Design of an Efficiency Monitor of the Ultra Low Voltage Rectifiers Circuits Applied to Energy Harvesting Systems

• Grant number: 24/21760-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: March 01, 2025
• End date: February 28, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Electrical Engineering - Electrical, Magnetic and Electronic Circuits
• Principal Investigator: Márcio Bender Machado
• Grantee: Pedro de Castro
• Host Institution: Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia de São Paulo (IFSP). Campus Sertãozinho. Sertãozinho , SP, Brazil

Abstract

With the growing need for sustainable and clean energy sources, a research area known as energy harvesting has emerged, focusing on extracting energy from ultra-low-voltage sources. However, since the power provided by these sources is limited, the conversion efficiency in circuits becomes critically important. Typically, the most common topology consists of a microgenerator, an oscillator circuit, and a voltage rectifier/booster. This project aims to address the difficulty in analyzing the efficiency of the rectifier block due to the nonlinearity in the current and voltage waveforms. To tackle this challenge, the project proposes developing a platform combining hardware and software to monitor AC and DC power at the rectifier circuit's input and output, respectively, enabling efficiency monitoring for power levels as low as a few dozen microwatts. Several rectifier/multiplier designs will be created during the project's development, and their results will be compared with analytical, simulated, and experimental models. By the end of the project, a complete energy rectification and storage system will be implemented, comprising a rectifier coupled to a battery via a commercial charge controller.