A universal and passive power management circuit with high efficiency for pulsed triboelectric nanogenerator

The power management circuit greatly improves the energy storage efficiency of triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), but the presence of active electronic components in the circuit increases the energy consumption and improves the complexity of the circuit. Here, a passive power management circuit without any active components is designed based on Pulsed-TENG. Theoretical calculation results show that the equivalent impedance of the Pulsed-TENG is zero. The simulations show that the output voltage and energy of the Pulsed-TENG can still reach the maximum values, as the load resistance is as low as 0.001 Ω. These means that the challenging problem of impedance mismatching between TENG and power management circuit is well solved. In simulation and actual test, the energy storage efficiency of the passive power management circuit for Pulsed-TENG can reach 83.6% and 57.8%, respectively. The working principle and affecting factors of the circuit have been discussed, and it is also demonstrated to drive calculator and temperature hygrometer. The passive power management circuit reported here with simple structure, low cost, and high efficiency is a universal design for general Pulsed-TENGs with AC signals, which has promising applications in the self-powered electronic devices and the Internet of Things.