A Novel Multifunctional AlN Piezoelectric Nanogenerator for Biomedical Pressure Sensing

The conventional pressure monitoring sensors have the significant drawback of consuming high power, leading to shorter battery life. In this article, several multifunctional piezoelectric transducers are implemented for self-powered pressure sensing and energy harvesting (EH). It eliminates the need for separate transducers for pressure sensing and EH. This approach optimizes resources and reduces costs. The piezoelectric EH/sensor uses a lead-free, biocompatible, high-performance aluminum nitride (AlN) transducer. This article presents the mathematical modeling and numerical simulations for optimized design along with the fabrication of several piezoelectric thin-film micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) transducer (energy converter) diaphragm structures for improved pressure sensitivity and power density. The experimental results demonstrate the maximum sensitivity and power density of 0.091 V/kPa and 0.9 mW/cm3, respectively.