Fully Printed Unobtrusive and Skin-conformable Piezoelectric Energy Harvester

Abstract

Flexible piezoelectric energy harvesters have the potential to be used as a power supply in low-power wearable electronic systems. However, the complexity of the fabrication process complicates their integration in these types of systems. This study proposes a simple printing-based fabrication process for a lightweight and skin-conformable piezoelectric energy harvester. First, an interdigitated electrode (IDE) structure is inkjet printed using the conductive polymer ink PEDOT:PSS. The piezoelectric polymer (P(VDF-TrFE)) is then bar-coated on top of the electrodes. The fabricated energy harvester shows a maximum power of 2.4 nW and a power density of 0.5 µW/cm<sup>3</sup>. This study introduces a promising fabrication process for the development of flexible piezoelectric energy harvesters for self-powered systems.