Comparison between active AC-DC converters for low power energy harvesting systems

Abstract

Low power energy harvesting systems research is increasing in recent years due to many applications such as wireless sensor node, biomedical implants, highway traffic sensor and demand for increasing the battery life. One of the major challenges of the energy harvesting systems is to convert and store usable power efficiently. This paper presented a survey about several commonly used active AC-DC converter circuits that is based on active diodes such as negative voltage converter with active diode, cross-coupled active full bridge and active bridge voltage doubler. Our study shows that the most efficient rectifying circuit among the surveyed AC-DC converter circuits is the active bridge voltage doubler. It provides a minimum voltage drop compared to other two AC-DC converter circuits. In additions, it provides 2X the amount of electrical power.