Low-Cost Integrable Tuning-Free Converter for Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Optimization

The future in terms of autonomous devices is about to experience an important breakthrough because of the development of energy-harvesting systems. This paper presents a new vibration energy-harvesting electrical interface for optimizing the power extracted from piezoelectric elements. Based on piezoelectric energy-harvesting properties, the proposed circuit allows an optimization of the extracted energy independently from the structure's parameters and without any tuning required. Contrary to classical converter topologies (for instance, step-down or buck-boost), the proposed architecture does not require large inductors, allowing a high-integration potential, while requiring a very little power consumption.