Performance evaluation of different rectifiers for Piezo-electric energy harvesting applications

Presently most of the researchers are working towards generating more energy from resources that can be cost effective and do not contribute to climate change or have adverse environmental impacts. One recent promising renewable energy power source is the Piezo-electric Generator (PZG) that extracts energy from mechanical vibrations. Due to low power and wide-range ac output voltage, the Piezo-electric Generator cannot directly support the ac or dc electrical appliances. Hence in most applications, the ac signal produced by this generator needs to be rectified. This paper focuses on the selection of higher efficiency rectifier for increasing the available output power of Piezo-electric Generators that have a high output capacitance. This proposed analysis deals with comparing the efficiency of Diode bridge rectifier, SEPIC rectifier and Resonant rectifier by conducting the simulation studies using PSIM software package. From the simulation results, the rectifier which provides the maximum efficiency is identified and is proposed for energy harvesting applications.