Handbook of Energy Harvesting Power Supplies and Applications

“This handbook describes the fundamentals and principles of energy harvesting and describes the background and theory for designing energy harvesting power supplies. The four sections of the book cover overall system design of wireless sensing;  five types of transducers, namely, piezoelectric, electromagnetic, electrostatic, thermoelectric, and solar cells; power supply circuits commonly used for energy harvesting applications, and RF power transmission and energy storage for electrical buffering; and applications of energy harvesting power supplies, including building automation, structural health monitoring, tire pressure monitoring, logistics, and some consumer electronic applications. This is an ideal book for those wanting to learn more about wireless energy harvesting in general. Its main focus is on power supply design for energy harvesting applications of wireless sensors. It contains a wealth of information that can be used to design energy harvesting circuits and to create ideas for new circuit topologies.”

~IEEE Electrical Insulation Magazine

“Handbook of Energy Harvesting Power Supplies and Applicationsunveils the physical principles of energy-harvesting transducers and explains the necessary physics and electronics background leading to the design of energy-harvesting power supplies. It explains in detail the available energy-harvesting technologies. Due to the intermittency of several sources of ambient energy (light, thermal, mechanic, electromagnetic radiation), the book also includes storage elements. It explains and compares storage devices like solid-state thin-film lithium batteries, supercapacitors, and reversible fuel cells so the reader can select the most appropriate for a given application. On the electronics side, it provides a detailed study about dc–dc switching regulators, including two fundamental subjects: matching loads and performance efficiency considerations. This last subject, hard to find even in power electronics books, is of paramount importance in the energy-harvesting context. This is a timely and unique book, highlighting modern and highly successful state-of-the-art energy-harvesting technologies and methods. It fosters further discussion, research, and development and is, therefore, valuable for teachers, undergraduate and graduate students, industry engineers, and researchers in the field of energy harvesting, materials science, small-scale energy storage, and electronic power conversion.”

~IEEE Industrial Electronics Magazine