A novel self-starting ultra low-power and low-voltage DC-DC converter for microbial energy harvesting

Author

Farjah, E. ; Ayaz, M. ; Ghanbari, T.

Author_Institution

Sch. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Shiraz Univ., Shiraz, Iran

fYear

2014

fDate

7-10 Sept. 2014

Firstpage

266

Lastpage

267

Abstract

This paper presents a novel low voltage DC/DC boost converter for energy harvesting from ultra-low power energy sources. The proposed converter has a simple structure consisting of two stages: an autonomous oscillator in the first stage enabling self-starting of converter and a controllable reverse buck-boost converter in the second stage. Simulation results and experimental tests proved that this converter can harvest ultra-low powers as 100μw from a microbial fuel cell having a 475mV voltage and feeding an electrical load with a DC voltage over 2.7V.

Keywords

DC-DC power convertors; energy harvesting; load (electric); microbial fuel cells; oscillators; DC voltage; autonomous oscillator; electrical load; microbial energy harvesting; microbial fuel cell; power 100 muW; self-starting ultra low-power low-voltage DC-DC buck-boost converter; voltage 2.7 V; voltage 475 mV; Educational institutions; Energy harvesting; Fuel cells; Low-power electronics; Oscillators; Switches; Voltage control; energy harvesting; low-voltage boost converter; microbial fuel cell (MFC); ultra-low power converter;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Consumer Electronics ??? Berlin (ICCE-Berlin), 2014 IEEE Fourth International Conference on

Conference_Location

Berlin

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICCE-Berlin.2014.7034247

Filename

7034247