

This paper presents an ultrasonic micro power generator using the piezoelectric direct effect phenomena. The micro power generator consists of 2 main elements, a movement matt including PZT elements and an energy harvesting circuit. The movement matt is made up of a four PZT elements each element creating a cantilever beam. The energy harvesting circuit is made up of an LTC3588 Evaluation Board and an LDR night light. Computer simulation and modelling using finite element analysis for the proposed generation method is discussed and used in the design and development process. Finite element analysis has been used to evaluate the PZT structure by performing an algebraic solution of a set of equations, describing an ideal model structure, with a finite number of variables. The simulation and modelling enabled to select the material and best method of operation. A prototype of the proposed generator was built and tested. This demonstrated that piezoelectric material could produce up to 36V, although the overall impedance of such devices was shown to be linear depending on the force applied with an average of 36MΩ. The Energy harvesting circuit allowed an output super capacitor to be step charged taking an average time of 35-minutes to charge and 2-minutes to discharge through the selected load.