IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 63, NO.
4, APRIL 2016
Wireless Alarm Microsystem Self-Powered by
Vibration-Threshold-Triggered Energy Harvester
Qiaochu Tang, Member, IEEE, Qisheng He, Student Member, IEEE, Mengyang Li, Chuan Dong,
Dacheng Xu, and Xinxin Li
Abstract—A novel self-powered wireless sensing
micro-system is proposed and prototyped. The micro-
system can autonomously monitor the amplitude of
concerning vibration when it reaches a preset threshold,
and wirelessly transmit alarming/notification signals
when the vibration lasts for a considerable period. The
event-driven sensing/alarming function is enabled by a
piezoelectric energy harvester that starts to generate
electric power only when the monitored vibration level
reaches a critical threshold. The harvester consists of
two stages of vibratory structures that interact with each
other via magnetic repulsion. The bistability leads to
the threshold-triggered power-generating function. For
adapting to various applications, the threshold can be
preset by adjusting the gap-distance between the two
magnets on the two vibration stages; thereby, the power-
generating action can be switched on by the concerning
vibration level. The working mechanism is verified by both
theoretical analysis and test for the prototyped miniature
harvesters. Based on the smart energy-harvesting func-
tion, an application specific electric-energy control circuit
and an RF-transmitter are designed to form a nonsupply
wireless alarming system. Experimental results validate
the event-driven alarming function. The abnormal vibration
event-induced wireless alarming signal is autonomously
transmitted to over 2 km away when the vibratory excitation
lasts for 1 min to generate electrical energy of about 2 mJ.
Index Terms—Energy harvester, piezoelectric effect, self-
powered sensing system, switched power generation,
vibration threshold, wireless transmission.
I. I NTRODUCTION
W IRELESS sensor networks are playing an increasingly
significant role in the application fields like infrastruc-
ture monitoring, industrial control, smart home, tire pressure
Manuscript received March 25, 2015; revised August 21, 2015;
accepted November 16, 2015. Date of publication December 18, 2015;
date of current version March 8, 2016. This work was supported
in part by National Natural Science Foundation of China Projects
under Grant 91323304, Grant 61234007, and Grant 61321492, in part
by the Chinese 863 Program under Grant 2015AA043502, in part
by the International Science and Technology Cooperation Program
of China under Grant 2013DFG62830, and in part by the National
Key Technology Research and Development Program under Grant
2015BAZ05750.
Q. Tang, Q. He, and X. Li are with the State Key Laboratory
of Transducer Technology, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and
Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai
200050, China, and also with the University of the Chinese Academy
of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China (e-mail: xxli@mail.sim.ac.cn).
M. Li, C. Dong, and D. Xu are with the School of Electronics
and Information, Soochow University, Suzhou 215006, China (e-mail:
xudacheng@suda.edu.cn).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIE.2015.2510503
0278-0046 © 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
2447
monitor system (TPMS), and wearable devices [1]–[3]. One of
the most frequently employed functions is vibration monitoring
[4]. In many monitoring applications where only consider-
able motion activities or vibratory events are concerning, a
simple alarming or notification signal rather than accurately
detected vibration-acceleration data needs to be acquired [5],
[6]. Identified with vibration amplitude, exceeding-threshold
vibration indicates malfunctioning or accident. For instance,
when an outfield petroleum pipeline is being punctured or
drilled for damage or theft, the violent evil-doing must be gen-
erating anomalous vibration amplitude [7]. In this case, an
alarming signal is urgently needed but, unfortunately, electric
power supply near the oil pipeline is prohibited. In contrary
cases, to indicate proper functioning, a notification signal is
also necessary. For example, in sports or patient recovery, cer-
tain amount of motional exercise is required. In a poulthertry
farm, sufficient movement indicates chickens’ health that can
rule out the possibility of bird flu [8]. If there is not a method for
autonomous identification and notification, the farmer would
have to cost more labor to check the chickens frequently for
avoiding cross-infection. Such sensing functions normally need
external power to sustain a standard accelerometer together
with its regular interface circuits including amplifier, A/D con-
verter, digital baseband-circuit, wireless communication elec-
tronics, and energy storage systems [9]. Such energy-intensive
sensing/alarming systems could be supplied by battery [10]. In
many circumstances, however, the limited battery energy can-
not sustain the system in long term and it is inconvenient to
on-site recharge the battery [11].
Kinetic energy harvesters are highly promising candidates
for power supply to such sensing-network nodes [12]–[17].
Typical vibratory energy harvesters are mechanical oscillators
equipped with a certain transduction mechanism like piezo-
electricity, electrostatic effect, or electromagnetic induction
[18]–[25]. Driven by ambient vibration, the harvesting struc-
ture starts to oscillate and a part of mechanical energy is
converted into electrical energy. In the above-mentioned appli-
cation cases where vibration-threshold needs to be sensed,
vibration energy resource inherently exists that could be used
as the original source of the electric energy to be converted.
