Full-Wave Rectifier with Vibration Detector for Vibrational Energy Harvesting Systems

In this paper, a full-wave rectifier (FWR) with a simple vibration detector suitable for use with vibrational energy harvesting systems is presented. Conventional active FWRs where active diodes are used to reduce the diode voltage drop and increase the system efficiency are usually powered from the output. Output-powered FWRs exhibit relatively high efficiencies because the comparators used in active diodes are powered from the stable output voltage. Nevertheless, a major drawback is that these FWRs consume power from the output storage capacitor even when the system is not harvesting any energy. To overcome the problem, a technique using a simple vibration detector consisting of a peak detector and a level converter is proposed. The vibration detector detects whether vibrational energy exists or not in the input terminal and disables the comparators when there is no vibrational energy. The proposed FWR with the vibration detector is designed using a 0.35- μm CMOS process. Simulation results have verified the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. By using the proposed vibration detector, a decrease in leakage current by approximately 67,000 times can be achieved after the vibration disappears.