Resonant Rectifier ICs for Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Using Low-voltage Drop Diode Equivalents

Herein, we present the design technique of a resonant rectifier for piezoelectric (PE) energy harvesting. We propose two diode equivalents to reduce the voltage drop in the rectifier operation, a minuscule-drop-diode equivalent (MDDE) and a low-drop-diode equivalent (LDDE). The diode equivalents are embedded in resonant rectifier integrated circuits (ICs), which use symmetric bias-flip to reduce the power wasted for charging and discharging the internal capacitance of a PE transducer. The self-startup function is supported by synchronously generating control pulses for the bias-flip from the PE transducer. Two resonant rectifier ICs, using both MDDE and LDDE, are fabricated in a 0.18 μm CMOS process and their performances are characterized under external and self-power conditions. Under the external-power condition, the rectifier using LDDE delivers an output power POUT of 564 μW and a rectifier output voltage VRECT of 3.36 V with a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 90.1%. Under self-power conditions, the rectifier using MDDE delivers a POUT of 288 μW and a VRECT of 2.4 V with a corresponding PCE of 74.6%. The result shows that the power extraction capability of the proposed rectifier is 5.9 and 3.0 times higher than that of a conventional full-bridge rectifier.

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An Efficient CMOS Dual Switch Rectifier for Piezoelectric Energy-Harvesting Circuits

Electronics ◽

10.3390/electronics8010066 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

pp. 66 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Amad Ud Din ◽

Muhammad Kamran ◽

Waqar Mahmood ◽

Khursheed Aurangzeb ◽

Abdulaziz Saud Altamrah ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Threshold Voltage ◽

Power Conversion ◽

Research Work ◽

Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting ◽

Energy Scavenging ◽

Cmos Process ◽

Power Extraction ◽

Active Rectifier ◽

Piezoelectric Energy ◽

Bridge Rectifier

In this research work, we investigated a dual switch (DS) active rectifier for the piezoelectric (PE) energy scavenging system. In the proposed DS active rectifier configuration, two extra switches are shunted across the PE transducer which helps the PE transducer’s capacitor in charging and discharging which results in maximum power extraction from the PE transducer. Moreover, in the proposed rectifier configuration comparator controlled active diodes are used instead of conventional/passive diodes to minimize the threshold voltage V T H drop. The proposed DS active rectifier design is fabricated in a 1-poly 6-metal 180-nm standard CMOS process. The simulation and measured results of the proposed DS active rectifier design have the better power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 91.5 %, which definitely helps in extracting more power than the conventional full bridge rectifier (FBR).

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Resonant Rectifier ICs for Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Using Low-Voltage Drop Diode Equivalents

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s17040901 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 17 (4) ◽

pp. 901 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Amad Din ◽

Seneke Chandrathna ◽

Jong-Wook Lee

Keyword(s):

Energy Harvesting ◽

Low Voltage ◽

Voltage Drop ◽

Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting ◽

Piezoelectric Energy

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An Efficient Interface Circuit for Miniature Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting with P-SSHC

Journal of Circuits System and Computers ◽

10.1142/s0218126620200042 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 29 (08) ◽

pp. 2020004

Author(s):

Lianxi Liu ◽

Yu Shang ◽

Jiangwei Cheng ◽

Zhangming Zhu

Keyword(s):

Energy Harvesting ◽

High Efficiency ◽

Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting ◽

Cmos Process ◽

Two Stage ◽

Zero Crossing ◽

Interface Circuit ◽

Power Extraction ◽

Piezoelectric Energy ◽

Synchronous Rectifier

A miniature and high-efficiency interface circuit based on parallel synchronous switch harvesting on capacitors (P-SSHC) for piezoelectric energy harvesting (PEH) is proposed in this paper. This interface circuit consists of a two-stage synchronous rectifier and the P-SSHC circuit. The two-stage synchronous rectifier, composed of a negative voltage converter (NVC) and an active diode (AD), achieves higher efficiency compared with the full-bridge rectifier (FBR). In addition, the two-stage synchronous rectifier detects the zero-crossing moment of the input current; therefore, an extra current zero-crossing detection circuit is eliminated, which simplifies the structure of the interface circuit, reduces power consumption and improves peak converting efficiency. The P-SSHC circuit aims to improve the power extraction capability of the rectifier. The P-SSHC achieves considerable voltage flipping efficiency with very small volume compared to the parallel synchronized switch harvesting on inductor (P-SSHI), which is more suitable for volume sensitive applications. The proposed interface circuit is designed in SMIC 0.35[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]m CMOS process. Simulation results show that it achieves a [Formula: see text] output power improvement compared with FBR for the case of a 3.4[Formula: see text]V open-circuit voltage, the voltage flipping efficiency is as high as 83.6% and the peak power converting efficiency is up to 91.5%. The overall volume of the capacitors used in this paper is only 0.6[Formula: see text]mm3, which is much smaller than the inductor used by conventional P-SSHI interface circuit.

