Magnetoelectric vibrational energy harvester utilizing a phase transitional approach

A broadband magnetoelectric energy harvester, consisting of Fe1−xGax (Galfenol) as the magnetostrictor and a relaxor ferroelectric single crystal as the piezoelectric, has been designed and optimized. Finite element analysis (FEA) has been employed to show that either a linear displacement or a 180° rotation of a magnet is sufficient to achieve maximum stroke from the Galfenol rod, which induces a rhombohedral to orthorhombic phase transition in Pb(In1/2Nb1/2)O3–Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–PbTiO3 that produces a large jump in voltage. A rotational design based on a pendulum with an unbalanced mass was fabricated and used to confirm the validity of our FEA model.