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http://dx.doi.org/10.7471/ikeee.2013.17.3.284

Thermoelectric Energy Harvesting Circuit Using DC-DC Boost Converter  

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)
Publication Information
Journal of IKEEE / v.17, no.3, 2013 , pp. 284-293 More about this Journal
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.
Keywords
DC-DC Converter; Energy Harvesting; Thermoelectric Energy; Start-up Circuit; CMOS;
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