Power converter ICs for energy harvesting with optimal energy extraction

Abstract

Energy harvesting (EH) is widely used to extend battery life in a wide range of applications. There are various energy harvesting sources, including photovoltaic (PV), piezoelectric, and thermoelectric. Therefore, it is essential to use different techniques for optimal energy extraction depending on the types of energy sources. The first part of this work presents a PV EH system achieving high maximum-power-point-tracking efficiency and high power-conversion efficiency in an ultra-wide input power range. The second part of the thesis proposes a pile-up-resonance-based embedding buck conversion piezoelectric energy harvester that gives more than 20X improvement in output power extracted from the piezoelectric transducer with periodic excitations while working efficiently with shock excitations.