The Effifficiency Comparison of Rectififier Circuit for Vibration Energy Harvesting

Abstract

This research aims to develop a rectifier circuit most suitable for piezoelectric vibration energy harvesting in military backpack application. The three topologies of low voltage losses rectifier; full-wavebridge rectifier, capacitordamped rectifier, and semi-active rectifier have been compared. The most suitable rectifier for this application is the circuit that lowest voltages drop. The energy produced by piezoelectric material was depended on the motion and make intermittent energy andearn low level energy. Thus, the reduction of voltage drop was the key to achieve more efficiency. On the experiment,the low loss rectifier circuit has been selected for 3 types.

The experiment results showed the three rectifier circuits at the same vibrating circumstance; bridge type, capacitor-damped type, andsemiactive typecan produce 0.72 V, 0.54 V, and 0.77 V respectively. Therefore, the semi-active type achieved the highest level of efficiency for the vibration energy harvesting application.