A U.S. Patent was issued on June 2, 2105 for the “Multistage Force Amplification of Piezoelectric Stacks†invention (Patent No: US9,048,759 B2). National Institute of Aerospace Senior Research Scientist, Tian-Bing Xu, is the lead inventor. Other team members include: Mia Siochi (LaRC), Lei Zuo (now at VT), Xiaoning Jiang (now at NCSU), and Jin Ho Kang (NIA). The team developed an apparatus for harvesting mechanical vibration/motion energy from a piezoelectric device. The technology has a wide variety of applications in energy management. The device is substantially lighter than current batteries, portable, and produces enough energy to power electronic devices such as cell phones. Recent comparison tests at LaRC showed that this device produced at least 4x the energy of a similar commercial piezoelectric energy harvester.
