KR102504806B1 - Energy harvesting system using more than two kinds of ambient energy - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an energy harvesting system using more than one type of energy. The energy harvesting system according to the present invention is connected to a plurality of different energy sources, receives energy from a plurality of energy sources and converts it into electrical energy, and receives and collects electrical energy from the plurality of energy converters. An electric energy buffer that combines the collected electric energy to a set power level, a constant voltage converter that receives electric energy from the electric energy buffer and converts it into driving power at a power level usable by the load, and receives and stores the driving power from the constant voltage converter and stores the load and an electrical energy storage device that provides stored driving power.

Description

Energy harvesting system using more than two kinds of ambient energy}

The present invention relates to an energy harvesting system, and more particularly, to an energy harvesting system that collects more energy by using two or more ambient energy sources rather than collecting only one ambient energy source, and based on the energy. The present invention relates to an energy harvesting system using more than two types of ambient energy for operating an electronic device.

As the Internet of Things (IoT) technology spreads in a wide range of fields, it is predicted that the micro/low power IoT device market will grow explosively. However, the limitations of power supply methods such as battery replacement or power cord connection of IoT devices are one of the obstacles to the spread of IoT services.

Energy harvesting technology is attracting attention as a power supply technology for IoT devices, and through the convergence of energy harvesting and IoT technology, research on non-powered driving technology of IoT devices or technology for extending battery usage time is being actively conducted. Demand is also increasing.

Representative energy harvesting energy sources include sunlight, vibration, heat, wind, and the like, and there are devices that operate using the corresponding energy sources. Since these existing energy harvesting technologies use only one energy source within a limited environment, there is a problem in that it is difficult to utilize them in an environment where the amount of energy is not sufficient.

Korean Patent Publication No. 2017-0101756 (published on September 6, 2017)

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an energy harvesting system using two or more ambient energy sources that can collect more energy in various environments using two or more ambient energy sources, rather than using only one energy source. there is.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is connected to a plurality of different ambient energy sources, respectively, a plurality of energy converters for receiving energy from the plurality of ambient energy sources and converting it into electrical energy; an electrical energy buffer that receives and collects electrical energy from the plurality of energy converters and sums the collected electrical energy to a set power level; a constant voltage converter that receives electrical energy from the electrical energy buffer and converts it into driving power at a power level usable by a load; and an electrical energy storage device receiving and storing driving power from the constant voltage converter and providing the stored driving power to a load.

The plurality of different ambient energy sources include at least two ambient energy sources selected from the group consisting of sunlight, vibration, heat and wind.

The electrical energy buffer may include a first switching unit capable of selectively connecting all of the plurality of energy converters to a plurality of buffer blocks, respectively; a plurality of buffer blocks for receiving and temporarily storing electric energy from energy converters connected among the plurality of energy converters by the first switching unit; and a second switching unit which connects the plurality of buffer blocks in series to sum the electrical energy collected in the plurality of buffer blocks to a set electrical energy level and transmits the sum to the constant voltage converter.

The first switching unit connects each of the plurality of energy converters to one of the plurality of buffer blocks.

The second switching unit connects one node of the buffer block to ground when the buffer block receives and stores electrical energy from the energy converter.

The second switching unit disconnects the buffer block from the energy converter when a specific buffer block collects electric energy up to the set individual electric energy level, and if it fails to collect electric energy up to the set individual electric energy level, another buffer block that is not connected and switch to connect the energy converter.

The second switching unit connects the collected buffer blocks in series to sum the electrical energy and transfers the summed electrical energy to the constant voltage converter when the level of the summed electrical energy of the collected buffer blocks reaches the set sum electrical energy.

The present invention also includes a first switching unit capable of selectively connecting all of the plurality of energy converters to a plurality of buffer blocks, respectively; the plurality of buffer blocks receiving and temporarily storing electric energy from energy converters connected among the plurality of energy converters by the first switching unit; and a second switching unit that connects the plurality of buffer blocks in series to sum the electrical energy collected in the plurality of buffer blocks to a set electrical energy level and transfers the sum to a constant voltage converter. It provides an electrical energy buffer for the system.

The energy harvesting system according to the present invention collects more energy using two or more ambient energy sources instead of collecting only one energy source, and can operate an electronic device based on the corresponding energy.

The energy harvesting system according to the present invention sums up small electrical energy collected from each ambient energy source and converts it into a usable electrical energy level.

Since the energy harvesting system according to the present invention can collect more ambient energy within the same environment, it is possible to expand the types of electronic devices that can operate using energy harvesting technology. Therefore, when using the energy harvesting system according to the present invention, it can be used for the development of sensors and devices that can operate using ambient energy sources without a battery.

