Power management circuit analysis for an inductive energy harvester

Usually, an energy harvester must be connected to a power management circuit that performs different functions: AC/DC conversion, DC/DC conversion, energy storage, and/or battery charging. In this paper, a comparison between power management circuits connected to a specific electromagnetic generator is presented. In particular, three different power management circuits have been simulated: three-step Villard circuit, three-step Cockcroft-Walton circuit, and two-step Cascode circuit. From the simulation results, the Villard circuit is the most efficient circuit for the considered electromagnetic harvester; hence, experimental measurements with this circuit have been performed. © 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland.