AlGaAs Photovoltaics for Indoor Energy Harvesting in mm-Scale Wireless Sensor Nodes

Author

Teran, Alan S. ; Joeson Wong ; Wootaek Lim ; Gyouho Kim ; Yoonmyoung Lee ; Blaauw, David ; Phillips, Jamie D.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Volume

62

Issue

7

fYear

2015

fDate

Jul-15

Firstpage

2170

Lastpage

2175

Abstract

Indoor photovoltaic energy harvesting is a promising candidate to power millimeter (mm)-scale systems. The theoretical efficiency and electrical performance of photovoltaics under typical indoor lighting conditions are analyzed. Commercial crystalline Si and fabricated GaAs and Al_0.2Ga_0.8As photovoltaic cells were experimentally measured under simulated AM 1.5 solar irradiation and indoor illumination conditions using a white phosphor light-emitting diode to study the effects of input spectra and illuminance on performance. The Al_0.2Ga_0.8As cells demonstrated the highest performance with a power conversion efficiency of 21%, with open-circuit voltages >0.65 V under low lighting conditions. The GaAs and Al_0.2Ga_0.8As cells each provide a power density of ~100 nW/mm² or more at 250 lx, sufficient for the perpetual operation of present-day low-power mm-scale wireless sensor nodes.

Keywords

II-VI semiconductors; crystallisation; energy harvesting; light emitting diodes; lighting; photovoltaic cells; sunlight; wireless sensor networks; Al_0.2Ga_0.8As; aluminium gallium arsenide photovoltaic cells; crystalline silicon; electrical performance; illuminance effect; indoor illumination conditions; indoor photovoltaic energy harvesting; input spectra effect; millimeter-scale wireless sensor nodes; open-circuit voltages; power conversion efficiency; solar irradiation; theoretical efficiency; typical indoor lighting conditions; white phosphor light-emitting diode; Density measurement; Gallium arsenide; Lighting; Photovoltaic cells; Photovoltaic systems; Silicon; Aluminum gallium arsenide (AlGaAs); energy harvesting; gallium arsenide (GaAs); photovoltaics; photovoltaics.;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TED.2015.2434336

Filename

7114280