Self-powered silicon PIN photoelectric detection system based on triboelectric nanogenerator

Abstract

When sensor networks for the Internet of Things (IoT) are applied on a large scale, it's urgent to investigate self-powered photoelectric detection system without external power supply. Therefore, we propose a self-powered photo-detection system based on the triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) in which the silicon PIN photodetector is powered by a paper-based contact separated TENG. The silicon PIN photodetectors are based on mature silicon processing technology, which is suitable for large scale production. The TENG is connected to the detector through the rectifier bridge circuit. Owing to the internal photoelectric effect of the detector and the TENG impedance matching effect, the equivalent resistance of the detector decreases when light is applied to the surface of the photodetector and the output voltage of the TENG changes accordingly. We investigate the output characteristics of the photoelectric detection system under different illumination intensities and propose a circuit model to analyze the influence of the current on the detection range. Finally, we use light-emitting diodes (LEDs) as display devices to characterize the detected light intensity for applicable self-powered photo-detection system.