Enhancement of surge-induced synchronized switch harvesting on inductor strategy

Abstract

Abstract We propose and demonstrate a novel method to enhance vibration harvesting based on surge-induced synchronized switch harvesting on inductor (S3HI). S3HI 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. S3HI 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 S3HI family, which includes traditional S3HI and high-frequency S3HI. 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 S3HI 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 S3HI methods owing to its potential auto-reboot capability, which is not found in traditional S3HI circuit.