| Summary: | Vibration based inertial energy generators have
become significantly popular due to the growing demand of
wireless sensor networks which need miniature, portable,
long lasting and easily recharged sources of power. Usage of
hazardous batteries is an unacceptable solution to power up
the densely populated nodes due to their bulky sizes and high
battery replacement cost. As such, the viability of ‘green’
microelectromechanical (MEMS) vibration based inertial
energy generator has become even more dominant. This
paper reports the design and simulation of a cantilever
piezoelectric inertial energy generator based on bulk silicon
micromachining for wireless condition monitoring in power
plants. Power plants generate ambient vibrations in the low
kHz range which can be harvested to power the wireless
condition monitoring circuits. Output power of the system
will be enhanced when it is operated at the ambient resonance
frequency. This paper discusses the effect of various lengths,
shapes and volume of the cantilever beam, to its natural
resonant frequency. The effect of different piezoelectric
material with the maximum output power produced is also
highlighted. The design and finite element modeling was
conducted using MEM PZE module in Coventorware. TM
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