Unfortunately, such miniature energy harvesters for sensor-
node power-supply normally use micromachined spring-mass
structures and piezoelectric thin-film materials. If used for the
aforementioned event monitoring/alarming applications, such a
miniature energy harvester generally outputs insufficient power
to sustain a standard acceleration sensor and its signal process-
ing circuit. Besides, the generated ac power is often unstable
2448 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 63, NO. 4, APRIL 2016

Fig. 1. Block diagram of the self-powered wireless alarming system.

since the vibration source is time-varying in both amplitude and

frequency [26]–[28]. In order to explore a brand new approach
to circumvent the aforementioned problems, a novel vibration-
level-triggered energy-harvesting function is herein proposed.

II. S YSTEM C ONCEPT

In order to solve the problem of insufficient power gener-
ation, we give up the conventional alarming scheme where
an acceleration sensor with standard signal processing circuit
needs sustaining power. We herein propose a self-powered Fig. 2. (a) Schematic front view (left) and backside view (right) of the
vibration sensing system that will wirelessly send an alarm- two-stage energy harvester structure. (b) Lumped-element mechanical
ing/notification signal only when the concerning amount of model of the device.
vibration reaches or exceeds a preset threshold. Fig. 1 shows its
block diagram. The electric energy generated by the threshold- rid of the routine signal conditioning/processing circuit that has
triggered energy harvester is converted to electric power and been inevitable in traditional sensing/monitoring systems. With
supplied to an RF-module for wireless transmission alarm- a special bistable design, the device begins to generate power
ing/notification information. When the monitored vibration only when the vibration acceleration reaches a certain thresh-
amplitude is below the preset threshold, the harvester generates old. Fig. 2(a) schematically shows the structure of the device. It
almost no energy and the circuit cannot start up. In contrast, consists of two vibrating stages, namely the sensing stage and
when the threshold is reached or exceeded, significant electric the generating stage. Each of the two stages can be considered
energy begins to be generated and the accumulated energy will as a single degree-of-freedom (DOF) spring-mass resonator.
power the RF module to send wireless signal. For rejection of Also, there is an interaction mechanism between them, as is
false alarm, the second threshold is also set in the energy con- shown in Fig. 2(b). The motion equations for them are
version and control circuit. Only when the generation activity      
mS 0 z̈S kS zS
lasts for a certain period of time, the accumulated energy can +
0 mG z̈G kG zG
be adequate for wireless transmission. In this case, the voltage   
of a storage capacitor is charged to an adequately high value to cS 0 żS
+
switch on a transistor for supplying electricity to the RF mod- 0 cG żG
 
ule. The circuit design will be detailed in Section V of this −mS aext sin(ωt + θ) + Fmag (zS , zG )
paper. Such an event judgment mechanism employs the double = . (1)
−mG aext sin(ωt + θ) − Fmag (zS , zG )
thresholds of both vibration amplitude and generating sustain-
ing time, thereby effectively rejecting the false alarm caused Herein, zS and zG are the z-axis displacement of the sensing
by either occasional high-amplitude shock or long-lasting weak stage and the generating stage, respectively. aext sin(ωt + θ) is
vibration. the input acceleration induced by external vibration. Fmag is the
The alarming/notification signal can be extremely simple, z-component of the magnetic repulsive force between the mag-
e.g., a code indicating the event location for oil pipeline theft nets mounted individually at the ends of the two stages and can
alarming. In other words, receiving the simple signal means be expressed as
knowing the event’s occurrence, e.g., the pipeline is being dam-
J2 
aged. Once every segment of the pipeline is bound with a Fmag = 2 ×
unique location code, the alarming signal can concisely guide 4πμ0 (i,j,k,l,p,q={0,1}6 )
i+j+k+l+p+q
the enforcement/repair team to the scene. Another example is × (−1) ϕz (i, j, k, l, p, q) (2)
power-tool vibration alarming. When the vibration of an impact
hammer or grinder gets so strong that tends to do harm to the where J is the magnetization of the magnets and φz is a func-
operator’s health, an alarming signal should be sent. tion of the geometry/position of the magnet, with the expression
given by [[29], eq. (5)].
