A SPICE Modelling and Simulation Framework for Multi-source Energy Harvester Combiner Topologies

Multisource energy harvesting (MEH) and efficiently combining the harvested energies is essential for self-powered devices which is a technical challenge as well. Designing an efficient energy combiner is not trivial. Various factors viz. harvestable energy level from the sources and energy range, sources scheduling algorithms for combiner, electrical characteristics of sources (low current and high voltage, high current and low voltage, capacitive, inductive etc.), impedance matching of sources, sources switching and control/trigger circuit losses, power conversion and management etc. influence harvester's and combiner's efficiency. Considering that, this article presents a SPICE modelling and simulation framework for analyzing MEH and combiner topologies viz. Inductor sharing, voltage level detection and powerORing for its power and energy flow characteristics, regulation, and energy efficiency. Such analysis enables arriving an efficient combiner architecture based on harvestable resources, sources models, power management circuits schemes etc. It has been observed that voltage level detection technique with DC-DC converters for each source results highest efficiency as compared with other topologies for three sources scenario.