SPICE modelling of a coupled piezoelectric-bimetal heat engine for autonomous Wireless Sensor Nodes (WSN) power supply

• Published in: Journal of physics. Conference series Vol. 557; no. 1; pp. 12091 - 5
• Main Authors: Boughaleb, J, Monfray, S, Vine, G, Cottinet, P J, Arnaud, A, Boisseau, S, Duret, A B, Quenard, S, Puscasu, O, Maitre, C, Trochut, S, Hasbani, F, Di Gilio, T, Heinrich, V, Urard, P, Grasset, J C, Boeuf, F, Guyomar, D, Skotnicki, T
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bristol IOP Publishing 27.11.2014; IOP Science
• Subjects: Autonomous; Bimetals; Charge simulation; Circuits; Electric power generation; Energy harvesting; Engineering Sciences; Harvesters; Heat engines; Modelling; Optimization; Physics; Piezoelectric ceramics; Piezoelectric transducers; Power management; Spices; Temperature gradients; Thermal energy; Wireless sensor networks
• ISSN: 1742-6588; 1742-6596; 1742-6596; 1742-6588
• DOI: 10.1088/1742-6596/557/1/012091

This paper deals with an electrical modelling and optimization of a thermal energy harvester dedicated to power autonomous systems. Such devices based on bimetal strips and piezoceramics turn thermal gradients into electricity by a two-step conversion mechanism. This work focuses first on a demonstration of a ST-WSN (GreenNet demonstration platform) supplied by the harvester to validate, for the first time, the harvesters viability. That demonstration focuses attention on the need for an optimized power management circuit for piezoelectric generators able to reach output voltages up to 20 V. The work deals then with the proposal of an equivalent lumped element model of the piezoelectric transducer with its SPICE implementation to enable the optimization of a dedicated power management circuit based on the Pulsed Synchronous Charge Extractor (PSCE). Simulations using the SPICE model and the power management circuit lead to an increased extracted power by 144%.