Naval Device Applications of Relaxor Piezoelectric Single Crystals

Techno-Sciences, Inc. (TSi), in collaboration with TRS Technologies, Inc. (TRS), and the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Maryland (UMD), proposes to develop an innovative Vibration Based Energy Harvesting (VBEH) Technology using single crystal PMN material. Single crystal PMN materials will be used to convert mechanical deformation into electrical energy and interface with a battery element via appropriate circuitry with the ultimate aim to power electronic devices. The energy harvester will be tuned to expected vibration spectrum of the substructure and small vibrations can be amplified by resonance tuning to achieve large energy extraction capabilities. To the best of our knowledge, this research is the first attempt towards developing a vibration based energy harvester by exploiting superior performance characteristics of new single crystal ferroelectric material, PMN. Our goal is to provide sufficient energy to power naval sensor and small electronic systems.