A burst-mode based boost converter harvesting photovoltaic energy for low power applications

This paper presents a boost converter used to harvest photovoltaic energy, one of the most important renewable energy sources, and to converter it into a power supply for micro power devices. To meet the low power requirements of applications such as wireless sensor network, the converter is designed to work at burst-mode to reduce power consumption. And a simple Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) scheme, based on open voltage detection, is also utilized in the system to increase the system´s power efficiency. The chip, which integrates the power MOSFETS in it, was implemented in Global Foundry 0.18 μm, 1.8/3.3 V, RFCMOS process, and its power efficiency reached 80% at 80 mV input voltage and 100 μA load current, according to the simulation results.