Microelectronics, MEMS based sensors and sensing material

Project Work Update in

Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Interface Circuit

Submitted By:

 Amit Kumar (31430009)

 Rajesh Das (31430019)
 Abdus Samad Raj Barbhuiya (31430047)

Under the Supervision of

Dr. Richik Kashyap

Assistant Professor
and
Miss. Ritusmita Malakar

Department of
Electronics and Communication Engineering Assam University, Silchar,
INDIA
November, 2018
 UNDERTAKING

I declare that the work presented in this project titled “Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Interface

Circuit”, submitted to the Electronics & Communication Engg., Faculty of Engineering &

Technology, Assam University, Silchar for the award of the Bachelor of Technology degree in

Electronics & Communication Engg., is my original work. I have not plagiarized or submitted

the same work for the award of any other degree. In case this undertaking is found incorrect, I

accept that my degree may be unconditionally withdrawn.

November, 2018
Assam University
________________________________
(Rajesh Das)
 Preface
Piezoelectric materials play an important role for electronic devices such as actuators, sensors,
accelerators, ultrasonic motors, transducers, filters and resonators, and micro electromechanical
systems (MEMS).

Piezoelectric materials can convert a mechanical deformation into electricity. They have been
used for making electrical transducers, mechanical sensors, and energy harvesters.
Conventionally, piezoelectric materials are prepared either from an inorganic compound
containing toxic elements or polymers, which require a series of treatments including drawing
at a high ratio and poling in a high electric field at an elevated temperature.

Piezoelectric materials are widely used as touch-sensitive sensors and switches. These materials
are also used in buzzers and speakers to convert electric energy to mechanical/acoustical energy.
The electromechanical conversion can be reversed by applying a mechanical force to the
piezoelectric material, so that we can generate an electric voltage that can be stored, converted,
and used to supply a low power wireless circuit. Applications for such devices might be battery-
and wire-less doorbells, light switches, or remote sensors.
 Acknowledgements

I take this opportunity to express my profound gratitude and deep regards to my guide Dr.
Richik Kashyap for his exemplary guidance, monitoring and constant encouragement
throughout the course of this thesis. The blessing, help and guidance given by him time to time
shall carry me a long way in the journey of life on which I am about to embark.

I also take this opportunity to express a deep sense of gratitude to my co-guide Miss. Ritusmita
Malakar, for her cordial support, valuable information and guidance, which helped me in
completing this task through various stages.

I am obliged to my co-members for their cooperation during the period of my assignment.

Lastly, I thank my parents, almighty, brother and friends for their constant encouragement
without which this work would not be possible.

Rajesh Das
Contents

Preface iii

Acknowledgements iv

1 Introduction 1
1.1 Piezoelectric Effect………………………..…..……………………............... 1
1.2 Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting ………………………………………….… 3
1.2.1 Applications …………………………………………………….…... 4
1.3 Motivation ……...................…………..………………………………….…. 4
1.4 Tools Used ……………………………………………………………….…. 4

2 Literature Review 5
2.1 SHE Circuit …………………………………………………………………. 5
2.2 SECE Circuit ……………………………………………………………….. 6
2.3 SSHI Circuit ………………………………………………………………… 7
2.4 SP-SSHI Circuit ……………………………………………………………. 9

3 Progress Till Now 11

3.1 SP-SSHI Circuit with Buck Boost Converter Stage …………………………11

4 Future Work 13
5 Summary 14

6 References 15
1 INTRODUCTION

Brothers Pierre and Jaques Curie first demonstrated the piezoelectric effect, in the year 1880,
nowadays it is used in many everyday products such as lighters, loudspeakers and signal
transducers, the applications are endless. This section will present a basic overview of this effect,
how it arises and how it functions. Overall this theoretical background is intentionally kept
superficial as the focus of this thesis is the energy harvesting application, however before
discussing that there is a need to provide some level of understanding of the piezoelectric effect
itself.

1.1 Piezoelectric Effect

The conversion of mechanical energy into electrical one is generally achieved by means of
electromagnetism (electro-magnetic induction). But there are other physical phenomena that can
also convert mechanical energy into electricity directly, one of which is piezoelectricity.

Piezoelectric Effect is the ability of certain materials to generate an electric charge in response to
applied mechanical stress and reverse process is also possible.

The word “piezoelectricity” is derived from a Greek word “pizo” or “piezein” which means to
squeeze or press.

