Speaker: Madhav Pathak, ECpE Graduate Student
Advisor: Ratnesh Kumar
Title: Synchronous switched circuits for enhanced energy extraction from Triboelectric Vibrational Energy Harvesters
Abstract: One of the major challenges faced in expanding Internet of Things (IoT) sensors for the ongoing Industry 4.0 transformation is its limited battery life. Integration of miniaturized energy harvester to harness the background vibrational energy is an attractive green solution towards maintenance-free IoT sensor nodes in Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) and Machine Health Monitoring (MHM) applications. Recently, a new class of mechanical to electrical energy transducers termed Triboelectric Nanogenerator (TENG) that enjoys wide choice in materials and operation modes has been developed. For practical deployment of TENGs, Energy Extraction Circuit (EEC) is further required to act as a rectifying interface between the TENG and the onboard battery/capacitor load. This research fundamentally studies the TENG’s cyclic transduction operation and develops multiple EEC architectures that optimize the electrical load to enhance the energy extracted from the TENG. The design, mathematical modeling, simulation, and experimental implementation of the developed synchronous inductor-switched EEC architectures are all reported and compared in a common framework to guide the choice and design of EEC for any given TENG.
Bio: Madhav Pathak received the B.Tech. degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) — Roorkee, India, in 2016. He is currently pursuing Ph.D. in electrical engineering with focus in Microelectronics at Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA. His current research interest is in the design of micro energy harvesters and associated power extraction circuits for self-powered Internet of Things (IoT) sensors.