IC-Compatible High-Efficiency Power Management for Triboelectric Nanogenerators Based on the Concept of Limit

Effective power management is critical in promoting the widespread utilization of triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs), which currently suffer from low power efficiency for practical low-voltage loads and incompatibility with integrated circuits (ICs). In this study, we propose a multirelease synchronized charge extraction (MR-SCE) strategy based on the concept of "limit," featuring unprecedented high efficiency and IC compatibility. The key to the MR-SCE strategy is to exploit the high-speed operation characteristics of electronic circuits to construct optimized discharge platforms for each small part of the TENG charge. We present a rigorous theoretical framework and simulation results, which demonstrate that nearly 100% of the TENG's maximum energy can be transferred to low-voltage energy storage units in ideal conditions, a remarkable two orders of magnitude higher than existing strategies. The verification circuit with novel structure is fully IC-compatible as it consists only of resistors, capacitors, diodes, and transistors. Despite nonideal factors, we achieve an energy efficiency of 22.3%, significantly higher than previous reports. In addition, the pathway and key technologies to achieve high-performance power management IC of the TENG are also discussed. It is believed that this work sets a new standard for the TENG power management and significantly accelerates their commercialization process.