• Journal of IKEEE
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.201-209
• /
• 2015

This paper describes a battery charger using photovoltaic energy harvesting with MPPT control. The proposed circuit harvests maximum power from a PV(photovoltaic) cell by employing MPPT(Maximum Power Point Tracking) control and charges an external battery with the harvested energy. The charging state of the battery is controlled according to the signals from a battery management circuit. The MPPT control is implemented using linear relationship between the open-circuit voltage of a PV cell and its MPP voltage such that a pilot PV cell can track the MPP of a main PV cell in real time. The proposed circuit is designed in a $0.35{\mu}m$ CMOS process technology and its functionality has been verified through extensive simulations. The maximum efficiency of the designed entire system is 86.2% and the chip area including pads is $1.35mm{\times}1.2mm$.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.333-343
• /
• 2019

The possibility of adopting vibration-powered wireless nodes has been largely investigated in the last years. Among the available technologies based on the piezoelectric effect, the most common ones consist of a vibrating beam covered by electroactive layers. Another energy harvesting strategy is based on the use of piezoelectric strips attached to a hosting structure subjected to dynamic loads. The hosting structure, for example, can be the system to be equipped with wireless nodes. Such strategy has received few attentions so far and no analytical studies have been presented yet. Hence, the original contribution of the present paper is concerned with the development of analytical solutions for the electrodynamic analysis and design of piezoelectric polymeric strips attached to relatively large linear elastic structural systems subjected to random vibrations at the base. Specifically, it is assumed that the dynamics of the hosting structure is dominated by the fundamental vibration mode only, and thus it is reduced to a linear elastic single-degree-of-freedom system. On the other hand, the random excitation at the base of the hosting structure is simulated by filtering a white Gaussian noise through a linear second-order filter. The electromechanical force exerted by the polymeric strip is negligible compared with other forces generated by the large hosting structure to which it is attached. By assuming a simplified electrical interface, useful new exact analytical expressions are derived to assess the generated electric power and the integrity of the harvester as well as to facilitate its optimum design.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.33 no.3
• /
• pp.217-225
• /
• 2024

In this study, an electromagnetic dynamic vibration suppressor and energy harvester is designed and studied. In this system, a gear mechanism is used to convert the linear motion to continuous rotary motion. Governing equations of motion for the system are derived and validated using the experimental results. Effects of changing the main parameters of the presented system, such as mass ratio, stiffness ratio and gear ratio on the electro-mechanical behavior of system are investigated. Moreover, using so-called Weighted Cost Function, the optimum parameters of the system are obtained. Finally, it is shown that the presented electromagnetic dynamic vibration absorber not only can reduce the undesired vibration of the main system but also it can harvest acceptable electrical energy.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
• /
• v.6 no.3
• /
• pp.361-367
• /
• 2020

This paper proposes the battery-less ultra-low-power self-powered cooperating artificial neural networks device for embedded and IoT systems. This device can work without extraneous power supplying and can cooperate with other neuromorphic devices to build large-scale neural networks. This device has energy harvesting modules, so that can build a self-powered system and be used everywhere without space constraints for power supplying.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
• /
• 2014.10a
• /
• pp.581-584
• /
• 2014

In this paper, a micro-scale photovoltaic(PV) energy harvesting system is proposed where an MPPT(Maximum Power Point Tracking) control is implemented using an energy distribution technique. Miniature PV cells output very low energy and low voltages, and thus, they cannot be used to directly power the MPPT controller. In the proposed system, a start-up circuit boosts an internal Vcp, and the boosted Vcp is used to operate the internal MPPT control block. When the Vcp reaches a predefined value, a detector circuit makes the start-up block turn off and provide a power converter with the energy from the PV cell. When the Vcp decreases such that the MPPT controller can not be operated, the energy transferred to the power converter is blocked and the start-up circuit is reactivated. In this way, the MPPT function is achieved by alternately operating the start-up circuit and the power converter using the energy distribution technique, and the harvested energy is transferred to a load through a PMU(Power Management Unit). The proposed circuit is designed in a 0.35um CMOS process and its functionality has been verified through extensive simulations. The designed chip area including pads is $1430um{\times}1110um$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
• /
• 2015.10a
• /
• pp.477-480
• /
• 2015