III. A NALYSIS AND M ODELING OF THE E NERGY The output voltage of the generating stage can be estimated
H ARVESTER as [30]

As the key enabling component of the system, the energy har- ωbhe31 [ϕ(l0 ) − ϕ(l1 )]
V = R. (3)
vester itself can act as a vibration threshold sensor and can get 2(1 + bLε33 ωR/Δ)
TANG et al.: WIRELESS ALARM MICROSYSTEM SELF-POWERED BY VIBRATION-THRESHOLD-TRIGGERED ENERGY HARVESTER 2449

Herein, ω is the angular resonant frequency of the gener-

ating stage; b, h, and L are width, thickness, and length of
the generating cantilever; φ(l0 ) and φ(l1 ) are the deflecting
slopes of the two cantilevers at their end positions of the piezo-
electric layer, respectively; e31 , 33 , and Δ are the 31-mode
piezoelectric coefficient, the 33-mode dielectric constant, and
the thickness of the piezoelectric layer, respectively; and R is
the load resistance of the generating stage.
The sensing stage features a low resonant frequency to adapt
to the frequency range of environmental vibration. Differently,
the generating stage is designed with a much higher resonant
frequency to gain higher generating efficiency in frequency-up-
conversion mode. Such design has been considered suitable for
low-frequency vibration [31]–[33]. Each of the two stages has
a set of magnets mounted at the two structural ends for non-
contact interaction. The magnets have identical magnetization
orientation so that there is repulsive force between them. As for
design of magnet orientation, head-to-head configuration (i.e.,
two magnets have their magnetization orientations against each
other) usually provides much larger repulsive force compared
to parallel configuration. Too large a magnetic force easily fails
to drive the generating stage because it would take too much
kinetic energy to overcome the potential barrier. Another advan-
Fig. 3. (a) Schematic working principle of the piezoelectric harvester
tage of parallel configuration lies in that it applies smaller axial that can begin to generate by recognizing a vibration level. (1) When the
load on the generating stage and, thus, is beneficial to stabil- acceleration of the input vibration (ain ) is below the threshold, the
ity. Under the magnetic repulsive force, the system becomes responding vibration of the sensing stage cannot pass through the equi-
librium position of the generating stage to drive the generating stage
bistable [34]. into large-amplitude resonance; (2) when the acceleration exceeds
Fig. 3(a) schematically shows the vibration-threshold trig- the threshold, the sensing stage pushes the generating stage into its
gered power generation function enabled by mutual interaction maximum displacement; and (3) the generating stage becomes freely
resonating and considerably generating electric energy. (b) During one
between the two stages. When the amplitude of input vibra- stroke of generating operation, the relation between the total force
tion is below the threshold, the vibrations at both stages are exerted on the sensing stage and its displacement is analyzed by
weak and almost no power can be generated. When the vibra- numerical simulation, with the deflection shape of every corresponding
operation phase shown together for better understanding.
tory acceleration amplitude reaches or excesses the concerning
threshold, however, the sensing stage overcomes the potential
barrier between the two stable states and can excite the gener-
ating stage into large amplitude resonance with the “magnetic amplitude of the input vibration is large enough, can sufficient
plucking” effect [35], [36]. In this case, the generating stage work be done to overcome the force and push the generating
becomes vibrating freely at its resonant frequency for elec- stage into power-generating action. Otherwise, any amplitude
tric power generation. The numerical simulation results shown below the threshold cannot excite the generating stage to pro-
in Fig. 3(b) reveal the operation principles of three designed duce significant power because, in that case, the sensing stage
devices with varied gap-distance between the sensing and the is unable to pass through the generating stage to induce the
generating stages. As is phase-by-phase analyzed in Fig. 3(b), force transitioning. This mechanism builds a theoretic basis for
the detailed movement procedure during one stroke of the the function of threshold-triggered power generating. The sim-
sensing stage can be decomposed into three phases. In Phase ulated total forces on the sensing stage of the designed three
1, driven by the external vibration, the sensing stage starts types of devices are plotted together in Fig. 3(b), where we
to move. In Phase 2, when the magnet in the sensing stage design three different gap-distances between the two stages. In
approaches the magnet in the generating stage, the magnetic principle, the essential difference of present energy harvester
repulsive force pushes the cantilever of the generating stage into from the conventional bistable ones lies in that our device has
bending. In Phase 3, only when the elastic restoring force of a movable second stage instead of a fixed force source (e.g.,
the bent cantilever exceeds the magnetic force, the generating a magnet fixed to the substrate) [37]. In Fig. 3(b), the sim-
stage can be set free to vibrate at its resonant frequency. During ulated hysteresis of the total force reveals that, during every
the whole stroke of the three phases, the simulated total force stroke of the sensing stage, a portion of energy is transferred
applied on the sensing stage is plotted in Fig. 3(b). The total to the generating stage. The transition edge of the force curve
force is a combination of the magnetic and the elastic forces. It indicates this plucking action. The position of the edge and the
should be emphasized that, in Phase 3, the force experiences an maximum force are modulated by the gap-distance between the
abrupt transition, by which the generating stage is driven into two stages. In this way, the vibration threshold for switching on
vibration. In order to reach Phase 3, the sensing stage has to electric generation can be preset by calculating and designing
do work against the force in Phase 2. Intuitively, only when the the desired gap-distance.
