Table of Contents
1 Energy Harvesting
1.1 Energy
1.1.1 Energy Types and Conversion
1.1.1.1 Energy Formulas, Conversion Aids, and Orders of Magnitude
1.1.2 Energy Requirements
1.2 Characteristics of Energy Sources
1.3 Processing
1.3.1 Converting Energy
1.3.1.1 Processing DC Voltage
1.3.1.2 Processing AC Voltage
1.3.2 Storing Energy
1.3.2.1 Capacitors and Accumulators as Energy Storage
1.3.2.2 Storing Mechanical Energy
1.3.3 Energy Management
1.3.3.1 Minimal System
2 Gaining Energy from Light
2.1 Solar Cells
2.2 Energy from Outdoor Light
2.3 Energy from Indoor Light
2.4 Collecting Light Energy
2.4.1 Voltage Comparator
2.4.2 The Complete Circuit
2.4.3 The Microcontroller Program
2.4.4 Energy Considerations
2.5 Powering an Outdoor Temperature Sensor with Solar Cells
2.5.1 Flyback Converter with Transformer
2.5.1.1 Notes on Transformers in Flyback Converters
2.5.2 Energy Considerations
3 Energy from Electromagnetic Waves
3.1 A Personal Adventure
3.2 Electromagnetic Waves
3.2.1 Energy from the Far Field
3.2.1.1 Tuning with a High-Q Resonant Circuit
3.2.1.2 Pulling Quartz Frequency
3.2.1.3 Diode Selection
3.2.1.4 Energy from Medium Waves
3.2.1.5 Intermezzo: Transistors as Diodes
3.2.1.6 Core Material from Iron Powder or Ferrites
3.2.1.7 Energy from UHF Waves
3.2.2 Energy from the Near Field
3.2.2.1 Voltage Increase via Resonant Circuit
3.3 "Low-Drop Comparator"
4 Thermoelectricity
4.1 Peltier Effect, Seebeck Effect
4.2 Thermoelement as an Electrical Generator
4.2.1 Thermal Model
4.2.2 Output Voltage and Output Power
4.3 Energy from the Beehive
4.3.1 Energy-Harvesting Chip LTC3108
4.3.2 Flyback Converter with Germanium Transistor
4.4 Thermoelement Array
4.4.1 Reading Light on a Wood Stove
4.4.1.1 Boost Converter Instead of Flyback Converter
4.4.2 Stove Propeller
4.4.3 Model Building Drives
4.5 Application with Microcontroller
4.5.1 The Economical Microcontroller
4.5.1.1 Startup and Brown-Out Reset
4.5.1.2 Low-Power Mode
5 Energy from Mechanical Motion (Kinetic)
5.1 Wind Energy
5.1.1 Utilizing Wind Energy Directly
5.1.1.1 Generator Selection
5.1.1.2 Energy from the Tube
5.1.1.3 Monitoring
5.1.2 Wind Pendulum
5.2 Energy from Vibration
5.2.1 Piezo Experiments
5.2.2 Multiplier
5.2.3 Special IC LTC3588
5.2.4 Applications
5.3 Energy from Pressure Actuation
5.4 Energy from Sound
6 Energy from Chemical Reaction
6.1 Half-Cells
6.2 Redox Series
6.3 Fruit Battery
6.4 Earth Battery
6.5 DC-DC Converter
Appendix
Bibliography
Formula Symbols
Constants
Index
