title: Low-cost capacitor voltage inverter for outstanding performance in piezoelectric energy harvesting.
abstract: The purpose of this paper is to propose a new scheme for piezoelectric energy harvesting optimization. The proposed enhancement relies on a new topology for inverting the voltage across a single capacitor with reduced losses. The increase of the inversion quality allows a much more effective energy harvesting process using the so-called synchronized switch harvesting on inductor (SSHI) nonlinear technique. It is shown that the proposed architecture, based on a 2-step inversion, increases the harvested power by a theoretical factor up to square root of 2 (i.e., 40% gain) compared with classical SSHI, allowing an increase of the harvested power by a factor greater than 1000% compared with the standard energy harvesting technique for realistic values of inversion components. The proposed circuit, using only 4 digital switches and an intermediate capacitor, is also ultra-low power, because the inversion circuit does not require any external energy and the command signals are very simple.
authors.affiliation: LGEF, INSA-Lyon, Lyon, France. mickael.lallart@insa-lyon.fr
authors.forename: Mickaël
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lallart
authors.forename: Lauric
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Garbuio
authors.forename: Claude
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Richard
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Guyomar