Hence, the piezoelectric effect exists in two domains. They are:

1. Direct piezoelectric effect: Converts mechanical stress to emf.

2. Reverse piezoelectric effect: Converts electrical energy to mechanical compression or
expansion.
These two effects are described in the figure below:
Figure (a), shows the direct piezoelectric effect; i.e. when a piezoelectric material is subjected to
mechanical stress, the voltmeter connected to its other two surface shows +ve deflection, hence
electro motive force (emf) is generated.

Figure (b), one shows the reverse piezoelectric effect; i.e. when voltage is applied on two
opposite surfaces of a piezoelectric material that shows expansion.

The polarity emf generated across to surfaces of a piezoelectric material depends upon the type
of force it is subjected to; i.e. force is compressive or tensile. The following figures explain detail
about it.

In figure 2 shown above, when a compressive force(squeezed) is applied to a piezo electric

material, emf produced is +ve in nature. Remaining the connection same if the material is
subjected to a tensile force (stretched) then the polarity will be opposite.

Recent technologies are all based upon automation and automation is incomplete without
sensors, transducers and actuators. Many pressure sensors, microphones are using this
piezoelectricity as the basis. Hence this is an important topic to discuss about the applications of
piezoelectricity.
1.2 Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting

Piezoelectric energy harvesting provides one of the most promising solutions to meet the
unlimited demands of power supplies for microelectronic components. They harvest the
mechanical energy from ambient vibrations in the form of electrical energy and render a
perpetual and self-sufficient power supply system. Recent advancements in technology scaling
and its successful integration with Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology have
paved the way for self-powered autonomous electronic devices and ICs. Among the other
vibrational energy harvesting mechanisms namely electrostatic and electromagnetic,
piezoelectric has received the highest attention due to their simplest structure, large power
densities, and ease of fabrication. They are mostly in the form of cantilevered, doubly clamped or
circular plate structures that generates alternating current due to vibration. This generated power
needs to be properly extracted and stored with the use of efficient interface circuits.

Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting comes under the category of Micro scale energy harvesting
scheme. The energy harvesting via Piezoelectricity uses direct piezoelectric effect. The
phenomenon will be clear from the diagram shown below.

The output voltage obtained from a single piezoelectric crystal is in milli volt range, which is
different for different crystals. And the wattage is in microwatt range.
In order to achieve higher voltages, the piezoelectric crystals can be arranged in series.
The energy thus obtained is stored in lithium batteries or capacitors. This is the working principle
behind piezoelectric energy harvesting system.
1.2.1 Application of Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting

 As Sensing Elements: Detection of pressure variations in the form of sound is the most
common sensor application, e.g. piezoelectric microphones.
 Ultrasound Imaging: Piezoelectric sensors are used with high frequency sound in
ultrasonic transducers for medical imaging.
 Sonar Sensors: Piezoelectric elements are also used in the detection and generation of
sonar waves.
 As Chemical and Biological Sensors: Piezoelectric microbalances are used as very
sensitive chemical and biological sensors. These are also used as strain gauges.
 In Music Instruments: Piezoelectric transducers are used in electronics drum pads to
detect the impact of drummer’s sticks.
 Piezoresistors: Piezoresistors are resistors made from a piezoresistive material and are
usually used for measurement of mechanical stress etc…

1.3 Motivation

Nowadays vibration-based energy harvesters are very promising solutions to meet the
unlimited demands of power supplies for microelectronic components. Even though many
piezoelectric energy harvesters are already fabricated, proper optimization of the device is still
not done to make the product commercially available and abundant. Proper
optimization to generate more power and that from a portable device requires basic
understanding of the physical phenomenon associated with it. Distributed parameters
models serve the best here to know and control each and every physical parameter for the
development of the device.

1.4Tools Used
For designing the Interface Circuits we have used the tool LTspice XVII.
2 Literature Review
This section gives the basic introduction and review of some of the piezoelectric energy
harvesting interface circuits available in literature that has motivated the current research work.

2.1 SEH Circuit.

2.2 SECE Circuit.

2.3 SSHI Circuit.

2.4 SP-SSHI Circuit.

2.1 Study of Standard Energy Harvesting (SHE) Circuit

Figure 2.1(a). Standard Energy Harvesting Circuit connected to a piezoelectric vibrator.

The figure 2.1(a) shows the standard energy harvesting interface circuit which is simple full
wave diode rectifier with a smoothing capacitor. The circuit consists of fully passive
elements viz. four diodes, one capacitor and the load [1]-[3]. The circuit does not possess
any control circuits for any sort of clock signals and thus can be considered reliable. The
piezoelectric element is first connected to the diode rectifier for rectifying the AC current to its
DC form and thereafter charges are stored on a smoothing capacitor.
 Figure 2.1(b). Typical waveforms of displacement u(t) and piezoelectric voltage Vp(t).

