Reliable AMS simulation of electrostatic vibration energy harvesters: a case study

In this paper, we show how the analysis and design of Electrostatic Vibration Energy Harvesters (e-VEHs), inherently entailing a control logic, which is typically implemented through a digital circuit or described by a behavioural language, can benefit of a suitable Analog Mixed Signal (AMS) simulation environment. The PAN academic circuit simulator has been used in this study. In the recent few years, PAN has been provided with an extended version of several analysis capabilities (e.g., time domain shooting method, periodic small signal analysis, periodic noise analysis) that are still limited to (smooth) analog circuits and systems in industrial and commercial simulators. By resorting to the formalism of Hybrid Dynamical System (HDS) and mathematical tools, PAN has been driven towards the challenging frontier of AMS simulation in a unified framework. It offers the opportunity to simulate an AMS system composed of subsystems, each possibly described at different level of details, from the behavioural to the transistors one. It is thus suitable for a highly flexible simulation of AMS systems and its concept could lead to the development of a more specific tool intended for the design of e-VEHs, a class of modern and appealing systems. This preliminary work is focused on a specific case study and should be viewed as a first step in this direction.