Characterization of a nonlinear MEMS-based piezoelectric resonator for wideband micro power generation

Micro-scale piezoelectric unimorph beams with attached proof masses are the most prevalent structures in MEMS-based energy harvesters considering micro fabrication and natural frequency limitations. In doubly clamped beams a nonlinear stiffness is observed as a result of midplane stretching effect which leads to amplitude-stiffened Duffing resonance. In this study, a nonlinear model of a doubly clamped piezoelectric micro power generator, taking into account geometric nonlinearities including stretching and large curvatures, is investigated. The governing nonlinear coupled electromechanical partial differential equations of motion are determined by exploiting Hamilton's principle. A semi-analytical approach implementing the perturbation method of multiple scales is used to solve the nonlinear coupled differential equations and analyze the primary and superharmonic resonances. Results indicate that operational bandwidth of the nonlinear harvester is enhanced considerably with respect to linear models. Moreover considerable amount of power is generated due to occurrence of superharmonic resonances. This yields to extraction of energy at subharmonics of the natural frequency which is crucially important in MEMS-based harvesters.