The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers (전기학회논문지)

The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers (대한전기학회)
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Energy Conversion Efficiency Improvement of Piezoelectric Micropower Generator Adopting Low Leakage Diodes

저누설 다이오드를 사용한 저전력 압전발전기의 효율 개선에 관한 연구

  • 김혜중 (중앙대 전자전기공학부) ;
  • 강성묵 (중앙대 전자전기공학부) ;
  • 김호성 (중앙대 공대 전자전기공학부)
  • Published : 2007.05.01
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Abstract

In this paper, we show that, in case of piezoelectric micropower generator, just replacing Schottky diodes in the bridge rectifier with ultra-low reverse leakage current diodes improves the mechanical-to-electrical energy conversion efficiency by more than 100%. Experimental and PSPICE simulation results show that, due to the ultra-low leakage current, the charging speed of the circuit employing PAD1 is higher than that of the circuit employing Schottky diodes and the saturation voltage of the circuit employing PAD1 is also higher. This study suggests that , when the internal impedance of source is very large (a few tens of $M{\Omega}$) such that maximum charging current is a few microamperes or less, in order to realize literally the energy scavenging system, ultra-low reverse leakage current diodes should be used for efficient energy conversion. Since low-level vibration is ubiquitous in the environment ranging from human movement to large infrastructures and the mechanical-to-electrical energy conversion efficiency is much more critical for use of these vibrations, we believe that the improvement in the efficiency using ultra-low leakage diodes, as found in this work, will widen greatly the application of piezoelectric micropower generator.

Keywords

References

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