Low Leakage Current Supercapacitor suggestsions for PZT energy harvester?

Low Leakage Current Supercapacitor suggestions for PZT energy harvester?

Hi All,

I've run into this site every now and then and you all seem very helpful, so I thought I'd make an account.

I'm working on a Low Power PZT Energy harvester and have been searching for supercapacitors to be used for energy storage. Because of the project's power limitations, I've been trying to look for a good quality supercapacitor with very low leakage current and ESR.

I was wondering if you had any suggestions for a particular supercapacitor that has worked well for you. I'm hoping to find 5 or so possibilities and test them to see which one performs the best since leakage current is such a big issue with this project. I'd also like to hear your experiences if you've run into similar situations!


Thanks!

I would bet that the supercap matters less than the efficiency
/ effectiveness of transferring the piezo charge blips into it.

A bigger cap will leak more. You probably want to work back
from hang time and stuff like that, know your needs and then
pick from the options.

Are you sure a small bettery wouldn't be better? Supercap
will swing across a wide voltage range and then needs a
post-regulator - generally inefficient at low power. A
battery is perhaps "self-regulating enough" and can just
be charge pumped without much care if the input current
is low. Compare functional density and self-discharge (plus
discharge attributes of charge and power management
circuitry you will attach) and you may decide you are
better off with another storage. Like a NiMH coin cell or
something. There are a lot of non-mainstream battery
technologies out there with unusual attributes.