Micro Energy Harvesters: Modelling, Design, and Applications

A special issue of Electronics (ISSN 2079-9292). This special issue belongs to the section "Microelectronics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 October 2024 | Viewed by 1512

Special Issue Editor


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Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale, Università di Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy
Interests: computational electromagnetics; multiphysics modeling; multiscale modeling; MEMS; energy storage; energy harvesting
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The rapid growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) has accelerated strong interests in developing small-scale batteryless power supplies for remote sensors and embedded devices. Micro energy harvesters, which are able to convert small amounts of ambient energy into electricity and enable miniaturization, have become key devices to address these challenges.

This Special Issue aims at addressing new trends in the modelling, design, and applications of the latest energy harvesting technologies, including those based on micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) and energy conversion principles, such as piezoelectric, electromagnetic, electrostatic, magnetostrictive, photovoltaic, thermoelectric, and triboelectric effects. Original papers on micro energy harvesters based on non-linear, multi-resonant or hybrid approaches aimed at improving energy conversion efficiency and power production are also welcome.

Prof. Dr. Federico Moro
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • energy harvesters
  • energy conversion
  • MEMS
  • wideband harvesters
  • non-linear harvesters

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 5727 KiB  
Article
A Low-Voltage Self-Starting Boost Converter Using MPPT with Pulse Multiplication for Energy Harvesting
by Ning Wang, Xiaofei Zhang, Shuxi Xu, Yuan Liu, Lei Zhang, Zhonghui Zhao, Zhiyang Hu and Hengsheng Shan
Electronics 2024, 13(9), 1713; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics13091713 - 29 Apr 2024
Viewed by 254
Abstract
A single-inductor, low-voltage, three-step self-starting boost converter is proposed for photovoltaic (PV) energy harvesting. In order to enhance energy transfer efficiency, a variable-step Perturb and Observe (P&O) Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) scheme has been devised based on a novel pulse multiplication technique. [...] Read more.
A single-inductor, low-voltage, three-step self-starting boost converter is proposed for photovoltaic (PV) energy harvesting. In order to enhance energy transfer efficiency, a variable-step Perturb and Observe (P&O) Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) scheme has been devised based on a novel pulse multiplication technique. Upon overcoming the speed and accuracy limitations, the maximum power point (MPP) of the PV model is accurately tracked. In the boost converter, the average inductor current is utilized to implement closed-loop control of the MPPT loop, enhancing the stability of the tracking process and enabling efficient energy transmission. Finally, the boost converter is implemented using a 0.18 μm CMOS process, which is capable of self-starting and maintaining stable operations at input voltages ranging from 90 mV to 300 mV, achieving a peak efficiency of 93%. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro Energy Harvesters: Modelling, Design, and Applications)
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19 pages, 2069 KiB  
Article
Towards System-Level Simulation of a Miniature Electromagnetic Energy Harvester Model
by Chengdong Yuan, Arwed Schütz, Dennis Hohlfeld and Tamara Bechtold
Electronics 2023, 12(15), 3252; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12153252 - 28 Jul 2023
Viewed by 947
Abstract
Energy harvesting, a solution to provide a lifetime power supply to wireless sensor nodes, has attracted widespread attention in the last two decades. An energy harvester collects ambient energy, e.g., solar, thermal, or vibration energy, and transforms it into electrical energy. In this [...] Read more.
Energy harvesting, a solution to provide a lifetime power supply to wireless sensor nodes, has attracted widespread attention in the last two decades. An energy harvester collects ambient energy, e.g., solar, thermal, or vibration energy, and transforms it into electrical energy. In this work, we work on an electromagnetic energy harvester model, which is composed of four magnets oscillating along a coil. Such a device converts the vibrational energy into electrical energy. We reproduce the electromagnetic energy harvester model in finite element-based software. In order to include this model in a system-level simulation, the methodology of extracting a look-up table-based equivalent circuit model is presented. Such an equivalent circuit model enables the interaction of the electromagnetic energy harvester model with both electrical and mechanical compact models at the system-level. Furthermore, the matrix interpolation-based and algebraic parameterization-based parametric model order reduction methods are suggested for speeding up the generation of the equivalent circuit model and the design optimization process with respect to magnet dimensions. The efficiencies of these two methods are investigated and compared. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro Energy Harvesters: Modelling, Design, and Applications)
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