Interdigitated electrode (IDE) systems with lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin films play an increasingly important role for two reasons: first, such a configuration generates higher voltages than parallel plate capacitor-type electrode (PPE) structures, and second, the application of an electric field leads to a compressive stress component in addition to the overall stress state, unlike a PPE structure, which results in tensile stress component. Because ceramics tend to crack at relatively moderate tensile stresses, this means that IDEs have a lower risk of cracking than PPEs. For these reasons, IDE systems are ideal for energy harvesting of vibration energy, and for actuators. Systematic investigations of PZT films with IDE systems have not yet been undertaken. In this work, we present results on the evaluation of the in-plane piezoelectric coefficients with IDE systems. Additionally, we also propose a simple and measurable figure of merit (FOM) to analyze and evaluate the relevant piezoelectric parameter for harvesting efficiency without the need to fabricate the energy harvesting device. Idealized effective coefficients e(IDE) and h(IDE) are derived, showing its composite nature with about one-third contribution of the transverse effect, and about two-thirds contribution of the longitudinal effect in the case of a PZT film deposited on a (100)-oriented silicon wafer with the in-plane electric field along one of the < 011 > Si directions. Randomly oriented 1-mu m-thick PZT 53/47 film deposited by a sol-gel technique, was evaluated and yielded an effective coefficient e(IDE) of 15 C.m(-2). Our FOM is the product between effective e and h coefficient representing twice the electrical energy density stored in the piezoelectric film per unit strain deformation (both for IDE and PPE systems). Assuming homogeneous fields between the fingers, and neglecting the contribution from below the electrode fingers, the FOM for IDE structures with larger electrode gap is derived to be twice as large as for PPE structures, for PZT-5H properties. The experiments yielded an FOM of the IDE structures of 1.25 x 10(10) J/m(3) and 14 mV/mu strain.