• DocumentCode
    104365
  • Title

    50 mV-Input Batteryless Boost Converter for Thermal Energy Harvesting

  • Author

    Weng, Po-Shuan ; Tang, Hao-Yen ; Ku, P.-C. ; Lu, Liang-Hung

  • Author_Institution
    Department of Electrical Engineering and Graduate Institute of Electronics Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
  • Volume
    48
  • Issue
    4
  • fYear
    2013
  • fDate
    Apr-13
  • Firstpage
    1031
  • Lastpage
    1041
  • Abstract
    A fully electrical startup boost converter for thermal energy harvesting is presented in this paper. The converter is implemented in a 65-nm bulk CMOS technology. With the proposed 3-stage stepping-up architecture, the minimum input voltage for startup is as low as 50 mV while the input voltage required for sustained power conversion is 30 mV. Due to the use of a zero-current-switching (ZCS) converter as the last stage and an automatic shutdown mechanism for the auxiliary converter, conversion efficiency up to 73% is achieved. By incorporating the boost converter and a thermoelectric generator (TEG), a miniaturized module is demonstrated for energy harvesting applications.
  • Keywords
    Boost converter; conversion efficiency; energy harvesting; low input voltage; thermoelectric generator;
  • fLanguage
    English
  • Journal_Title
    Solid-State Circuits, IEEE Journal of
  • Publisher
    ieee
  • ISSN
    0018-9200
  • Type

    jour

  • DOI
    10.1109/JSSC.2013.2237998
  • Filename
    6484920