As shown in the Figure 2.1(b), the current and voltage are not in phase. As such, some
amount of electrical energy flows back to the mechanical domain due to negative power
generation. The return phenomenon significantly reduces the efficiency of the interface circuit.

2.2 Study of Synchronous Electric Charge Extraction (SECE) Circuit

In this power scheme, the energy is first transferred to the inductor and thereafter to the
storage capacitor and the load by the buck-boost DC-DC converter action [4], [5].

Figure 2.2(a). Synchronous Electric Charge Extraction (SECE) circuit.

The SECE interface circuit is shown in Figure 2.2(a). When the voltage on the
piezoelectric element becomes maximum, the switch S is turned ON to transfer the electric
charge from the clamped capacitance C0 of the harvester. As soon as the energy is stored
in the inductor, the piezoelectric element is disconnected from rest of the circuit by turning S
off. The energy stored in the inductor is not able to oscillate backwards due to presence of
diodes but has to move towards the storage capacitor. Thus the power scheme is a load
decoupling technique where energy extraction on the inductor and storage on the capacitor is
decoupled.

This means that the piezoelectric element is not effected by any varying load situations and
constantly seek to generate optimal power. It has been found that SECE technique give four
times more power compared to that of SEH interface circuit.

Figure 2.2(b). Typical switching current pulses and generated voltage waveform.

However the electric damping cannot be controlled at some stage which finally effects the
vibration response of the harvester and results for low power generation. The switching
signal current levels and the output voltage waveform is shown in Figure 2.2(b).

2.3 Study of Synchronized Switch Harvesting on Inductor (SSHI) Circuit

The SEH technique suffers from energy return phenomenon due to negative power generation.
The SSHI scheme rectifies the problem by employing an inductive switch path in series with
piezoelectric element and the storage capacitor. The clamped piezoelectric capacitance, the
storage capacitance and the inductance form an LC oscillation path.
 Figure 2.3(i). Equivalent Circuits of (a) P-SSHI interface circuit.
(b)S-SSHI interface circuit.

The switch can be connected in series or parallel with the piezoelectric generator to form the
series SSHI (S-SSHI) or parallel SSHI (P-SSHI) circuit. At the maximum displacement of the
harvester, the switch S is made on to transfer the charges from the piezoelectric
capacitor to the storage capacitor. Unlike SECE, no energy storage takes place on inductor.
However inductor helps in forming a LC oscillation whose backward flow of current is
restricted by the diodes present. Figure 2.3(i) shows S-SSHI and P-SSHI variants of SSHI
power processing circuits.

Figure 2.3(ii). Typical Waveforms of P-SSHI and S-SSHI interface circuits.

It is important to mention it here that the piezoelectric element can be expressed equivalent
circuit of a current source, resistor and a capacitor. For the voltage inversion to take place
instantly, the value for Li and Cp should be selected in a way such that the time period √LiC p

is much smaller than the time period of vibration i.e. where  is the angular frequency of
the harvester. Due to presence of inductive path and proper synchronization of the switch, the
current and voltage are in phase for a SSHI circuit [figure 2.3(ii)].

2.4 Study of Self-Powered Synchronized Switch Harvesting on Inductor

(SP-SSHI) Circuit

Figure 2.4(a). SP-SSHI energy harvesting circuit.

A kind of existing self-powered Synchronized Switch Harvesting on Inductor (SP-SSHI)

circuit [11] is shown in the Figure 2.4(a). The piezoelectric element is described as a sinusoidal
current source ieq connected in parallel with the internal clamped capacitance Cp and
internal resistance Rp specific to the piezoelectric material used. The component models or
values used for the circuit are mentioned in [11]. The circuit works on the principle on SSHI
power scheme [12]. However no external control circuitry is required to control the
switching actions. While in vibration, the switching automatically takes place at the
maxima or minima of the piezoelectric generated voltage Vp which makes it self-powered and
autonomous. In the positive cycle, capacitor C1 get fully charged to Vp(max)-VD, where
Vp(max) is the maximum piezoelectric voltage generated, and VD is the diode voltage.
As the voltage Vp begins to drop, PNP Transistor T1 gets forward biased and C1 begins to
discharge through T1 to make T3 on. Thus at voltage maxima, T3 gets on to transfer the
charges in piezoelectric capacitor Cp to the storage or rectified capacitor Crect. The charges are
transferred since Cp, Crect and inductor Li forms an LC oscillation pathway. The opposite
movement of charges are restricted by diodes D5 and D8. Similarly in the negative or opposite
cycle of piezoelectric voltage, C2 makes T4 on to transfer the charges of Cp to Crect
through the inductive path “Cp, Li, D7, Crect, T4, D6”. The associated waveforms are
shown in Figure 2.4(b).

