Hybrid Piezo/Magnetic Electromechanical Transformer

This paper presents a hybrid electromechanical transformer that passively transfers electrical power between galvanically isolated ports by coupling electrodynamic and piezoelectric transducers. The use of these two complementary electromechanical transduction methods along with a high-Q mechanical resonance affords very large transformations of voltage, current, or impedance at particular electrical frequencies. A chip-size prototype is designed, simulated, fabricated, and experimentally characterized. The 7.6 mm × 7.6 mm × 1.65 mm device achieves an open-circuit voltage gain of 31.4 and 48.7 when operating as a step-up transformer at 729.5 Hz and 1015 Hz resonance frequencies, respectively. When operating as a step-down transformer, the resonance frequencies and the corresponding voltage gains are 728 Hz, 1002 Hz, and 0.0097, 0.0128, respectively. In one operational mode, the system shows a minimum power dissipation of only 0.9 µW corresponding to a power conversion efficiency of 11.8%.