A spiral-shaped harvester with an improved harvesting element and an adaptive storage circuit

A piezoelectric energy harvester consists of a spiral-shaped piezoelectric bimorph to transfer mechanical energy into electric energy, an electrochemical battery to store the scavenged electric energy, and a rectifier together with a step-down dc-dc converter to connect the two components as an integrated system. A spiral-shaped harvesting structure is studied in this paper because it is very useful in the microminiaturization of advanced sensing technology. The aim of employing a step-down dc-dc converter in the storage circuit is to match the optimal output voltage of the piezoelectric bimorph with the battery voltage for efficient charging. In order to raise the output power density of a harvesting element, moreover, we apply a synchronized switch harvesting on inductor (SSHI) in parallel with the piezoelectric bimorph to artificially extend the closed-circuit interval of the rectifier. Numerical results show that the introduction of a dc-dc converter in the storage circuit or a SSHI in the harvesting structure can raise the charging efficiency several times higher than a harvester without a dc-dc converter or an SSHI.