• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2018.10a
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• pp.35-38
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• 2018

This paper describes a low-power MPPT interface for DC-type energy harvesting sources. The proposed circuit consists of an MPPT controller, a bias generator, and a voltage detector. The MPPT controller consists of an MPG (MPPT Pulse Generator) with a schmitt trigger, a logic gate operating according to energy type (light, heat), and a sample/hold circuit. The bias generator is designed by employing a beta multiplier structure, and the voltage detector is implemented using a bulk-driven comparator and a two-stage buffer. The proposed circuit is designed with $0.35{\mu}m$ CMOS process. The simulation results show that the designed circuit consumes less than 100nA of current at an input voltage of less than 3V and the maximum power efficiency is 99.7%. The chip area of the designed circuit is $1151{\mu}m{\times}940{\mu}m$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2018.10a
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• pp.39-42
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• 2018

In this paper, a low-power MPPT interface circuit for vibration energy harvesting sources is presented. The designed circuit rectifies the harvested ac type energy to the dc type energy required to drive the system, and periodically samples and holds the open circuit voltage (Voc) through the MPPT controller, and transfers the harvested power to the load while maintaining the input voltage at 1/2 of the maximum available power point. All circuits have been designed using a 0.35-um CMOS technology, and the operation has been verified through simulation. Simulation results show that the designed circuit consumes 98nA of current at 3V input voltage and the maximum power efficiency is 99.21%. The designed chip occupies $1.281mm{\times}1.236mm$.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.573-582
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• 2015

This paper presents the design of dual mode boost converter for energy harvesting. The designed converter boosts low voltage from energy harvester through a startup circuit. When the voltage goes above predefined value, supplied voltage to startup circuit is blocked by voltage detector. Boost controller makes the boosted voltage into $V_{OUT}$. The proposed circuit consists of oscillator for charge pump, charge pump, pulse generator, voltage detector, and boost controller. The proposed converter is designed and fabricated using a $0.18{\mu}m$ CMOS process. The designed circuit shows that minimum input voltage is 600mV, output is 3V and startup time is 20ms. The boost converter achieves 47% efficiency at a load current of 3mA.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.201-209
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• 2015

This paper describes a battery charger using photovoltaic energy harvesting with MPPT control. The proposed circuit harvests maximum power from a PV(photovoltaic) cell by employing MPPT(Maximum Power Point Tracking) control and charges an external battery with the harvested energy. The charging state of the battery is controlled according to the signals from a battery management circuit. The MPPT control is implemented using linear relationship between the open-circuit voltage of a PV cell and its MPP voltage such that a pilot PV cell can track the MPP of a main PV cell in real time. The proposed circuit is designed in a $0.35{\mu}m$ CMOS process technology and its functionality has been verified through extensive simulations. The maximum efficiency of the designed entire system is 86.2% and the chip area including pads is $1.35mm{\times}1.2mm$.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.1093-1100
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• 2018

Fast progress in miniaturization and reducing power consumption of semiconductors for wearable devices makes it possible to develop extremely small wearable systems for various application services. This results recent wearable applications to be powered from extremely low-power energy harvesters based on solar, piezo, and TENG sources. In most cases, the harvesters generate power in non-linear manner. Therefore, we implemented and experimented the device platforms to utilize natural frequency of around 3Hz. We also designed two-stage power storages and high efficiency conversion platform to consider such non-linear power harvesting sources. The experiment showed power generation of about 4.67mW/min from these non-linear sources with provision of stable energy storages.

• Journal of Satellite, Information and Communications
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.89-93
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• 2017

This paper introduces an energy harvesting system that generates energy by collecting multi-band RF signals using buck-boost DC-DC converter. In an environment where the resistance of load using the collected electric energy is constantly changing, a buck-boost DC-DC converter is used in which the input resistance of the DC-DC converter does not change even if the load resistance changes. Since the frequency band of the input RF signal varies, the rectifier is designed for each band so that multiple bands can be processed, and a matching circuit is added to each band in front of the rectifier. For a rectifier to collect very small RF signals, a circuit is designed so that a constant voltage is obtained according to a very small input signal by devising a method of continuously accumulating the voltages collected and generated in each band. It is confirmed that the output efficiency can reach up to 20% even for the RF signal having the input of -20 dBm.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.453-461
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• 2022

