Project A – Electronic Circuits for Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting and Sensor Array Systems
Description / Outline
Multiport and multimodal energy harvesting array systems require
further circuit advancements. Wearables for health monitoring are an
excellent energy harvesting example at raising interest. Further
applications: smart city, building/bridge structure and environmental
monitoring
- Should be energy autonomous for easy handling, no charger, always ready to go for 24/7 use
- SoA: Only single port harvesters! Require multiport harvesters for multiple asynchronous energy sources!
- Multimodal harvesting (pressure, solar, thermal,…) and arrays increase availability of energy
- Energy harvesting at high conversion efficiency needed
- Provision of energy for: (i) local sensor acquisition, (ii) local
data processing, and (iii) Wireless connectivity, WAN needs more energy
than BAN
- Wireless connectivity BAN (Body Area Network, e.g. Bluetooth) replaced by WAN (Wide Area Network, cellular IoT)
The primary research goal is the development of improved circuit
design for multiport harvesters dealing with asynchronous energy sources
in a piezo array
- Can the piezo elements be simultaneously used as sensors and energy providers?
- How to deal with asynchronous energy sources?
- How to ensure high availability and stability of energy?
- How to increase conversion efficiency?
Faculty/Institution
Contacts