2450
Fig. 4. Simulated rms output voltage of the generating stage as func-
tions of both input acceleration and the gap-distance between the two
stages.
Fig. 4 illustrates the simulated output voltage of the gen-
erating stage in terms of both the input acceleration and the
corresponding gap-distance. It can be seen in the surface plot
that there is a clearly defined range for adjusting and preset-
ting the vibratory acceleration threshold. Below the threshold,
the generated voltage level is very low and negligible. Once
the input acceleration reaches or exceeds the threshold, the
generated voltage rises abruptly, thereby well exhibiting the
triggered-generating performance of the harvester. The sim-
ulated threshold spans from 1g to 6g, commonly existing
in the applications like power-tool vibration monitoring for
labor protection [38]. When driven by an acceleration that
becomes larger than the threshold, the device will have its
output voltage always greatly larger than the below-threshold
output. Thanks to this feature, the herein proposed threshold
alarming function can be realized. With further optimization,
e.g., thinning the magnets or laying the two vibratory stages
into a non-coplanar configuration, this vibration-threshold trig-
gered energy-generating methodology may be extended to more
applications where the vibration is much weaker.
IV. C ONCEPT P ROOF W ITH P ROTOTYPED H ARVESTERS
To validate the above-described mechanism, some proto-
types of the energy harvester are designed and fabricated. The
MEMS fabrication process steps of the energy harvesters are
shown in Fig. 5 and described as follows. Fig. 5(a) and (b):
made of 50-µm-thick commercially available beryllium copper
sheet, the micromechanical spring structures are patterned by
photolithography and wet etched with aqueous ammonium per-
sulfate. The precise scales for further positioning and magnet
assembling are patterned with the second-time photolithog-
raphy and wet etching. Then, the chips in one fabrication
batch are saw-diced, with one close-up viewed in Fig. 5(c).
28-µm-thick polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) piezoelectric film
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 63, NO. 4, APRIL 2016
Fig. 5. Micro-fabrication steps of the energy-harvesting devices.
Fig. 6. Fabricated device with (a) front-side view and (b) backside view.
TABLE I
L IST OF PARAMETERS FOR THE T HREE T YPES OF PVDF H ARVESTERS
(purchased from Measurement Specialties Inc.) is used for
energy transduction. Fig. 5(d) and (e): the PVDF sheet is adhe-
sion bonded with the micromachined copper sheet via a thin
interlayer of silver paste. Then, NdFeB magnets and lead proof
masses are adhered/assembled onto the two stages by using
cyanoacrylate. The photo of a fabricated device is shown in
Fig. 5(f). For testing and experiment, the fabricated device can
be mounted on a PCB board. The leading wires are adhered to
the electrodes with silver paste, as PVDF cannot withstand the
elevated temperature for soldering.
With detailed denotation, the two-stage structure of the fab-
ricated energy harvester can be close-up viewed in Fig. 6. To
verify our idea, a total of three types of devices [with the
simulated results in Fig. 2(b)] are fabricated. The designed
parameters of the three devices are listed in Table I.
For performance test, the device is mounted on a shaker
(Sinocera JZK-5) together with a calibrated accelerometer for
testing under sinusoidal vibration. The output voltages from
both the harvester and the accelerometer are recorded with an
oscilloscope.
The vibration acceleration of the shaker ranges from 0g to
6g and the vibration frequency is chosen as 30 Hz, which is a
TANG et al.: WIRELESS ALARM MICROSYSTEM SELF-POWERED BY VIBRATION-THRESHOLD-TRIGGERED ENERGY HARVESTER 2451

typical frequency of electric drills. In fact, when a host struc-

ture undergoes damaging (e.g., drilling or violent percussion),
its own resonant modes are excited and these eigen-frequencies
instead of stochastic vibration have to be considered. Fig. 7(a)
and (b) shows the tested output voltages from both the sens-
ing stage and the generating stage of Type-2 device, where
the threshold (at h) is preset as 2.8g by designing the gap
as 600 µm. As is shown in the plots, the output signal of
the generating stage is very weak when the input acceleration
(ain ) is 2.6g, but it abruptly jumps up when ain reaches the
threshold. Therefore, the triggered power-generating effect is
well verified. Fig. 7(c)–(e) plots the measured power-generating
response in terms of input vibration level for all the three types
of devices, clearly showing the acceleration-threshold switched
power generation. With the measured results agreeing with sim-
ulation, the modulation mechanism of the vibration threshold
by the gap-distance is validated. The measured output voltages
are slightly higher than the simulated results. This probably
comes from the adhesion layer between the copper substrate
and the PVDF film, whose thickness is underestimated in sim-
ulation. Meanwhile, the bistable nature of the device makes it
susceptible to vibratory perturbation which results in the rough
surface of the simulated result plotted in Fig. 4. In other words,
the presence of noise may assist the excitation of the generating
stage. These factors also possibly make the measured voltages
to be larger than that from simulation. The results clearly shows
that the devices generate considerable power when triggered
by vibration, e.g., Type-3 generates about 15 µW (6.7 V rms
across a 3 − MΩ optimum load) under 4g acceleration. The
unique function makes the device being competent for the job
of event-driven alarming.
