Design considerations to enhance the performances of thin circular piezoelectric energy harvester diaphragms in harsh liquid environments

Thin circular piezoelectric energy harvester diaphragms undergoing large deflection in a harsh liquid environment are investigated in this paper. A material set combining AlN as transducer, SiC as electronics, Mo as wiring and Si as holder is considered. A highly accurate analytical model, which presents less than 5% error compared to FEM simulations in COMSOL, is first developed to study thoroughly flat diaphragms. Consequently, etching the wafer and adding a corrugation are proposed to reduce both the stress concentration at the edge and the influence of residual stress on the device behavior, respectively. Both ideas are predicted to increase the power density compared to the standard flat case by at least a factor of 5 to 10.