1 is a block diagram showing an energy harvesting system using more than one kind of energy according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of the electric energy buffer of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example of summing electric energy collected in buffer blocks of the electric energy buffer of FIG. 2 .

It should be noted that in the following description, only parts necessary for understanding the embodiments of the present invention are described, and descriptions of other parts will be omitted without disturbing the gist of the present invention.

The terms or words used in this specification and claims described below should not be construed as being limited to ordinary or dictionary meanings, and the inventors have appropriately used the concept of terms to describe their inventions in the best way. It should be interpreted as a meaning and concept consistent with the technical spirit of the present invention based on the principle that it can be defined in the following way. Therefore, the embodiments described in this specification and the configurations shown in the drawings are only preferred embodiments of the present invention, and do not represent all of the technical spirit of the present invention, so various equivalents that can replace them at the time of the present application. It should be understood that there may be variations and variations.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a block diagram showing an energy harvesting system using more than one kind of energy according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, the energy harvesting system 100 according to this embodiment collects more energy using two or more ambient energy sources rather than collecting only one ambient energy source, and based on the energy It is a system that operates the load 80 (electronic device).

The energy harvesting system 100 according to this embodiment includes a plurality of energy converters (10; Energy Converter), an electrical energy buffer (20; Electrical Energy Buffer), a constant voltage converter (60; Constant Voltage Converter), and an electrical energy storage device. (70; Electrical Energy Storage). The plurality of energy converters 10 are each connected to a plurality of different ambient energy sources, receive energy from the plurality of ambient energy sources, and convert it into electrical energy. The electrical energy buffer 20 receives and collects electrical energy from the plurality of energy converters 10, and sums the collected electrical energy to a set power level. The constant voltage converter 60 receives the combined electrical energy from the electrical energy buffer 20 and converts it into driving power at a power level usable by the load 80 . The electrical energy storage device 70 receives and stores driving power from the constant voltage converter 60 and provides the stored driving power to the load 80 .

Here, the plurality of different ambient energy sources include first through n-th ambient energy sources (hereinafter, n is a natural number greater than or equal to 2). A plurality of different ambient energy sources may be sunlight, vibration, heat, and wind, but are not limited thereto.

The plurality of energy converters 10 are connected one-to-one to a plurality of different ambient energy sources, receive energy from each of the ambient energy sources, and convert it into electrical energy. The plurality of energy converters 10 include first through n-th energy converters 11, 12, and 13. A commonly known technology is used to convert energy received from an ambient energy source to which the energy converter 10 is connected into electrical energy.

The electrical energy buffer 20 temporarily stores electrical energy converted by the plurality of energy converters 10 and includes a passive element capable of storing electrical energy such as a capacitor. The electrical energy buffer 20 sums the electrical energy collected from the plurality of energy converters 10 and converts them to a set power level, and transfers the summed electrical energy to the constant voltage converter 60 .

The constant voltage converter 60 receives the electrical energy stored in the electrical energy buffer 20 and converts it into driving power at a power level usable by the load 80 .

The electrical energy storage device 70 is an energy storage device that stores driving power for operating the load 80, and for example, a capacitor or a secondary battery may be used. The electrical energy storage 70 provides the stored driving power to the load 80.

The operating principle of the energy harvesting system 100 according to this embodiment will be described as follows.

First, the energy converter 10 receives one or more ambient energy sources and converts them into electrical energy.

Next, the electrical energy converted by the energy converter 10 is accumulated in the electrical energy buffer 20 . At this time, since the type and intensity of the surrounding energy source differs according to the surrounding environment, the amount of electrical energy converted in each energy converter 10 and accumulated in the electrical energy buffer 20 is also different. Accordingly, the electrical energy buffer 20 sums the accumulated electrical energy.

In the case of a load 80 such as a typical electronic device, since the operating power level (voltage and current level) is determined, the electrical energy accumulated in the electrical energy buffer 20 cannot be used for the load 80 as it is.

Therefore, the electrical energy accumulated in the electrical energy buffer 20 is transferred to the constant voltage converter 60 and converted into driving power usable by the load 80, that is, constant voltage/current, and the converted driving power is converted into constant voltage converter 60. is transmitted to the electrical energy storage device 70 and stored.

The electrical energy storage 70 stores the driving power received from the constant voltage converter 60 and provides the driving power required by the load 80 from among the stored driving power.

The electrical energy buffer 20 of the energy harvesting system 100 according to this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3 as follows. Here, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of the electric energy buffer 20 of FIG. 1 . And FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of summing electrical energy collected in the buffer blocks 40 of FIG. 2 .

