Enhancement of surge-induced synchronized switch harvesting on inductor strategy

• Published in: Smart materials and structures Vol. 30; no. 6; pp. 65014 - 65030
• Main Authors: Onoda, Junjiro, Minesugi, Kenji, Kwon, Seong-Cheol, Oh, Hyun-Ung
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IOP Publishing 01.06.2021
• Subjects: energy harvesting; low-amplitude vibration; piezoelectric; surge voltage
• ISSN: 0964-1726; 1361-665X
• DOI: 10.1088/1361-665X/abfa66

Abstract We propose and demonstrate a novel method to enhance vibration harvesting based on surge-induced synchronized switch harvesting on inductor (S 3 HI). S 3 HI allows harvesting of a large amount of energy even from low-amplitude vibrations by inducing a surge voltage during the voltage inversion of a synchronized switch harvesting on inductor (SSHI). The surge voltage and the voltage amplification from the conventional voltage inversion improve energy harvesting. S 3 HI modifies SSHI by both rewiring the circuit without adding components and using a novel switching pattern for voltage inversion, thus maintaining the simplicity of SSHI. We propose a novel switching strategy and circuit topology and analyze six methods that constitute the S 3 HI family, which includes traditional S 3 HI and high-frequency S 3 HI. We demonstrate that the six methods suitably harvest energy even from low-amplitude vibrations. Nevertheless, the harvestable energy per vibration cycle depends on the switching pattern and storage-capacitor voltage. The use of the proposed switching strategy, which allows energy harvesting before energy-dissipative voltage inversion, substantially increases the harvestable energy per vibration cycle. In the typical case considered in this study, the said increase is on the order of 11%–31% and 15%–450% compared to the traditional and existing high-frequency S 3 HI methods, respectively, depending on the storage-capacitor voltage. Additionally, the proposed circuit can be used as a traditional circuit. It could be considered a promising alternative to S 3 HI methods owing to its potential auto-reboot capability, which is not found in traditional S 3 HI circuit.