A 20 mV Colpitts Oscillator powered by a thermoelectric generator

Author

De Sousa, Fernando Rangel ; Machado, Marcio Bender ; Galup-Montoro, Carlos

Author_Institution

Integrated Circuits Lab., Fed. Univ. of Santa Catarina, Florianopolis, Brazil

fYear

2012

fDate

20-23 May 2012

Firstpage

2035

Lastpage

2038

Abstract

In this paper, we present a MOSFET-based Colpitts oscillator based on a “zero-threshold” transistor operating at a supply voltage below 20 mV. The circuit was carefully analyzed and expressions relating the start-up conditions and the voltage supply, as well as the oscillation frequency were developed. Measurement results obtained on a discrete prototype confirmed the low-voltage operation of the oscillator, which sustained oscillations of 130 mV (peak-to-peak) at 97 kHz when the voltage supply was 19.8 mV. The circuit was also powered from a thermoelectric generator (TEG) connected to a persons arm in a room with temperature of 24°C room. Under these conditions, the TEG supplied 22 mV and the circuit operated as expected.

Keywords

MOSFET; oscillators; thermoelectric conversion; MOSFET-based Colpitts oscillator; TEG; frequency 97 kHz; low-voltage operation; oscillation frequency; power 19.8 mW; start-up conditions; temperature 24 degC; thermoelectric generator; voltage 130 mV; voltage 20 mV; voltage 22 mV; voltage supply; zero-threshold transistor; Capacitors; Generators; Integrated circuit modeling; MOSFET circuits; Oscillators; Transistors; Voltage measurement;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Circuits and Systems (ISCAS), 2012 IEEE International Symposium on

Conference_Location

Seoul

ISSN

0271-4302

Print_ISBN

978-1-4673-0218-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ISCAS.2012.6271680

Filename

6271680