An architecture of ulp energy harvesting power conditioning circuit using piezoelectric transducer for wireless sensor network: A review

Abstract

Energy harvesting system converts ambient energy (examples: vibration, light, temperature and wind, etc.) into useable electrical energy. This system can replace the function of battery for small Ultra-Low-Power (ULP) electronic devices. The slag of batteries is harmful to the environment as well as hazardous to human health. Recent research trends in energy harvesting systems are extracting maximum energy from wind energy using piezoelectric cantilever. This study presents the development of a Power Conditioning Circuit (PCC) for maximum harvested energy by using piezoelectric transducers. To achieve this, a self-PCC consisting of voltage doubler, charge pump, DC-DC converter and bypass path was designed. The output from the piezoelectric transducer is an AC voltage. To rectify the piezoelectric output, the voltage doubler was performed. Initially, the capacitor was charged via a bypass path. Once, the storage charge of the capacitor is sufficient to run the Microcontroller unit, this unit will stop the bypass path and on the active path. A low power Microcontroller was used for coding Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) algorithm. The system modeling, design and analysis of the proposed PCC energy harvesting was simulated in active components using PSPICE software and later on the MPPT algorithm was coded in MATLAB. Then the PSPICE simulation and MPPT code was integrated for evaluating the system performance.Finally, a self-powered and fully autonomous energy harvesting power conditioning circuit layout was designed in 0.13 μm. CMOS technology under Mentor Graphics. This PCC will ensure sufficient power to drive electronic devices such as Wireless Sensor Network (WSN), hearing aid, electronic watchand calculator, etc. This battery less ULP energy harvester capable to harvest maximum24 mW power with an expected efficiency of 90% and output voltage of 3 V from low ambient sources of 500 mV at start up. Also, this ULP energy harvesting system reducing power consumption as compared to the conventional approaches.