In addition, a harvester with preset threshold can be regarded
as a nontraditional sensor and, thus, the key factor of sensitivity
should be investigated. When a harvester is excited by vibra- Fig. 7. Experimental results to validate the threshold-triggered gener-
ating function. (a) and (b) Tested output voltage of the both stages of
tion with the acceleration near the threshold, the rising slope Type-2 device before and after triggered by the acceleration threshold of
of the triggered generation can be used to assess the sensitiv- 2.8g. (c)–(e) For the three types of fabricated devices, the simulated and
ity. The rising slope is denoted by the multiple of power when tested rms voltages of the generating stage versus input acceleration
are compared together, showing the capability of adjustable acceleration
the input acceleration increases by 0.2g at the vicinity of the threshold (ath ).
threshold. The rising slope of Type-1 is 45 times at 1.2g which
can be calculated through the measured data in Fig. 7(c). In the
same way, the rising slopes of Type-2 and Type-3 are obtained shows the relation between the sensing-stage response of Type-
as 19 times at 2.8g and 8.5 times at 4.4g, respectively. It can be 1 device to acceleration amplitude that comes from both the
seen that, when the acceleration of vibration reaches or exceeds simulation and the testing results. It can be seen that this rela-
the preset threshold and the generating stage is triggered, more tionship is also nearly linear. Therefore, the sensing stage with
than eight times energy increase has been achieved in each type predesigned threshold can record real-time ambient vibration
of the harvester. Thanks to the design of the bistable structure, and, simultaneously, trigger the generating stage for electric
the steep rising slope at the vicinity of the threshold ensures generation. The generated electric power can be supplied to a
high sensitivity. It is known that omission of alarm, i.e., false- simplified radio-frequency front-end to transmit the vibration
negative alarm, is a common problem in monitoring/alarming monitoring signal or directly drive an alarm.
applications. In our system, the effective rejection of omission With the experimentally verified smart function, the pro-
strongly relies on the sensitivity of the triggered energy har- posed and developed energy harvesting technology is very
vester. Our achieved high sensitivity is helpful for reducing the useful in nonpower-supply monitoring/alarming applications.
possibility of omission of alarm. For example, such sensing-switch function enabled energy-
Fig. 8(a) shows both the simulated and the measured harvesting micro-devices can be attached on the wall of oil
vibration-threshold level in terms of the gap between the two pipelines for real-time monitoring of wilderness petroleum
stages, resulting in good agreement between simulation and transportation, where the monitoring by human is not feasi-
measurement. The approximately linear relation indicates con- ble and on-site electricity supply is inaccessible. When thieves
venient presetting and adjustment to the threshold. Fig. 8(b) want to steal the oil by opening holes on the pipe, the drilling
2452
Fig. 8. Simulated and tested results that generally agree well with each
other. (a) Vibration threshold level has an approximately linear relation
with the designed gap between the two stages. (b) Output voltage from
the sensing stage of Type-1 device is a linear function of input vibratory
acceleration.
or hammer-knocking process will cause violent and contin-
ued vibration of the pipe. If the vibration level reaches or
exceeds the preset threshold of the energy harvester, the device
will be wakened up from sleeping state into power-generating
state. As long as the generated electric energy is sufficient
for sending out only one simple alarming signal, unattended
monitoring/alarming can be completed since the simple signal
already contains the self-sensed event information. In the usual
case, raining, wind-blowing, or traffic induced vibration cannot
reach the threshold, and the device will keep sleeping that well
avoids false alarm.
V. H ARVESTER -B ASED W IRELESS A LARMING
M ICRO -S YSTEM
A fully self-powered wireless vibration monitoring/alarming
system is developed based on the smart energy-harvesting
scheme. The system consists of four parts: energy harvester,
energy conversion circuit, control circuit and RF module, as
is shown in Fig. 9. The harvesters used here have identical
structure with one shown in details in Fig. 10. In the previ-
ous sections, PVDF is used as the transduction material for
the convenience of prototyping. In order to generate sufficient
power for quick wireless alarming, however, lead zirconium
titanate (PZT) piezoceramic is then used as the generating
material to fabricate the same structural devices, as PZT has
much higher piezoelectric coefficients compared with PVDF.
