Title :
Design of a low input voltage converter for thermoelectric generator
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Victoria Univ., BC, Canada
Abstract :
Low-grade exhaust heat is used to provide a reliable and independent power source for instrumentation circuitry by means of a thermoelectric generator (TEG). A design of a self-starting DC-DC power converter is developed and optimized for very low input voltages (below 300 mV) in order to allow operation at temperature differences of 20°C and less. A prototype is built, and the results are experimentally verified
Keywords :
DC-DC power convertors; field effect transistor switches; power MOSFET; power field effect transistors; power semiconductor switches; switching circuits; thermoelectric conversion; thermoelectric devices; low input voltage power converter; low-grade exhaust heat; self-starting convertor design; temperature differences; thermoelectric generator; Batteries; Circuits; DC-DC power converters; Heat engines; Instruments; Low voltage; Power generation; Switching converters; Temperature; Thermoelectricity;
Conference_Titel :
Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition, 1996. APEC '96. Conference Proceedings 1996., Eleventh Annual
Conference_Location :
San Jose, CA
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-3044-7
DOI :
10.1109/APEC.1996.500539
