Self-driven power management system for triboelectric nanogenerators

This paper presents a fully functional power management system for triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) with the TENG as the only power source. TENG was developed for the objective to provide power to electronic devices and sensors without the need for a battery (the so-called self-powered systems). A unique feature of the TENG's electrical output is high pulsed voltage but low current capability, making TENGs unsuitable for direct use as a power source. To provide continuous and steady electrical voltage for conventional electronics, a power management system (PMS) is required. Existing PMS' based on power electronic converters do not provide a complete solution due to the use of additional power sources for the logic circuit and switch drivers. The PMS to be reported in this work provides a complete solution for a self-powered system with the TENG as the only power source. This goal is accomplished with a novel approach of employing discrete semiconductor devices, including a silicon-controlled rectifier (SCR) and zener diodes, for controlling the power flow paths, without using any integrated circuit. The effectiveness of the newly developed PMS has been experimentally validated with a prototype and a contact and separation mode TENG device.