In Fig. 10, the fabricated energy harvester is put together with a
USB cable for size comparison. The parameters and threshold-
triggered power generating characteristics of the devices with
varied gap-distances are listed in Table II. The test results
of the PZT energy harvesters are plotted in Fig. 11. Due to
that the PZT structure has higher mechanical stiffness than its
PVDF counterpart, its vibratory displacement is smaller and
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 63, NO. 4, APRIL 2016
Fig. 9. Schematic of the self-powered wireless sensing system.
Fig. 10. Photo of the fabricated PZT energy harvester, where its size is
compared with a USB cable.
TABLE II
L IST OF S TRUCTURAL PARAMETERS AND C ORRESPONDING
ACCELERATION T HRESHOLDS OF THE D ESIGNED AND FABRICATED
T HREE T YPES OF PZT H ARVESTERS
the tested output voltage is a bit lower than that of the PVDF
one. However, the output power of the PZT device becomes
much higher because of the higher piezoelectric coefficients
and lower impedance. With a matching load of 60 kΩ, the PZT
harvester achieves the maximum unrectified average power
of 87 µW and the estimated power density is one order of
magnitude higher than the PVDF devices. For every specific
application, the parameters of corresponding sensing systems
should be carefully chosen. In general types of applications,
the parameters of the harvester would be set according to the
in situ measured vibration characteristics of the host structure.
For instance, the resonant frequency of the sensing stage should
meet that of the pipeline or the operation frequency of the power
tools, and the threshold should be set close to the concerning
minimum level.
In outfield applications (e.g., oil pipeline damage alarm-
ing), a transmission distance is at least a couple of kilometers.
TANG et al.: WIRELESS ALARM MICROSYSTEM SELF-POWERED BY VIBRATION-THRESHOLD-TRIGGERED ENERGY HARVESTER
Fig. 11. Experimental results of the PZT energy harvesters. (a) Tested
output voltage of the 950-µm-gap device before and after triggered by
the acceleration threshold of 3.0g. (b) Devices with varied gap-distances
exhibits different thresholds.
TABLE III
L IST OF THE PARAMETERS FOR W IRELESS DATA T RANSMISSION
According to wireless communication theory, the transmis-
sion distance D (km) is affected by transmission power Pt
(dBm), transmission antenna gain Gt (dB), receiver sensitivity
Pr (dBm), receiving antenna gain Gr (dB), carrier frequency F
(MHz), and loss L (dB) [39]. L consists of the following two
parts:
L = Lf + L o
where Lf is the free-space loss and Lo is the loss caused
by obstacle factors such as atmosphere and blocking. Lf is
determined by
Lf = 32.44 + 20 lg D + 20 lg F.
Since L = Pt + Gt + Gr − Pr , D is determined by com-
bining the above-mentioned equations and can be expressed
as
 
Pt + Gt + Gr − Pr − 32.44 − 20 lg F
D = exp . (6)
20
With Lo empirically estimated as 25 dB, a transmission dis-
tance D of 2.46 km can be achieved using the parameters in
Table III.
The generated voltage is rectified and charges into a 1-mF
tantalum capacitor for storage. The control circuit is made up
of an XC61CC voltage comparator/detector and a MOSFET-
resistor network. According to the parameters for wireless data
transmission that are listed in Table III, a TI CC1110f low-
power RF-module chip is herein used. With the aforementioned
petroleum pipeline damage alarming as application example, a
9-byte alarming data packet (including 1-byte for pipeline loca-
tion code) needs to be wirelessly sent, with a robust data rate
of 3.2 kb/s. With operation voltage as 2.7 V and transmission
current as 33 mA, calculation has shown that a 22.5-ms period
2453
Fig. 12. Test setup of the harvester-based wireless alarming system.
of time is sufficient for the data transmission that needs the
electric energy of approximately 1.96 mJ. In the control cir-
cuit, two switching threshold-voltages are set as: a lower VSW1
and a higher VSW2 . The RF-module’s turning ON/OFF is accom-
plished by the two MOSFETs of M4 and M5 . The circuit opens
when the voltage across the capacitor exceeds VSW2 and closes
while the voltage drops below VSW1 . Thus, the capacitor dis-
charges during wireless transmission of the RF-module and
recharges after the control circuit closes. VSW2 is determined
by the potential-divider network (R1 and R2 ) and the thresh-
old of M1 . The VSW1 detecting part is a self-support circuit.
