Author : Ashish Gupta and A.L.Sharma

This paper presents the design of an energy harvesting system using piezoelectric materials for power generation from the shoe sole. A DC-DC step up converter has been chosen for designing of the low extracted energy harvested from the piezoelectric material as PZT. The circuit consumes very little power for its operation. The energy harvesting circuit consists of Schottky diode based ac-dc rectifier, dc-dc converter, capacitor and resistive load at the output terminal in place of rechargeable battery. In this study a simple trigger circuit is used to control switch for synchronizing the DC-DC step up converter circuit. The simulation results shows that maximum of 1.8mW power is harvested which is sufficient to power low power portable consumer electronic devices like wireless sensors like low power switches and wearable electronics.

Keywords: Piezoelectric Element, PZT, low power portable devices, AC-DC rectifier, DC-DC step up converter, TINA Simulator

Article published in International Journal of Current Engineering and Technology, Vol.5, No.6 (Dec-2015)