A Synchronized Switching Strategy to Increase Energy Harvesting Efficiency from Micro-scale Vibration Energy

摘要

Energy harvesting technology has recently received considerable attention owing to the increasing demand of energy in low-power-consuming microsystems used in daily applications. Piezoelectric elements, in particular, have received considerable attention as promising energy harvesting systems. In this study, a surge-inducing synchronized switching strategy is proposed to effectively increase the energy harvesting efficiency. This switching strategy exploits the full potential of the surge phenomenon such that the voltage produced by the piezo harvester can easily overcome the threshold voltage accompanied by the diode. The effectiveness of the switching strategy proposed in this study was demonstrated by applying it to a simple cantilever beam-type piezoelectric harvester. Then, its superiority was assessed by comparing it with the conventional harvesting circuits.