Modeling and control of a low power electronics circuit for energy harvesting applications

In this thesis, we propose a new low power electronics converter for energy harvesting applications. The proposed converter exhibits a resistive input behavior which can be adjusted by using a controller. Furthermore, a self-powered MOSFET gate drive circuit is designed and tested that obtains its power from the input power source. These characteristics offer a huge advantage in dealing with harvestable sources of energy. The theoretical analysis of the circuit is done by deriving the mathematical formulas describing the behavior of the circuit, the extracted power, the harvested power in the battery, and the efficiency of the circuit. All the derived formulas and the theoretical analysis of the circuit are verified by simulation results using Matlab/Simulink environment and Ltspice. A vibrational piezoelectric transducer was used along with a PI controller to verify the theoretical and simulation results. The self-powered and low power consumption characteristics of the circuit are demonstrated in another experiment.