Half-wave rectifiers offer advantages for vibration energy harvesters

Electromagnetic energy harvesters generate power in the form of alternating current but the end user will almost always require direct current, necessitating a stage of rectification. In much of the published literature this is accomplished using a full-wave rectifier, but it is shown that the power available from the electromagnetic energy harvester is only slightly reduced when the load has a low power factor, hence, in cases where diode forward voltage drop is significant, more power can be delivered to the load with a half-wave circuit, notwithstanding the lower power factor. This conclusion is particularly significant for active synchronous rectifiers, where further benefits are derived from the reduced complexity of implementation and lower quiescent power, compared to the full-wave.