Inductor-less DC-DC converter using a piezoelectric transducer

—In this paper, a new DC-DC piezoelectric resonant converter is developed. The piezoelectric transducer replaces the inductance of classical power electronics topologies, as an energy storage element. The 6-phases cycle and its synchronized command enables excellent efficiency for various output voltage gains and loads. The transducer must have an excellent quality factor and coupling and is characterized by an electrical equivalent model. A disk shaped ceramic suitable for the application is tested and used in a Matlab/Simulink simulation. This simulation lets to expect excellent results with an efficiency estimated higher than 98% for a 10-20V step-up converter with 0.5W output power.