Sensor mounting options
The FR4 epoxy substrate on which the electronic compo-
nents are mounted is not flexible and cannot be directly
mounted onto the tire. For experimental purposes, a thick
layer of foam was added between the flexible PZT bender
and the rigid substrate, whereby the foam absorbs the

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Microsyst Technol (2012) 18:1201–1212
deformation allowing the entire sensor to be mounted on
the tire (Fig. 16a). The rigid FR4 epoxy substrate can be
substituted with a highly flexible polyimide polymer sub-
strate such as PyraluxÒ offered by Dupont (2011), allowing
the circuit to be bonded to PZT with a very thin layer of
deformation absorbent material such as rubber.
An alternative option is to mount the electronics onto the
rim within the tire as shown in Fig. 16b. This is more feasible
for the PZT element mounted at the bead-rim interface due to
its very close proximity to the rim. Another opportunity it to
package the TPMS electronics on the valve stem much like
existing designs while replacing the battery with the bead-rim
mounted PZT elements requiring minimal changes to the
design or mounting of the existing modules.
5 Cost
The cost of the overall sensor is reduced partly through the
elimination of motion detection circuitry. Furthermore,
since power management is not of great significance in
case of PZT powered TPMS in contrast to their battery
powered counterparts, less efficient and inexpensive com-
ponents can be utilized bringing the cost down even more.
Apart from this, the PZT benders cost $1 when 100 pieces
are ordered. Larger quantity orders would cost even less
providing added economical benefits over batteries.
6 Conclusion
A functional automotive TPMS that uses power harvested
from the innate motion of the wheel during vehicle operation
was successfully conceived, designed and developed. Two
different approaches of power generation were presented; one
utilizing PZT benders bonded to the inner surface of the tire
and the other harvesting energy from the pressure-force dif-
ferential at the time-bead rim interface. The latter approach
still needs further work; slight improvement in the power
generation capacity coupled with reduction in the power
consumption of the TPMS circuitry can yield promising
results for future designs. With the primary method of power
harvesting, a 6 s transmission frequency is attained at the
vehicle speed of 10 km/h which reduces down to 1 s (1 Hz) at
a vehicle speed greater than 60 km/h; far greater than the fixed
frequency of battery powered TPMSs.
7 Future work
Work needs to be done on improving the efficiency of
energy harvesting circuitry through the use of switching
Buck-Boost regulators as well as switched resonant power
1211
conversion. The latter has been reported to be able to
achieve multifold increase of the efficiency of power har-
vesting (Taylor et al. 2001).
Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no conflict
of interest.
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