A 70-V integrated SSHC rectifier for triboelectric energy harvesting with duty-cycle-based MPPT

Abstract

A triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is a new transducer utilizing contact electrification and electrostatic induction to transduce mechanical energy into electric energy. Due to its high energy density and flexibility, it can be employed to make electronic devices self-powered by ambient mechanical energy in many application scenarios, such as biomedical devices, wearable electronics, and Internet-of-Things (IoT) sensors. However, it is challenging to extract electrical energy from TENG due to its time-varying and low internal capacitance. IC technology is advantageous in triboelectric energy harvesting (TEH) and power management with low leakage current and active harvesting configurations. Currently, studies on dedicated integrated power conversion techniques are very limited. Due to the exponentially increasing research interests in TENG, a comprehensive study on the TENG energy harvesting system, emphasizing IC power conversion techniques, is urgently needed.

Therefore, this project contains two parts. The first part is summarizing and comparing the state-of-the-art in TEH, as well as the advanced techniques employed in other kinetic energy harvesting such as piezoelectric and electrostatic energy harvesting. The potential of mature IC energy extraction techniques in TEH is emphasized. This part of work is collected and summarized in a literature review, which is being reviewed by IEEE Transactions on Circuit and System: I. For the rest of this thesis, a dedicated TEH interface employing Synchronized-Switch harvesting on Capacitor (SSHC) and Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) working at 70 V is proposed, with theoretical analysis, design details, and simulated performance elaborated in this thesis. This is the first fully-integrated active rectifier reported for TEH. It is going to be fabricated on April 2023.