The XC61CC voltage comparator works as a follower. With
parallel connection of the source and drain (for M1 and M2 ),
once M1 opens, M3 together with XC61CC and M2 will open
and hold on, even though V1 drops immediately. The thresh-
old of M4 is higher than that of M3 , which ensures that the
(4) control circuit fully opens during the transmission period of the
RF-module. The circuit opens to allow the RF-module transmit
until V1 drops below the following threshold of XC61CC.
Fig. 12 shows the test setup, including a shaker for vibra-
tion generation. Three identical harvesters are connected in
parallel for electricity generation and rectification. The charac-
(5) teristic voltages and currents in the system are measured with a
National Instruments data acquisition card (USB-6366, 16 bit).
Excited by 4g sinusoidal acceleration (slightly larger than the
set threshold of the harvester) at 52 Hz, the harvesters charge
the capacitor from 0 to 3.5 V within 45 s, which equals to an
average charging power of 64 µW. The characteristic voltages
and currents in the system are recorded and plotted in Fig. 13,
where VSW1 and VSW1 are set as 1.8 and 3.5 V, respectively.
During excitation, if the vibration (e.g., that caused by drilling)
ceases for a short period of time and then resumes, the overall
charging time will remain almost the same as that of continuous
excitation due to the extremely low consumption before circuit
starting and the low leakage current of the storage capacitor.
With further improving methods such as employing harvester
array, modifying device geometry and using application spe-
cific design, it is hopeful for the system to be optimized with
shorter charging time.
The time-domain voltage and current details during the
working period of the RF-module is plotted in Fig. 14. The ini-
tialization of the RF-module produces a peak current of 88 mA
but consumes very little energy due to its short sustaining time.
During signal transmission, a stable current of approximately
2454
Fig. 13. Characteristic voltages and currents in the wireless sensing
system under the input acceleration of 4g at 52 Hz. The control circuit
opens at 3.5 V and shuts down at 1.8 V.
Fig. 14. Time-domain voltage and current of the RF-module during one-
time wireless transmission.
28 mA is drained from the capacitor within 20 ms that con-
sumes the most part of the energy. It should be noted that, in this
system, the RF-module is configured with a continuous trans-
mission mode, i.e., it repeats to send the signal as long as there
is sufficient voltage supply. In Fig. 14, the second transmission
attempt is interrupted since the voltage drop at the capacitor
results in insufficient current supply. More attempts are made
without entering transmission phase until the capacitor voltage
is brought below VSW1 and the RF-module is shut down. Based
on experiment, the total energy consumption for one transmis-
sion is 2.12 mJ that is slightly larger than the predicted 1.96 mJ.
This slight difference is caused by the additional consump-
tion for the failed transmission attempts and the control circuit.
Given more available vibration, the signal would be repeatedly
sent to improve the alarming quality.
According to the test results in Figs. 11 and 13, the charg-
ing power of a single harvester is approximately one fourth of
that with matching load. The component dissipation contributes
25%–30% of the total loss. The forward voltage of the diodes in
the rectifying bridge dominates the dissipation, with estimated
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 63, NO. 4, APRIL 2016
Fig. 15. Preliminary reliability test of the PZT energy harvester.
(a) Drop-hammer test to evaluate the shock tolerance of the device.
The shock acceleration is plotted, with the inset showing the test setup.
(b) Tolerance to temperature is tested by putting a shaker into a pro-
grammable temperature chamber. With the temperature changed from
−20 ◦ C to 60 ◦ C, the harvester well retains its threshold-triggering func-
tion. The output voltage decreases when the temperature rises due to
the temperature dependence of the magnets remnant flux density.
5.06 mJ during the test in Fig. 13. The dissipation in the con-
trol circuit and that caused by the current leakage in the storage
capacitor are negligible compared to the bridge. The largest part
of the loss, however, is induced by the load mismatch between
the harvester and the storage capacitor, which can be improved
in future by utilizing up-conversion technique in a small-sized
management circuit [40].
For such an application-oriented system, reliability is of great
significance. Since the components used in the system other
than the energy harvester are all commercially available and
meet industrial standard, the reliability of the energy harvester
is of our main concern. Therefore, preliminary test is carried out
to evaluate shock and temperature tolerances of the PZT energy
harvester, as is illustrated in Fig. 15.
The shock tolerance of the harvester is inspected with drop-
hammer test. A free drop hammer carrying the harvester
strikes a hard surface to generate a shock acceleration of more
than 5000g. The relationship between shock acceleration and
TANG et al.: WIRELESS ALARM MICROSYSTEM SELF-POWERED BY VIBRATION-THRESHOLD-TRIGGERED ENERGY HARVESTER
dropping height was previously calibrated by using a commer-
cial shock accelerometer. All the three-dimensional directions
have been tested for five times and the harvester remains intact.
