Limit on converted power in resonant electrostatic vibration energy harvesters

Based on the formal analysis of a resonant electrostatic vibration energy harvester operating in constant-charge mode with a gap-closing transducer, we show that the system displays universal behaviour patterns. In this paper, we treat the harvester as a nonlinear forced oscillator and bound the area of control parameters where the system displays regular harmonic oscillations allowing the conditioning circuit to operate in the most effective mode. Before the system exhibits irregular behaviour, there exists a universal optimal value of normalised converted power regardless of the system design and control parameters. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4764009]