In this paper a low-voltage vibration energy harvesting circuit with MPPT(Maximum Power Point Tracking) control is proposed. By employing bulk-driven technique, the minimum operating voltage of the proposed circuit is as low as 0.8V. The designed MPPT control circuit traces the maximum power point by periodically sampling the open circuit voltage of a full-wave rectifier circuit connected to the piezoelectric device output and delivers the maximum available power to load. The proposed circuit is designed using a $0.35{\mu}m\;CMOS$ process, and the chip area including pads is $1.33mm{\times}1.31mm$. Simulation results show that the maximum power efficiency of the designed circuit is 85.49%.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
• /
• 2015.10a
• /
• pp.412-415
• /
• 2015

This paper presents a MPPT(Maximum Power Point Tracking) control CMOS interface circuit for vibration energy harvesting. The proposed circuit consists of an AC-DC converter, MPPT Controller, DC-DC boost converter and PMU(Power Management Unit). The AC-DC converter rectifies the AC signals from vibration devices(PZT). MPPT controller is employed to harvest the maximum power from the PZT and increase efficiency of overall system. The DC-DC boost converter generates a boosted and regulated output at a predefined level and provides energy to load using PMU. A full-wave rectifier using active diodes is used as the AC-DC converter for high efficiency, and a schottky diode type DC-DC boost converter is used for a simple control circuitry. The proposed circuit has been designed in a 0.35um CMOS process. The chip area is $950um{\times}920um$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
• /
• 2018.10a
• /
• pp.31-34
• /
• 2018

This paper presents a low-power buck-boost converter for multi-input energy harvesting systems. The designed circuit combines the energy harvested from three input channels in real time and stores it in a storage capacitor. The structure of the buck-boost converter is simplified by using one external inductor and applying time division technique using an arbiter. In addition, to improve the efficiency of the system, the controller circuits of the converter are designed so that current consumption is minimized. The proposed circuit is designed with $0.35{\mu}m$ CMOS process. Simulation results show that the designed circuit consumes up to 490nA of current when all three input channels are active, and the maximum power efficiency is 92%. The chip area of the designed circuit is $1310{\mu}m{\times}1100{\mu}m$.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
• /
• v.66 no.10
• /
• pp.1540-1546
• /
• 2017

In piezoelectric device applications, it is important to improve a system efficiency because of the low generated power. In this paper, an optimal driving method is proposed to improve a system efficiency for a piezoelectric energy harvesting system. The proposed method considers disappear energy in input capacitors and the converter efficiency according to the input voltage magnitude to minimize energy losses. Experimental results based on various energy generation cases verify that the proposed method significantly improves the system efficiency; the efficiency is approximately 9.97% higher than that of the conventional method.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
• /
• v.24 no.2
• /
• pp.25-38
• /
• 2021

The aim of this study is to protect workers and pedestrians from accidents at night or bad weather by attaching optical fiber to existing safety clothing that is made only with fluorescent fabrics and retroreflective materials. A safety vest was designed and manufactured by applying optical fiber, and energy-harvesting technology was developed. The safety vest was designed to emit light using the automatic flashing of optical fibers attached to the film, and an energy harvester was manufactured and attached to drive the light emission of the optical fiber more continuously. As a result, first, the vest wearer' body was recognized from a distance through the optical fiber and retroreflection, which helped prevent accidents. Thus, this concept helps in saving lives by preventing accidents during night-time work on the roadside or activities of rescue crew and sports activities, or by quickly finding the point of an accident with a signal that changes the optical fiber light emission. Second, to use the wasted energy, a piezoelectric-element power generation system was developed and the piezoelectric-harvesting device was mounted. Potentially, energy was efficiently produced by activating the effective charging amount of the battery part and charging it auxiliary. In the existing safety vest, detecting the person wearing the vest is almost impossible in the absence of ambient light. However, in this study, the wearer could be found within 100 m by the light emission from the safety vest even with no ambient light. Therefore, in this study, we will help in preventing and reducing accidents by developing smart safety clothing using optical fiber and energy harvester attached to save lives.