A novel method for piezoelectric energy harvesting from keyboard

This paper presents a novel method and apparatus for converting keystrokes to electrical energy using a resonant energy harvester, which can be coupled with keyboards. The state-of-the-art dome switch design is modified to excite the tip of the energy harvester beam. Piezoelectric transduction converts vibrations to electrical power. The energy harvester design is optimized to give highest voltage output under use conditions, and is fabricated. A close match is observed for the first natural frequency. When the piezoelectric energy harvester is excited at 7.62 Hz with tip excitation to emulate keyboard use, 16.95 mu W of power is generated.