Battery powered devices are ubiquitous in modern applications. However, they require frequent replenishment of the energy source. By using energy harvesting hardware, battery life can be extended, minimizing maintenance. The proposed solution can be applicable to any environment with vibrations that are suitable sources of energy.

Available solutions that use piezoelectric (PZT) material attached to a cantilever beam can harvest only a small portion of available energy. In contrast, the proposed solution improves efficiency of energy harvesting by shaping the beam to maximize energy generation in PZT material. It also improves efficiency by voltage compensation that synchronizes operation of the harvesting circuitry with the energy conversion inside the PZT to maximize energy transfer from PZT. Theoretical and experimental results show that using curved beam in addition to voltage compensation technique can increase the harvested power by about 315 percent in the parallel inversion method (parallel SSHI) and by about 350 percent in series inversion method (series SSHI) as compared to the existing inversion techniques, while little complexity is added to the total circuitry.

File Number: 08MST018 

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