Piezoelectric energy harvesting circuit using full-wave voltage doubler rectifier and switched inductor

This paper proposes a circuit for vibration energy harvesting. Piezoelectric elements are used in order to convert the vibration energy into the electrical energy. To obtain dc power, a rectifier is needed, because the piezoelectric elements output alternative current. In general, full bridge rectifiers have been employed for piezoelectric elements. In the proposed circuit, full-wave voltage doubler rectifier is utilized. Furthermore, the proposed circuit includes a switched-inductor to improve energy efficiency. The simulation and the experiment results show that the voltage doubler rectifier is more suitable for the piezoelectric energy harvesting than the full bridge rectifier when the output voltage is high. Moreover, the maximum output power of the proposed circuit is larger than that of the energy harvesting circuit using a voltage doubler rectifier.