Journal of Low Power Electronics and Applications (Jun 2013)

Bias-Flip Technique for Frequency Tuning of Piezo-Electric Energy Harvesting Devices

  • Jianguo Ma,
  • Dennis Buss,
  • Jeffrey Lang,
  • Yogesh Ramadass,
  • Jianying Zhao

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/jlpea3020194
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 3, no. 2
pp. 194 – 214

Abstract

Read online

Devices that harvest electrical energy from mechanical vibrations have the problem that the frequency of the source vibration is often not matched to the resonant frequency of the energy harvesting device. Manufacturing tolerances make it difficult to match the Energy Harvesting Device (EHD) resonant frequency to the source vibration frequency, and the source vibration frequency may vary with time. Previous work has recognized that it is possible to tune the resonant frequency of an EHD using a tunable, reactive impedance at the output of the device. The present paper develops the theory of electrical tuning, and proposes the Bias-Flip (BF) technique, to implement this tunable, reactive impedance.

Keywords