Energy Harvesting Circuits for Next-Gen Electronics Applications and Wearable Electronics

Authors

  • Aakansha Soy Assistant Professor, Department of CS & IT, Kalinga University, Raipur, India

Keywords:

Hybrid Energy Harvesting, Self-Powered Wearable Devices, Low-Power Energy Management, Ambient Energy Scavenging, Thermoelectric and Piezoelectric Harvesters, CMOS Rectifier Design, Power Autonomous IoT Systems

Abstract

The development of next-generation electronics, especially the wearable electronics and ultra-low-power Internet of Things systems, requires the solutions based on energy sources that are sustainable and maintenance-free. The research developed a hybrid energy harvesting circuit that has reached a maximum conversion efficiency of ~60% and cold-start with operation at low voltages (as low as 180 mV) which was a key limitation of battery-based and single-source harvesters. The proposed system couples piezoelectric transducers (motion), thermoelectric generators (body heat), and RF scavengers (ambient electromagnetic energy) in an efficient, compact and durable structure that is also focused on dynamic environments. The rectifiers designed on Ultra-low-power CMOS interface with a centralized Power Management Unit (PMU) that uses low-damage adaptive Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT), low-damage cold-start oscillation and dual-mode voltage regulation. Using Cadence, MATLAB/Simulink, and LTspice, the circuit-level modeling and system-level validation was obtained and then the hardware prototyping on PCB using commercial modules was implemented. The stable output voltage of 1.8-2.2 V and power delivery of up to 1.5 mW corresponding results demonstrate that the device is suitable to power health-monitoring sensors and nodes in the Internet of Things at the edge. A use-case simulation of a wearable patch verifies the ability of the system to act independently with motion and thermal activity, with RF input when the system is idle. The work is an enabling route towards fully self-powered wearable systems, minimizing battery dependencies and increasing the life of the device during real-world deployments.

Published

2024-03-21

How to Cite

[1]
Aakansha Soy, “Energy Harvesting Circuits for Next-Gen Electronics Applications and Wearable Electronics”, Electronics Communications, and Computing Summit, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 57–69, Mar. 2024.