Project Details
[Return to Previous Page]Acoustic Energy Harvesting for Self-Powered Wireless Devices: Design, Characterization, and Validation of a Resonant Piezoelectric Power Module
Company: SignaHz
Major(s):
Primary: EE
Secondary: ME
Optional: EGEE
Non-Disclosure Agreement: YES
Intellectual Property: YES
Overview: Energy harvesting is the practice of capturing small amounts of ambient energy from the environment and converting it into usable electrical power. As wireless sensors and connected devices become more widespread, there is growing demand for power sources that reduce or eliminate the need for batteries, which are costly to replace, generate waste, and limit where devices can be placed. This project explores acoustic energy harvesting, in which acoustic pressure waves are converted into electrical energy using a piezoelectric transducer. The central engineering challenge is that raw acoustic energy is low in magnitude and must be captured efficiently and then conditioned into a stable, usable electrical output. To capture energy efficiently, the system uses an acoustic resonator, a tuned mechanical structure that amplifies acoustic pressure at a target frequency and couples it to a piezoelectric element. The harvested electrical output is then conditioned and stored so it can power a low energy electronic load. This project is part of an active product development effort that has received grant support from Autodesk and intellectual property counsel from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School Detkin Intellectual Property and Technology Legal Clinic, and continues to work with the Penn State Law Intellectual Property Clinic. The student team will design, build, and validate a working bench prototype of the harvesting system. The sponsor will provide commercial evaluation hardware, a materials budget supported by the Autodesk grant, access to Autodesk design software such as Fusion 360 for modeling and fabrication, and ongoing technical mentorship. Deliverables: 1. Background review and design targets: summarize acoustic energy harvesting, resonant coupling, and piezoelectric transduction, and define quantitative, testable performance targets for the system in coordination with the sponsor. 2. Resonator design and fabrication: design a tuned acoustic resonator in CAD, fabricate it using 3D printing or comparable methods, and iterate the geometry to maximize coupling with the provided piezoelectric transducer at the target frequency. 3. Harvester characterization: measure electrical output across a range of acoustic input conditions, including steady and intermittent inputs, using provided instrumentation, and report voltage, current, power, and an estimate of acoustic to electrical conversion efficiency. 4. Power conditioning and energy management: convert the harvested output into a stable regulated voltage using the provided power management hardware, and size energy storage so the system can accumulate intermittent harvested energy and support duty cycled operation of the load. 5. Battery free demonstration: demonstrate the complete system operating with no external power source, in which harvested energy powers a representative low energy wireless sensing event, such as waking a microcontroller, taking a sensor reading, and transmitting or logging the result. 6. Final report and dataset: document the design, measured performance against the defined targets, conversion efficiency, limitations, and recommendations for future optimization, with the full test dataset. Optional stretch goal: explore resonator variants to broaden usable bandwidth, or benchmark an alternative geometry against the baseline. The ideal outcome is a documented, working hardware platform that reliably converts acoustic input into usable electrical power and demonstrates the feasibility of self powered wireless sensing. The module is intended to integrate into a larger wireless sensing network.