The electrical energy buffer 20 includes a first switching unit 30 , a plurality of buffer blocks 40 and a second switching unit 50 . The first switching unit 30 may selectively connect all of the plurality of energy converters 10 to the plurality of buffer blocks 40, respectively. The plurality of buffer blocks 40 receive electrical energy from the connected energy converter 10 among the plurality of energy converters 10 by the first switching unit 30 and temporarily store it. Further, the second switching unit 50 connects the plurality of buffer blocks 40 in series, sums the electrical energy collected in the plurality of buffer blocks 40 to a set electrical energy level, and transfers it to the constant voltage converter 60 .

where EC#1, EC#2,... , EC#N represent electrical energy output from the first to n-th energy converters 11, 12, and 13, respectively.

The first switching unit 30 connects each of the plurality of energy converters 10 to one of the plurality of buffer blocks 40 . The first switching unit 30 includes a 1-1 switching unit 31, a 1-2 switching unit 32, ... , and includes a 1-n switching unit 33.

Each of the 1-1 to 1-n switching units 31 , 32 , and 33 includes n switches corresponding to the number of first to n th energy converters 11 , 12 , and 13 .

The plurality of buffer blocks 40 include first through n-th buffer blocks 41.42.43. One ends of the first to n-th buffer blocks 41, 42, and 43 are connected to the 1-1 to 1-n switches 31, 32, and 33, respectively.

In addition, the second switching unit 50 interlocks with the first switching unit 30 to store electrical energy in the first to n-th buffer blocks 41, 42, and 43, or combines the stored electrical energy to generate a constant voltage converter 60. forward to

The second switching unit 50 includes a 2-1 switching unit 51, a 2-2 switching unit 52, ... , a second-(n-1) switching unit 53 and a second-n switching unit 54. The 2-1 switching unit 51, the 2-2 switching unit 52, . . . , The 2-(n-1) switching unit 53 is installed between the first to n-th buffer blocks 41, 42, and 43, respectively, and the 2-n switching unit 54 is the n-th buffer block ( 43) is connected. The 2-1 switching unit 51, the 2-2 switching unit 52, . . . , The second-(n-1) switching unit 53 includes switches respectively connected to two adjacent buffer blocks 40 .

That is, the first buffer block 41 has one end connected to the 1-1 switching unit 31 and the other end connected to one of the ground node and the serial node by the 2-1 switching unit 51.

The second buffer block 42 is connected at one end to one of the 1-2 switching unit 32, the serial node and the connection node by the 2-1 switching unit 51. Here, the connection node is a node connected to the constant voltage converter 60 . The second buffer block 42 is connected to one of the ground node and the serial node by the 2-2 switching unit 52 at the other end.

Also, the third buffer block to the n-th buffer block 33 are connected in the same way as the second buffer block 42 . At this time, the nth buffer block 43 has one end connected to the 2-(n-1) switching unit 53 and the other end connected to the 2-n switching unit 54.

When the buffer block 40 receives and stores electrical energy from the energy converter 10, the second switching unit 50 connects the other end of the buffer block 40 to a ground node. One end of the buffer block 40 receives and stores electrical energy from the energy converter 10 connected through the first switching unit 30 or the second switching unit 50 .

The second switching unit 50 disconnects the energy converter 10 connected to the corresponding buffer block 40 when the buffer block 40 collects electrical energy up to the set individual electrical energy level. That is, when charging of the electric energy set in the buffer block 40 is completed, the second switching unit 50 blocks the connection between the buffer block 40 and the energy converter 10 after the charging is completed. The plurality of energy converters 10 store electrical energy by switching to other buffer blocks 40 that are not charged by the first and second switching units 30 and 50 .

And, when the sum electrical energy level of the collected buffer blocks 40 reaches the set sum electric energy, the second switching unit 50, as shown in FIG. 3 , serializes the collected buffer blocks 40. After connecting, the electrical energy is combined and transmitted to the constant voltage converter (60). At this time, when the second switching unit 50 connects the plurality of buffer blocks 40 in series after the electrical energy is stored in the plurality of buffer blocks 40 at a set level, at least one buffer block 40 ) is connected to ground. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, when connecting the first to n-th buffer blocks 41, 42, and 43 in series, the first buffer block 41, the second buffer block 42 to the n−1 buffer The 2-1 to 2-(n-1) switching units 51, 52, and 53 of the block are connected by switching from a ground node to a series node, and the 2-n switching units of the n-th buffer block 43 (54) maintains a connection with the ground node.

