Power converter for raindrop energy harvesting application: Full-wave rectifier

This paper presents a power converter for raindrop energy harvesting application. Generally, there are still limited numbers of researchers that are engaged in the raindrop energy harvesting research field. Currently, harvesting raindrop energy via polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) piezoelectric give an extensive challenge for a researcher to create opportunity in generating energy from the impact of a raindrop. The full-wave rectifier converter for raindrop harvesting energy application is designed and proposed to convert damping alternating current (AC) generated by PVDF piezoelectric into direct current (DC). In this research, parameter analysis of full-wave rectifier with various resistive loads is presented to determine the best resistive load for power extraction. Converting damping AC voltage into DC voltage can be performed using a full-wave rectifier with a resistive load. The results of the 0.68 MD resistive load showed the best performance of the full-wave rectifier converter, which generate 3 V (V
_Rectifier
). The instantaneous output power generated from this experiment is 13.25 μW (P
_{instantaneous}
).