A Voltage Doubler Boost Converter Circuit for Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Systems

Abstract

This paper describes the detailed modelling of a vibration-based miniature piezoelectric device (PD) and the analysis modes of operation and control of a voltage doubler boost converter (VDBC) circuit to find the PD’s optimal operating conditions. The proposed VDBC circuit integrates a conventional voltage doubler (VD) circuit with a step-up DC-DC converter circuit in modes 1–4, while a non-linear synchronisation procedure of a conventional boost converter circuit is employed in modes 5–6. This integration acted as the voltage boost circuit without utilising duty cycles and complex auxiliary switching components. In addition, the circuit does not require external trigger signals to turn on the bidirectional switches. This facilitates the operation of VDBC circuit at very low AC voltage (Vac ≥ 0.5 V). Besides this, the electrical characteristics of VDBC circuit’s input (i.e., PD) perfectly concurs with the studied testing scenarios using impedance power sources (mechanical shaker). Firstly, the proposed circuit which can rectify the PD’s output was tested at both constant input voltage with varying excitation frequency and constant excitation frequency with varying input voltage. Next, a small-scale solar battery was charged to validate the feasibility of the performance of the proposed VDBC circuit. The proposed circuit achieved a maximum output voltage of 11.7 Vdc with an output power of 1.37 mW. In addition, the rectified voltage waveform is stable due to the sminimisation of the ripples. In addition, the performance of VDBC circuit was verified by comparing the achieved results with previously published circuits in the literature. The results show that the proposed VDBC circuit outperformed existing units as described in the literature regarding output voltage and power. The developed rectifier circuit is suitable for various real-life applications such as energy harvesting and battery charging.

A Self-Powered VDJT AC–DC Conversion Circuit for Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Systems

“…Alternately, it also can be considered as voltage in series with its internal capacitor, C P [5,24,[34][35][36]. The internal characteristics of the PG in AC voltage (i.e., positive and negative cycles) are explained below and depicted in Figure 3b [5,8,9,11,[37][38][39][40][41][42].…”

“…As a result, the VD circuit's output voltage is doubled and stored in the load capacitor, C L1 . The VD circuit's output power varies with rectified voltage [11,43], and the optimum power output occurs when [5,8,9,11,[37][38][39][40][41][42]:…”

“…In practice, PGs are confined to low-power domains in the micro/milliwatt category caused by physically constrained features like internal capacitance and resistance [1][2][3][4]. They can withstand extremely high pressure but have minimal strain and make huge material quantities challenging to use [5][6][7][8][9]. In contrast, most anticipated excitations are generally in the range of 0.1 to 1 kHz and produce low voltage levels, whereas most electronic equipment requires 3 to 5 V dc.…”

Evaluation of Power Storage Circuit for Piezoelectric Energy Harvester in Impact Mode

“…There are many literatures which discuss development of power storage circuit with the use of full wave diode rectifier circuit as the converter [10][11][12][13][14]. Apart from these circuits, voltage doubler circuit is also capable of converting the output to DC signal [16][17][18][19].…”

A High-Reliability Piezoelectric Tile Transducer for Converting Bridge Vibration to Electrical Energy for Smart Transportation

“…Among them, mechanical energy harvesting based on the piezoelectric effect is an important method since electrical energy can be directly obtained from transportation operations. Using the vibrational forces from cars moving on a bridge or road or by harnessing human footsteps on the street, a piezoelectric transducer produces an electric charge, which can provide a power source for traffic control, structural health monitoring, internet-of-things devices, electric vehicles, or lighting on the street [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ].…”