Opportunities and Challenges in Power Management Systems for Triboelectric Nanogenerators

Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) have tremendous potential for generating energy from ambient mechanical energy and human motion. It is impossible to use a TENG as a power source for an electronic system due to its high-voltage and low-current properties of generated signals. Also, the high impedance of the TENG cannot meet the low impedance requirement of electronic devices. TENG devices need efficient and secure power management solutions to overcome the issue. Recently, different power management techniques with matched impedance and regulated output power have been proposed to efficiently utilize a TENG as a power source. These power management techniques include direct current (dc) buck conversion, capacitive transformation, rectification, electromagnetic transformation, integrated circuit switch, voltage trigger switch, travel switch, and transistor switches. This paper reviews the recent advancements in power management for TENGs and not only carefully studies their importance in the electronic control of triboelectric power but also highlights their existing problems and potential developments in the field.