Comparative study between the pillar- and bulk-type multilayer structures for piezoelectric energy harvesters

In this paper, we present piezoelectric energy harvesters with pillar‐ and bulk‐type multilayer ceramic–polymer composite structures as energy sources. The 0.2(PbMg1/3Nb2/3O3)–0.8(PbZr0.475Ti0.525O3) ceramics were sintered and poled using the conventional ceramic process. The piezoelectric ceramics were prepared in the form of rectangular pillar‐ and cylindrical bulk‐type structures and were attached to the metallic bottom electrode with poled states. Symmetric upper electrodes were attached to the other side. The pillar‐ and bulk‐type ceramic structures were filled with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Subsequently, the two ceramic structure types were manufactured with single‐, double‐, and triple‐layer devices. Both the multi‐ and single‐layer devices were compared using several analysis methods. The piezoelectric properties, including the piezoelectric constant, are discussed in this paper. We also studied the output power of the multi‐ and single‐layer devices.