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Institute of Korean Electrical and Electronics Engineers (한국전기전자학회)
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Thermoelectric Energy Harvesting Circuit Using DC-DC Boost Converter

DC-DC 부스트 변환기를 이용한 열전에너지 하베스팅 회로

  • Yoon, Eun-Jung (Dept. of Electronics Engineering, Incheon National University) ;
  • Park, Jong-Tae (Dept. of Electronics Engineering, Incheon National University) ;
  • Yu, Chong-Gun (Dept. of Electronics Engineering, Incheon National University)
  • Received : 2013.07.30
  • Accepted : 2013.09.04
  • Published : 2013.09.30
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Abstract

This paper describes a DC-DC boost converter for thermoelectric energy harvesting. The designed converter boosts the VDD through a start-up block from a low-output voltage of a thermoelectric device and the boosted VDD is used to operate the internal control block. When the VDD reaches a predefined value, a detector circuit makes the start-up block turn off to minimize current consumption. The final boosted VOUT is achieved by alternately operating the DC-DC converter for VDD and the main DC-DC converter for VOUT according to the comparator outputs. Simulation results shows that the designed converter generates 2.65V from an input voltage of 200mV and its maximum power efficiency is 63%. The area of the chip designed using a 0.35um CMOS process is $1.3mm{\times}0.7mm$ including pads.

본 논문에서는 열전에너지 하베스팅을 위한 저전압 DC-DC 부스트 변환기를 설계하였다. 설계된 변환기는 열전소자의 작은 출력전압으로부터 시동회로를 통해 일정 전압까지 승압된 VDD를 얻으며, 이는 내부 컨트롤 블록을 동작시키는데 사용된다. VDD가 원하는 전압 값에 도달하면 전압감지기가 이를 감지하고 시동회로에 공급되는 전류를 차단하여 전류소모를 최소화한다. 이후 비교기의 출력에 따라 VDD를 위한 DC-DC 변환기와 최종출력 VOUT을 위한 DC-DC 변환기를 번갈아가며 동작시켜서 최종적으로 승압된 VOUT을 얻는다. 모의실험 결과, 설계한 변환기는 200mV의 입력으로부터 2.65V의 VOUT을 출력하며, 최대 전력효율은 63%이다. $0.35{\mu}m$ CMOS 공정을 사용하여 설계한 칩의 크기는 PAD를 포함하여 $1.3mm{\times}0.7mm$이다.

Keywords

References

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