Analysis of an AC/DC Resonant Pulse Power Converter for Energy Harvesting Using a Micro Piezoelectric Device

Abstract

In order to harvest power in an efficient manner from a micro piezoelectric (PZT) device for charging the battery of a remote system, a new AC/DC resonant pulse power converter is proposed. The proposed power converter has two stages in the power conversion process. The first stage includes N-type MOSFET full bridge rectifier. The second stage includes a boost converter having an N-type MOSFET and a P-type MOSFET. MOSFETs work in the 1st or 3rd quadrant region. A small inductor for the boost converter is assigned in order to make the size of the power converter as small as possible, which makes the on-interval of the MOSFET switch of the boost converter ultimately short. Due to this short on-interval, the parasitic junction capacitances of MOSFETs affect the performance of the power converter system. In this paper, the performance of the new converter is analytically and experimentally evaluated with consideration of the parasitic capacitance of switching devices.