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A 40-nm CMOS Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting IC for Wearable Biomedical Applications

Electronics ◽

10.3390/electronics10060649 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (6) ◽

pp. 649

Author(s):

Chua-Chin Wang ◽

Lean Karlo S. Tolentino ◽

Pin-Chuan Chen ◽

John Richard E. Hizon ◽

Chung-Kun Yen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Energy Harvesting ◽

Integrated Circuit ◽

Biomedical Applications ◽

Low Voltage ◽

Piezoelectric Materials ◽

Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting ◽

Cmos Process ◽

Timing Control ◽

Piezoelectric Energy ◽

Biomedical Device

This investigation presents an energy harvesting IC (integrated circuit) for piezoelectric materials as a substitute for battery of a wearable biomedical device. It employs a voltage multiplier as first stage which uses water bucket fountain approach to boost the very low voltage generated by the piezoelectric. The boosted voltage was further improved by the boost DC/DC converter which follows a predefined timing control directed by the digital logic for the said converter to be operated efficiently. TSMC 40-nm CMOS process was used for implementation and fabrication of the energy harvesting IC. The chip’s core has an area of 0.013 mm2. With an output of 1 V which is enough to supply the wearable biomedical devices, it exhibited the highest pump gain and accommodated the lowest piezoelectric generated voltage among recent related works.

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A High Efficiency Self-Powered Rectifier for Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Systems

Journal of Circuits System and Computers ◽

10.1142/s0218126616501644 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 25 (12) ◽

pp. 1650164 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Jingmin Wang ◽

Zheng Yang ◽

Zhangming Zhu ◽

Yintang Yang

Keyword(s):

Energy Harvesting ◽

Power Efficiency ◽

High Efficiency ◽

Supply Voltage ◽

Voltage Drop ◽

Current Source ◽

Power Extraction ◽

Piezoelectric Energy ◽

Harvesting Systems ◽

Self Powered

A high efficiency self-powered rectifier for piezoelectric (PE) energy harvesting systems is proposed. The rectifier in this paper increases the harvested power from the PE transducer by using two switches to reset the transducer capacitor when appropriate. The control circuit for the proposed rectifier is simple and does not require an external supply voltage. Furthermore, the passive diode of the conventional full-bridge (FB) rectifier is replaced by active diode to reduce the voltage drop along the conduction path and thereby increases the power extraction and conversion capability. Based on SMIC 0.18[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]m standard CMOS technology, the simulation results show the voltage conversion efficiency can reach up to 98.9% and the maximum power efficiency is 93.1% when the input current source [Formula: see text]A in parallel with internal capacitor [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]nF and internal resistor [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]M[Formula: see text].

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A Self-Powered Hybrid SSHI Circuit with a Wide Operation Range for Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s21020615 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (2) ◽

pp. 615

Author(s):

Liao Wu ◽

Peidong Zhu ◽

Minghua Xie

Keyword(s):

Energy Harvesting ◽

Output Voltage ◽

Power Conversion ◽

Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting ◽

Half Cycle ◽

Voltage Range ◽

Piezoelectric Energy ◽

Capacitor Voltage ◽

Bridge Rectifier ◽

Self Powered

This paper presents a piezoelectric (PE) energy harvesting circuit, which integrates a Synchronized Switch Harvesting on Inductor (SSHI) circuit and a diode bridge rectifier. A typical SSHI circuit cannot transfer the power from a PE cantilever into the load when the rectified voltage is higher than a certain voltage. The proposed circuit addresses this problem. It uses the two resonant loops for flipping the capacitor voltage and energy transfer in each half cycle. One resonant loop is typically used for the parallel SSHI scheme, and the other for the series SSHI scheme. The hybrid SSHI circuit using the two resonant loops enables the proposed circuit’s output voltage to no longer be limited. The circuit is self-powered and has the capability of starting without the help of an external battery. Eleven simple discrete components prototyped the circuit. The experimental results show that, compared with the full-bridge (FB) circuit, the amount of power harvested from a PE cantilever and the Voltage Range of Interest (VRI) of the proposed circuit is increased by 2.9 times and by 4.4 times, respectively. A power conversion efficiency of 83.2% is achieved.

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