Coulomb-damped resonant generators using piezoelectric transduction

Abstract

Switching interface circuits employed with piezoelectric energy harvesters can increase the electrical damping considerably over that achievable with passive rectifiers. We show that a piezoelectric harvester coupled to certain types of switching circuits becomes a Coulomb-damped resonant generator. This allows analysis of such harvester systems within a well-known framework and, subject to practical constraints, allows the optimal electrical damping to be achieved. In the piezoelectric pre-biasing technique, the Coulomb damping is set by a pre-bias voltage whose optimal value is derived as a function of piezoelectric harvester parameters. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.