Figure 2.4(b). Waveform of the SP-SSHI circuit.

In the above circuit, the load resistance Rload and capacitor Crect exhibits a loading effect on
the piezoelectric element. Also for high values of load resistance, the induced charges on
the Crect are not able to discharge fast and thus oppose the transfer of incoming charges
in the next cycle from the piezoelectric capacitor Cp. This decreases the energy extraction on
the load capacitor Crect which finally degrades the output. These issues can be resolved
by using a buck-boost dc-dc converter stage across the load capacitor and resistance to
achieve efficient output power. (Figure 2.4(b)].
3 Progress Till Now
In this work, we have presented a study on different Interface Circuits to design Piezoelectric
Energy Harvesting. The main aim of this work is to find convenient designs to realize different
ways to harvest the mechanical energy. We have provided here a review of different types of
interface circuit with their waveforms. And at last we study on the design of Proposed SP-SSHI
(Self Powered-Synchronized Switch Harvesting on Inductor) circuit and its waveform. Because
nowadays, many self-powered power processing designs like SP-SSHI are attracting wide
popularity for their autonomous feature to efficiently extract and store energy.

3.1 Study of Proposed Self-Powered Synchronized Switch Harvesting on

Inductor (SP-SSHI) Circuit with Buck-Boost Converter Stage

Figure 3.1(a). SP-SSHI circuit with dc-dc buck boost converter stage.

Figure 3 . 1 ( a ) shows the proposed circuit design for an efficient self-powered SSHI circuit
with Buck-Boost converter stage. The modifications are employed in the existing self-
powered SSHI (Figure 4 ) described above, by relocating the storage capacitor Crect
(previously connected in series with the piezoelectric capacitor Cp) and the load to connect them
across a buck-boost converter output. This action removes the loading effect of the load
capacitor Crect as seen by the piezoelectric element. For both the positive and negative
cycles of switching, the inductors L1 and L2 are first energized. Thereafter the energy is
instantly transferred to load capacitor C L and load by buck boost converter action before the next
opposite cycle begins. This ensures a negligible loading effect on the piezoelectric element by
the inductors L1 and L2. Here C L corresponds to the Crect of SP-SSHI.

-Power Waveform

-V I waveform

Figure 3.1(b). Simulated waveforms of piezoelectric voltage, current and power of the SP-SSHI with buck-boost
stage.

As shown in Figure 3 . 1 ( b ) , the current and voltage waveforms are almost in phase and
providing positive power flow from the mechanical to the electrical domain. This ensures that
the circuit with the buck boost stage obeys the SSHI power scheme in a proper manner.
4 Future Works

Figure 4. Variation of Voltage across storage capacitor with time for

(a)low load resistance (~1kΩ)
(b)high load resistance (~1MΩ

The Figure 4. shows the comparison of voltage outputs of the load capacitors Crect of the
existing SP-SSHI [Figure 4(a)] and C L of the proposed SSHI with buck boost stage. For
higher load resistance (>1 KΩ), the output is comparatively higher than the existing SP-
SSHI circuit and the output is almost doubled around 1 MΩ load. However, for low load
resistance (<1 KΩ), the output tends to degrades than that of the existing SP-SSHI circuit.
Thus the modified prototype is more efficient only at higher load resistances.
If we can successfully design an interface circuit that is efficient in both the condition i.e. at
higher load resistances as well as in lower load resistance. This points our future work.
5 Summary

In this report, we have presented a comprehensive review of the basic concepts of piezoelectric
energy harvesting and the existing technologies dominating the field of study. The piezoelectric
energy harvesters are at the frontiers of current miniature power technologies to drive the
portable microelectronics components. Apart from practical issues of design and fabrication of
harvesters, mathematical modeling truly holds importance to uncover the physics of harvesters
and to optimize them for better outputs. Distributed parameter plays a key role to understand the
dynamics and electromechanical coupling of such harvesters. To work efficiently, a complete
piezoelectric energy harvesting system requires advanced electronic control circuits to be
interfaced between the generator and the storage elements. Thus researchers have worked for
many such energy harvesting interface circuits to enhance the energy extraction and conversion
rate to many folds. The chapter thus introduces basic modeling techniques and some of the most
important energy harvesting interface circuits available in the literature that has motivated and
guided the present thesis work.
6 References
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harvesting circuit for wireless remote power supply,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 17, no. 5, pp. 669–
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