Wideband energy harvesting using a combination of an optimized synchronous electric charge extraction circuit and a bistable harvester

The challenge of variable vibration frequencies for energy harvesting calls for the development of wideband energy harvesters. Bistability has been proven to be a potential solution. Optimization of the energy extraction is another important objective for energy harvesting. Nonlinear synchronized switching techniques have demonstrated some of the best performances. This paper presents a novel energy harvesting solution which combines these two techniques: the OSECE (optimized synchronous electric charge extraction) technique is used along with a BSM (buckled-spring-mass) bistable generator to achieve wideband energy harvesting. The effect of the electromechanical coupling coefficient on the harvested power for the bistable harvester with the nonlinear energy extraction technique is discussed for the first time. The performances of the proposed solution for different levels of electromechanical coupling coefficients in the cases of chirp and noise excitations are compared against the performances of the bistable harvester with the standard technique. It is shown that the OSECE technique is a much better option for wideband energy harvesting than the standard circuit. Moreover, the harvested energy is drastically increased for all excitations in the case of low electromechanical coupling coefficients. When the electromechanical coupling coefficient is high, the performance of the OSECE technique is not as good as the standard circuit for forward sweeps, but superior for the reverse sweep and band-limited noise cases. However, considering that real excitation signals are more similar to noise signals, the OSECE technique enhances the performance.