A High Efficiency Battery Charger with Maximum Power Point Tracking for Magnetic Energy Harvesters

Energy harvesting technologies are increasingly common as sources of energy for Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Magnetic energy harvesting from power cables is a particularly promising technology for smart grid, infrastructure and environmental monitoring, and aerial robotic applications. This paper pre-sents a high-efficiency two-stage battery charger that utilizes an active bridge rectifier and a synchro-nous buck converter to reduce conversion losses. Efficient energy harvesting is achieved by tracking the maximum power point. Experimental results suggest that charging efficiency of up to 90% can be achieved while providing energy for high-energy demanding IoT applications.