At this time, the summed electrical energy is transferred to the constant voltage converter 60 at the rear through the VB node. In order for the constant voltage converter 60 to operate, electrical energy must be collected above a specific voltage level to operate. The electric energy buffer 20 connects the buffer blocks 40 in which small electric energy is collected in series to increase the instantaneous VB voltage to a level at which the constant voltage converter 60 can operate, which is the small electric energy collected respectively. It is a way to raise the electric energy level to the desired level.

Meanwhile, in this embodiment, an example of electrically connecting all of the first to n-th buffer blocks 41, 42, and 43 in series has been disclosed, but is not limited thereto. If the sum electrical energy level reaches the set sum electrical energy with only a partial number of buffer blocks 40 among the plurality of buffer blocks 40, only the corresponding number of buffer blocks 40 may be selectively connected in series.

As such, the energy harvesting system 100 according to the present embodiment collects more energy using two or more surrounding energy sources rather than collecting only one energy source, and loads 80 based on the energy. can make it work.

The energy harvesting system 100 according to this embodiment sums up a small amount of electrical energy collected from each ambient energy source and converts it into a usable electrical energy level.

In addition, since the energy harvesting system 100 according to the present embodiment can collect more ambient energy within the same environment, the types of operable loads 80 can be expanded by utilizing energy harvesting technology. Therefore, when using the energy harvesting system 100 according to the present embodiment, it can be used for the development of a load 80 that can be operated using a peripheral energy source without a battery, for example, a sensor or a device.

On the other hand, the embodiments disclosed in this specification and drawings are only presented as specific examples to aid understanding, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. In addition to the embodiments disclosed herein, it is obvious to those skilled in the art that other modifications based on the technical idea of the present invention can be implemented.

10: energy converter
20: electric energy buffer
30: first switching unit
31, 32, 33: 1-1 to 1-n unit switching unit
40: buffer block
41, 42, 43: first to nth buffer blocks
50: second switching unit
51,52,53,54: 2-1 to 2-n unit switching unit
60: constant voltage converter
70: electric energy storage
80: load
100: energy harvesting system

Claims (9)

a plurality of energy converters each connected to a plurality of different ambient energy sources and receiving energy from the plurality of ambient energy sources and converting the energy into electrical energy;
an electrical energy buffer that receives and collects electrical energy from the plurality of energy converters and sums the collected electrical energy to a set power level;
a constant voltage converter that receives electrical energy from the electrical energy buffer and converts it into driving power at a power level usable by a load;
an electric energy storage unit receiving and storing driving power from the constant voltage converter and supplying the stored driving power to a load; and
The load receiving driving power from the electrical energy storage device; includes,
The electrical energy buffer,
a first switching unit capable of selectively connecting all of the plurality of energy converters to a plurality of buffer blocks, respectively;
a plurality of buffer blocks for receiving and temporarily storing electric energy from energy converters connected among the plurality of energy converters by the first switching unit; and
a second switching unit which connects the plurality of buffer blocks in series, sums the electrical energy collected in the plurality of buffer blocks to a set electrical energy level, and transfers the summed electrical energy to the constant voltage converter;
An energy harvesting system using more than one kind of ambient energy including a. According to claim 1,
Wherein the plurality of different ambient energy sources include at least two ambient energy sources selected from the group consisting of sunlight, vibration, heat, and wind. delete According to claim 1,
The first switching unit connects the plurality of energy converters to one of the plurality of buffer blocks, respectively. Energy harvesting system using more than one kind of ambient energy. According to claim 4,
The second switching unit connects one node of the buffer block to the ground when the buffer block receives and stores electrical energy from the energy converter. According to claim 5,
The second switching unit is an energy harvesting system using more than one kind of ambient energy to disconnect the buffer block and the energy converter when the electric energy is collected up to the individual electric energy level set by the specific buffer block. According to claim 6,
When the level of the summed electrical energy of the collected buffer blocks reaches the set sum electrical energy, the second switching unit connects the collected buffer blocks in series to sum the electrical energy and transfers the two or more types of ambient energy to the constant voltage converter. Energy harvesting system using delete A first switching unit capable of selectively connecting all of the plurality of energy converters to a plurality of buffer blocks, respectively;
the plurality of buffer blocks receiving and temporarily storing electric energy from energy converters connected among the plurality of energy converters by the first switching unit; and
A second switching unit that connects the plurality of buffer blocks to sum the electrical energy collected in the plurality of buffer blocks to a set electrical energy level and transfers it to a constant voltage converter;
The first switching unit connects each of the plurality of energy converters to one of the plurality of buffer blocks,
The second switching unit connects one node of the buffer block to the ground when the buffer block receives and stores electrical energy from the energy converter. buffer.

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