Review of power electronics for kinetic energy harvesting systems

In the past decade, there has been a dramatic rise of research in the field of energy harvesting from ambient environment, such as mechanical vibrations and dissipated heat. As a key element connecting the harvester and energy storage element in energy harvesting systems, power electronic interface circuitry has drawn significant interests. Abundant research on the power electronic circuits with functions of voltage regulation, optimal power extraction and damping control for energy harvesting systems has been conducted and reported, together with control algorithms and implementations to achieve these functions. This paper reviews the reported concepts for power electronic interface circuits in kinetic energy harvesting systems, such as electromagnetic and piezoelectric harvesters. Power electronic interface circuit concepts included were grouped in the view of energy scale, power flow direction, functionality and complexity. An overview of the power electronic circuit topologies with various functions available for constructing the power electronic interface circuits and problems yet to be solved for kinetic energy harvesting systems is provided by this paper.