An efficient piezoelectric energy-harvesting interface circuit using a Bias-Flip rectifier and shared inductor

Abstract

Energy harvesting is an emerging technology with applications to handheld, portable and implantable electronics. Harvesting ambient vibration energy through piezoelectric (PE) means is a popular energy harvesting technique that can potentially supply 10 to 100's of muW of available power. One of the limitations of existing PE harvesters is in their interface circuitry. Commonly used full-bridge rectifiers and voltage doublers severely limit the electrical power extractable from a PE harvesting element. Further, the power consumed in the control circuits of these harvesters reduces the amount of usable electrical power. In this paper, a bias-flip rectifier that can improve upon the power extraction capability of existing full-bridge rectifiers by up to 4.2times is presented. An efficient control circuit with embedded DC-DC converters that can share their filter inductor with the bias-flip rectifier thereby reducing the volume and component count of the overall solution is demonstrated. The circuit diagram and figures are also given.