WE-Harvest: A Wearable Piezoelectric-Electromagnetic Energy Harvester

Abstract

Wearable electronics require a sustainable electrical power supply to operate. Energy harvesting techniques can be used to convert available nonelectrical energy sources into electrical energy. This paper presents WE-Harvest, a new wearable energy harvesting system that combines the piezoelectric and electromagnetic energy harvesters for wearable devices. Regular human body motions, such as moving the arm, provide the input vibrations. A two-stage modified Dickson multiplier is used to step up the output voltage. The experimental results demonstrate that the combined topology enhances the power transfer efficiency. The dependence of energy harvester output on the load and input frequency has also been investigated.

Keywords

• piezoelectric energy harvesting
• magnetic energy harvesting
• wearable energy harvesting
• wearable sensors and devices