An integrated power supply system for low-power 3.3V electronics using on-chip polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells

Recent advances in miniaturization of both electronics and MEMS devices have resulted in a considerable power reduction. On the other hand, the size of power supplies for such miniaturized devices has been only marginally scaled down. In this paper a stabilized power supply realized by monolithically integrated micro fuel cells within an extended CMOS process is presented. The key feature of this set-up is the parallel fabrication of CMOS electronics and chip integrated fuel cell structures in the same production line.