A Combination of Energy Harvesting and Wireless Power Transfer for Applications in Harsh Environments

Abstract

Energy Harvesting (EH) and power delivery are key technologies for self-powered systems for mobile electronics, the internet of things, and sensor networks. The excessive application of wires also increases the possibility of a short circuit and fire sparks. Wireless power transfer (WPT) is an excellent alternative for this problem that would eliminate cables and increase electrical safety. The current challenge of wireless power transfer is distance and misalignment. This paper investigates the effect of EH with WPT. The system works under a wide band of frequencies from 26 Hz to 30 Hz and various accelerations from 0.14 g to 0.19g. The harvester was implemented with electronic components and experimentally tested to determine the maximum generated power which is 330 m W at 560 Ω as load impedance at 29 Hz of the resonance frequency. Results showed that at an ideal distance and alignment and under different accelerations, the output voltage of the rectifier increased to 4.2 V at 0.19 g, and the DC-DC converter is stable to 3.2 V. The output voltage of the receiving coil is decreasing as the distance and the lateral misalignment are decreasing. The output voltage of the receiving coil value is obtained when the system is in ideal alignment and distance. The system can work under a wideband of distance from 0 mm to 8 mm and a wideband of lateral misalignment from 0 mm to 5 mm.