A chemically sintered and binder-free paste of TiO₂ nanoparticles (NPs) was prepared using a binary-liquid mixture of 1-octanol and CCl₄. The 1:1 (v/v) complex of CCl₄ and 1-octanol easily interacted chemically with the TiO₂ NPs and induced the formation of a highly viscous paste. The as-prepared binary-liquid paste (P_BL)-based TiO₂ film exhibited the complete removal of the binary-liquid and residuals with the subsequent low-temperature sintering (~150℃) and UV-O₃ treatment. This facilitated the fabrication of TiO₂ photoanodes for flexible dye-sensitized solar cells (f-DSSCs). For comparison purposes, pure 1-octanol-based TiO₂ paste (P_O) with moderate viscosity was prepared. The P_BL-based TiO₂ film exhibited strong adhesion and high mechanical stability with the conducting oxide coated glass and plastic substrates compared to the P_O-based film. The corresponding low-temperature sintered P_BL-based f-DSSC showed a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 3.5%, while it was 2.0% for P_O-based f-DSSC. The P_BL-based low- and high-temperature (500℃) sintered glass-based rigid DSSCs exhibited the PCE of 6.0 and 6.3%, respectively, while this value was 7.1% for a 500℃ sintered rigid DSSC based on a commercial (or conventional) paste.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.51-58
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• 2023

In this study, an empirical experiment was conducted to assess the feasibility of replacing groundwater with rainwater in melon cultivation using a smart rainwater harvesting system. The rainwater harvesting efficiency was calculated under three different melon cultivation scenarios. After cultivation, the quality of the fruits grown with rainwater and groundwater was compared by examining the weight, degree of sweetness, and flesh hardness of the products. The results revealed that the water quality of the smart rainwater harvesting device was suitable for melon cultivation to provide better hardness and chloride levels than groundwater. It was also estimated that about 40% of the total water demand for full growth of the melon could be supplied by rainwater. The fruit weight and sweetness were equivalent or slightly better for the melons cultivated with rainwater than those cultivated with groundwater. In particular, the flesh hardness was significantly improved by rainwater cultivation. These results collectively suggest that rainwater can be used as a substitute for groundwater to preserve groundwater resources without compromizing the produced fruit quality.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.10 no.9
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• pp.4223-4239
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• 2016

In this paper, we consider an amplify-and-forward (AF) full-duplex relay network (FDRN) using simultaneous wireless information and power transfer, where a battery-free relay node harvests energy from the received radio frequency (RF) signals from a source node and uses the harvested energy to forward the source information to destination node. The time-switching relaying (TSR) protocol is studied, with the assumption that the channel state information (CSI) at the relay node is imperfect. We deliver a rigorous analysis of the outage probability of the proposed system. Based on the outage probability expressions, the optimal time switching factor are obtained via the numerical search method. The simulation and numerical results provide practical insights into the effect of various system parameters, such as the time switching factor, the noise power, the energy harvesting efficiency, and the channel estimation error on the performance of this network. It is also observed that for the imperfect CSI case, the proposed scheme still can provide acceptable outage performance given that the channel estimation error is bounded in a permissible interval.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
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• 1996.06c
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• pp.458-468
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• 1996

The Oil Palm industry has developed tremendously with the increasing of planted area from 54,000 hectaresin 1960 to about 2.28 million hectares in 1995. This is expected to increase further to 2.5 million hectares by the year 2000. However, there has been an increasing difficulty in obtaining sufficient labour for the oil palm plantations. At present , harvesting of oil palm fresh fruit is facing an acute shortage of workforce as the workers are much more attracted to the better working environment and salary in the industrial sector. Harvesting of short palm is easily done by using a chisel attached to a short steel pole. Cutting is done by moving the tool at high speed to the target. The weight of the tool coupled with the speed of throwing will produce enough energy to cut the bunch stalk. In this cutting method, sharpness of the cutting device, weight of tool and the speed of throwing contribute to the efficiency of the tool . For the tall palms, a sickle attached to a ong pole is used and the job is more difficult compared to the short palms. Lifting of pole and cutting jobs require great effort and skills. This paper describes the basic design needs in developing an appropriate device that is practical for field use. A prototype design was developed and tested.