Recent progress and development of interface integrated circuits for piezoelectric energy harvesting

Harvesting energy from the environment has become a very promising technology: particularly vibration energy harvesting has been widely investigated. Owing to its wide availability and high energy density, piezoelectric energy harvesting (PEH) is popular for vibration energy harvesting. Interfacing circuits are essential for the PEH system to significantly improve its efficiency. This paper introduces the development and progress of interfacing integrated circuits (ICs) for PEH in recent years and elaborates on different circuit structures and their performance. Rectifiers are used to realize the conversion of alternating current to direct current (AC-DC), and direct current to direct current (DC-DC) converters achieve conversion of the rectified DC voltage to the final voltage required by the load. Several AC/DC-DC single-stage circuits have been developed in recent years for low cost and high efficiency. By adopting self-powered and maximum power point tracking (MPPT) schemes, novel ultralow-energy consumption circuit structures and advanced manufacturing processes can effectively improve the energy efficiency, integration, bandwidth, and energy harvesting sensitivity of PEH ICs. With the development of PEH ICs, high-performance PEH systems are expected to replace batteries and widely used in implantable and wearable medical devices, portable exploration equipment, for power storage in consumer electronics, etc.

Automated summary

This paper introduces the development and progress of interfacing integrated circuits (ICs) for piezoelectric energy harvesting (PEH). The use of AC/DC-DC single-stage circuits for low cost and high efficiency is emphasized. The author also suggests that with further development of these interface circuits, PEH systems have the potential to replace batteries and be widely used in various fields.