A Piezoelectric Harvesting Interface with Capacitive Partial Electric Charge Extraction for Energy Harvesting from Irregular High-Voltage Input

Abstract

A fully integrated piezoelectric energy harvesting interface is proposed for harvesting energy from irregular human motion. To handle irregular pulse inputs generated by the piezoelectric transducer (PZT), the proposed harvesting interface includes a wake-up controller that activates the harvesting interface only when human motion is detected and deformation is applied on the piezoelectric material, thereby keeping static power loss low. The PZT output voltage is increased to its peak voltage by removing any type of external load capacitance seen by the PZT during its deformation. Once the peak voltage is detected, a multi-voltage conversion-ratio-based switched-capacitor circuit is activated to transfer PZT-generated energy to the battery in multiple ratio steps to maximize the conversion efficiency, with the help of a carefully designed harvesting controller. To deal with open-circuit voltages (V OCS ) higher than the maximum voltage tolerated (V MAX ) by available technology, capacitive partial electric charge extraction is activated every time the PZT output voltage approaches the V MAX . The proposed harvesting interface extracts 3.37 times more energy than a conventional full-bridge rectifier-based harvesting scheme.

Dual Piezoelectric Energy Investing and Harvesting Interface for High-Voltage Input

“…Figure 11 shows the simulation results of the proposed harvesting interface for quantitative analysis. Unlike most of the prior works, this work deals with the discontinuous input pulses; therefore, quantitative analysis could be carried out in terms of energy, as presented in some of the recent works [ 28 , 29 , 37 , 44 ]. The energy harvested using the proposed harvesting interface in a single deformation cycle is represented as E HRV , and the energy consumed during this single harvesting operation is termed E LOSS .…”

Energy Interplay in Materials: Unlocking Next‐Generation Synchronous Multisource Energy Conversion with Layered 2D Crystals

“…Vertically integrating energy harvesting and conversion systems into energy storage devices provides a direct pathway to achieve both low‐loss energy storage and rectification to minimize overall device footprint. [ 142–145 ] While exploring the options for coupling SMECs to energy storage devices is imperative, it is beyond the scope of this perspective, and the authors direct readers to a comprehensive review of options in this area by Pu, Hu, and Wang. [ 146 ]…”

“…Vertically integrating energy harvesting and conversion systems into energy storage devices provides a direct pathway to achieve both low-loss energy storage and rectification to minimize overall device footprint. [142][143][144][145] While exploring the options for coupling SMECs to energy storage devices is imperative, it is beyond the scope of this perspective, and the authors direct readers to a comprehensive review of options in this area by Pu, Hu, and Wang. [146] Layered 2D SMEC materials will provide two advantages for the coupling to energy storage devices compared to materials relying on individual energy inputs; 1) a significantly higher charge generation enabling faster charging of energy storage devices and, thus, reduced consequential parasitic losses; and 2) the ability to vdWs stack key components of energy storage devices, including metallic films and graphite electrodes, decreasing the energy barrier for charge transport from the SMEC material to the energy storage device.…”

Review of Active Circuit and Passive Circuit Techniques to Improve the Performance of Highly Efficient Energy Harvesting Systems

“…[53][54][55], complete bridge diode rectifier and voltage double are the most popular interface circuits for piezoelectric energy harvesters. Researchers have also found many ways to change rectifier circuits, such as the switch-only rectifier [56][57][58][59] and the bias-flip rectifier [60][61]. To make a synchronous rectifier circuit, diode-connected transistors are changed with full bridge active diode circuits [62][63][64], active voltage double [65][66], or cross-coupled MOSFETs [67][68][69].…”