LAUSR

The approach of mechatronic switch appears to be a promising way of elaborating self-started synchronous switching circuits for piezoelectric energy harvesting. In order to replace electronic switches, the mechatronic switch has to overcome a critical challenge: how to trace the variable amplitude adaptively in different vibration situations while bringing less damping to the system dynamics as possible? In this article, an improved design of self-adaptive mechatronic switch is proposed by using the snubber structure of viscous materials in series with a low-frequency oscillator. The duplicated effects of the oscillator's slow responses and the relaxation process of the viscous materials bring the advantages of reducing switching phase mismatch and enhancing the performance with less parameter sensitivity. In addressing the damping doubts, energy current analysis is performed for different parameters. It reveals that the mechanical loss from the mechatronic switch can be controlled to a faint level. Superior performance of the proposed approach is confirmed in comparison with the standard circuit for weakly coupled cases.