A piezoelectric self-powered active interface for AC/DC power conversion improvement of electromagnetic energy harvesting

Abstract

In the framework of hybrid energy harvesting for scavenging ambient motion, this paper proposes a cooperative piezoelectricelectromagnetic energy harvesting system to harvest rotational energy. In particular, while the actual process of harvesting energy is accomplished by the electromagnetic device, the piezoelectric element is used for improving the AC/DC conversion efficiency of the former. To do so, a half wave voltage doubler using MOSFETs driven by the piezoelement is employed. The low voltage output (order of magnitude of mV) of the electromagnetic system and the low conversion abilities of the piezoelectric transducer in the proposed mechanical structure justifies the motivation behind this work. Simulations followed by experimental validations are exposed and discussed, highlighting the improvement of energy conversion efficiency of an electromagnetic transducer, giving a power gain of 27 with respect to the DC power obtained with standard silicon diodes.