The tolerance to temperature of the PZT harvester is tested
with a programmable temperature chamber. The device is
mounted on a shaker and the whole setup is put into the cham-
ber. The generated voltages at the five temperatures of −20 ◦ C,
0 ◦ C, 20 ◦ C, 40 ◦ C, and 60 ◦ C are recorded with a National
Instruments USB-6366 data acquisition card. Fig. 15(b) plots
the RMS voltage before and after triggered generation at the
five temperatures. The great difference between the voltages of
the two statuses indicates that the threshold-triggering function
always works. It can be seen that the output voltage drops along
with the temperature increasing, which may be caused by the
temperature dependence of the magnet’s remnant flux density.
In further work, we will try to use other magnet materials with
lower temperature dependence, e.g., SmCo or AlNiCo.
VI. C ONCLUSION
A smart energy harvester and, on this basis, a fully self-
powered wireless vibration sensing system have been proposed
and developed. With the novel technique, the amount of vibra-
tion can be monitored and alarming/notification information
can be autonomously sent when the concerning amount reaches
a certain threshold. The system is based on a vibration energy
harvester with threshold-triggered power generating capabil-
ity. The energy harvester has been theoretically modeled and
with the vibration-threshold-triggered power-generating func-
tion experimentally validated. The threshold can be adjusted
by varying the gap between its sensing stage and its generat-
ing stage. The device generates electric power autonomously
when the monitored ambient vibration reaches the preset
threshold level. In the system, the generated energy accu-
mulates over time and successfully drives an RF module to
transmit the alarming/notification signal, thereby realizing the
self-powered wireless sensing function. Based on the unique
threshold-triggered energy-harvesting effect, more applications
are expected to be developed.
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Qiaochu Tang (S’12–M’15) received the B.S.
degree in microelectronics from Tsinghua
University, Beijing, China, in 2010, and the Ph.D.
degree in transducer technology from Shanghai
Institute of Microsystem and Information
Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Shanghai, China, in 2015.
He is currently with the Cost Strategy
Department, Sony Energy Device Corporation,
Koriyama, Japan. His research interests include
vibration energy harvesting and microwave
probing.
Qisheng He (S’14) received the B.S. degree
in physics from Nanjing University, Nanjing,
China, in 2013. He is currently working toward
the Ph.D. degree in transducer technology
at the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and
Information Technology, Chinese Academy of
Sciences, Shanghai, China.
His research interests include vibration
energy harvesting, power management circuits,
and micro manufacturing.
Mengyang Li received the B.S. degree in micro-
electronics from Soochow University, Suzhou,
China, in 2013, where he is currently working
toward the M.S. degree in electronic science and
technology.
His research interests include wearable
devices and self-powered wireless sensor
nodes.
Chuan Dong received the B.S. degree in elec-
trical and information engineering from Wuhan
Textile University, Hubei, China, in 2014. He
is currently working toward the M.S. degree
in microelectronic engineering at Soochow
University, Suzhou, China.
His research interests include self-powered
wireless sensor nodes and integrated navigation
systems.
Dacheng Xu received the B.S. degree in physics
education from Northwest Normal University,
Gansu, China, in 1984, and the M.S. degree
in circuits and systems from the University of
Electronic Science and Technology, Sichuan,
China, in 1992.
He was a Visiting Scholar at Twente
University, Enschede, The Netherlands, and the
National University of Singapore, Singapore.
He is currently a Professor with the Department
of Electronics and Information, Soochow
University, Suzhou, China. His research interests include vibration
energy harvester signal processing and MEMS inertial sensor circuit
designing and measurement technology.
Xinxin Li received the B.S. degree in semi-
conductor physics and devices from Tsinghua
University, Beijing, China, in 1987, and the
Ph.D. degree in microelectronics from Fudan
University, Shanghai, China, in 1998.
He was a Research Engineer with Shenyang
Institute of Instrumentation Technology,
Shenyang, China, for five years. He was also
with Hong Kong University of Science and
Technology, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, as
a Research Associate, and with Nanyang
Technological University, Singapore, as a Research Fellow. He then
joined, as a Lecturer, the Center of Excellence Research Fellowship,
Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan. Since 2001, he has been a Professor
with the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China, where he has been
serving as the Director of the State Key Laboratory of Transducer
Technology since 2007. He is the holder of more than 80 patents and
authored more than 300 papers published in refereed journals and
conference proceedings (including about 160 SCI papers). His research
interests include micro/nano sensors and MEMS/NEMS.
Dr. Li serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Micromechanics
and Microengineering. He served as a Technical Program Committee
Member of IEEE MEMS in 2008 and 2011. He has been serving as
a Technical Program Committee Member of IEEE Sensors from 2002
to the present. Since 2014, he has been serving as an International
Steering Committee Member for the conference of Transducers.