An Impedance Matching Solution to Increase the Harvested Power and Efficiency of Nonlinear Piezoelectric Energy Harvesters

Abstract

Circuit theory and nonlinear dynamics are instrumental to design efficient energy harvesters for ambient mechanical vibrations. In this work, we show that an impedance matching networks can be designed that maximizes the harvested power, and improves the power efficiency. The proposed matching network achieves impedance matching at a single frequency, that can be chosen at will by the designer, and does not need to coincide with the resonant frequency of the harvester. Moreover, the matching network also increases the harvested power over a wide frequency bandwidth. According to our numerical simulations, the matching network increases the maximum harvested power by a factor greater than 3, and the power harvested over the whole frequency spectrum by a factor of 6. The frequency bandwidth can be further extended considering nonlinear energy harvesters. Even using the matching network designed for the linear case, performance is significantly nonetheless improved for the nonlinear harvester.

Keywords

• energy harvesting
• piezoelectric energy harvester
• nonlinear dynamical systems
• equivalent circuits
• impedance matching
• power efficiency