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Design of an Integrated Interface Circuit for Energy Harvesting from Piezoelectric Devices in Low-Power Applications

Robatjazi, Milad | 2026

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  1. Type of Document: M.Sc. Thesis
  2. Language: Farsi
  3. Document No: 58926 (05)
  4. University: Sharif University of Technology
  5. Department: Electrical Engineering
  6. Advisor(s): Sharifkhani, Mohammad
  7. Abstract:
  8. In recent years, the Internet of Things (IoT) and wireless sensor networks (WSN) have emerged as key technologies, playing an important role in various industries, including medical applications and remote health monitoring. Despite these applications, providing stable power and the frequent need for battery replacement, especially in environments with limited accessibility, remain fundamental challenges for these systems. Environmental energy harvesting (EH) is an innovative approach to overcome this limitation. Among different energy harvesting methods, piezoelectric technology has been recognized as an efficient option for converting vibrations into electricity due to its high-power density, compatibility with CMOS technology, and independence from external power sources. This thesis focuses on the design and analysis of an efficient interface circuit for vibration energy harvesting based on piezoelectric materials. The objective is to improve rectification and power conversion efficiency in the presence of challenges such as losses caused by the internal capacitance of the piezoelectric device and variations in output load resistance. The proposed circuit introduces a hybrid structure, referred to as C-SSHI, which integrates the advantages of both S-SSHI and P-SSHI techniques. By employing an approximate method for inverting the polarity of the internal capacitor charge at the zero-current crossing, energy losses are reduced. The design requires only two analog switches, one external inductor, and one storage capacitor, while minimizing the power consumption of control and logic blocks. The proposed circuit has been implemented in 0.18µm-BCD technology. With a power consumption of approximately 8.5 µW, it delivers 72 µW to a 20 kΩ load, achieving a power gain of 9.6 compared to the maximum of an ideal full-wave rectifier (FoM = 9.6) in simulations. In addition to improving conversion efficiency, the proposed circuit demonstrates effective performance across a wide range of vibration frequencies, amplitudes, input capacitances, and output loads. Under a 320 kΩ output load, the harvested power reached 50% of its maximum value
  9. Keywords:
  10. Internet of Things ; Wireless Sensor Network ; Piezoelectric Energy Harvester ; Conversion Efficiency ; Power Supply ; Bias-Flip Rectifier

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