This paper presents a study of a piezoelectric energy harvesting circuit based on low-power-consumption synchronized switch technology. The proposed circuit includes a parallel synchronized switch harvesting on inductor interface circuit (P-SSHI) and a step-down DC-DC converter. The synchronized switch technology is applied to increase the conversion efficiency of the circuit. The DC-DC converter is used to accomplish the impedance matching for different loads. A low-power-consumption microcontroller and discrete components are used to build the P-SSHI interface circuit. The study starts with theoretical analysis and simulations of the P-SSHI interface circuit. Simulations and experiments were conducted to validate the theoretical analysis. The experimental results show that the maximum energy harvested by the system with a P-SSHI interface circuit is 231 μW, which is 2.89 times that of a system without the P-SSHI scheme. The power consumption of the P-SSHI interface circuit can be as low as 10.6 μW.

In order to compensate the large leakage inductance and improve the power transmission capacity, capacitors are widely used in inductive power transfer (IPT) systems, which results in high voltage or current stresses in the resonant tanks and limits higher volt-ampere (VA) rating of the transfer power, especially in medium and low frequency applications. This paper presents a symmetrical half-bridge resonant converter (SHRC) for series-series/series compensated IPT systems with detailed analysis and design. It operates at a relatively low frequency of 12.5 kHz, suitable for IGBT applications. The theoretical analysis shows that, compared with full-bridge resonant converter (FRC) for IPT, the symmetrical half-bridge resonant converter achieves a higher efficiency. Simulation and a prototype of 1500 W power output were built to verify the theoretical analysis. The experimental results show that the power loss of SHRC is 39.7 W while that of FRC is 79.4 W, which is consistent with the theoretical analysis. The global efficiency of the IPT based on the proposed converter is 91.6%.

In a traditional inductive coupling power transfer (ICPT) system, the converter and the resonant network are strongly coupled. Since the coupling coefficient and the parameters of the resonant network usually vary, the resonant network easily detunes, and the system efficiency, power source capacity, power control, and soft switching conditions of the ICPT system are considerably affected. This paper presents an ICPT system based on a power converter decoupled from the resonant network. In the proposed system, the primary inductor is disconnected from the resonant network during the energy injection stage. After storing a certain amount of energy, the primary inductor is reconnects with the resonant network. Through this method, the converter can be decoupled from the resonant network, and the resonant network can be tuned under various coupling coefficients. Theoretical analysis was explored first. Simulations and experimental work are carried out to verify the theoretical analysis. The results show that the proposed ICPT system has the virtues of low power source capacity, independent power control, and soft switching operation under different coupling coefficients.

An automatic stage transition converter for an inductive power transfer system is presented in this paper. An effective control strategy with two working stages of independent energy injection stage and free resonance stage is employed in the proposed converter. With the automatic stage transition strategy, when the frequency of the resonance network changes, the ending time of the free resonance stage is automatically determined. At the same time, the phase angle of the free resonance stage is automatically set as half a resonant cycle. As the stage transition is not triggered by the switches, the switch motion can be executed in advance of the transition moments. Time margins are offered for every switch in the converter, which make the switching moments of the switches flexible and the control simple. Another feature of this converter is that during the energy injection stage, the energy is injected into the inductor independently. Therefore, the input power can be easily regulated by adjusting the energy injection time. A prototype for the converter and the inductive power transfer system was implemented experimentally. From the experimental results, the automatic stage transition and power regulation capability of the proposed converter are verified. The switches all operated at the soft switch condition. When the energy injection time was adjusted from 10 μs to 25 μs, the output power changed from 143 W to 740 W.

Strong coupling in an inductive power transfer (IPT) system will lead to difficulties in power control and loss of soft switching conditions. This paper presents an IPT system that can decouple the converter from the resonant network. In the proposed system, the energy transmission process is divided into energy injection stage and free resonance stage. In the energy injection stage, the inductor is separated from the resonance network, and the power source injects energy into the inductor independently. In the free resonance stage, the inductor is connected to the resonance network for resonating. As a benefit from the decoupling of the converter from the resonance network, the proposed IPT system is characterized by easy power control and soft switching operation. A prototype was built for experiments. The experimental results show that with a supply voltage of 300 V, coupling factor of 0.2, and load resistance of 10 Ω, the output power can be controlled nearly linearly by the time of the energy injection stage in a range of 40–60 μs, and the system works under soft switching conditions.