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A Bipolar ±13 mV Self-Starting and 85% Peak Efficiency DC/DC Converter for Thermoelectric Energy Harvesting

Author

Listed:
  • Harald Dillersberger

    (Institute of Electronics, Graz University of Technology, 8010 Graz, Austria
    Matrix Industries, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA)

  • Bernd Deutschmann

    (Institute of Electronics, Graz University of Technology, 8010 Graz, Austria)

  • Douglas Tham

    (Matrix Industries, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA)

Abstract

This paper presents a novel converter for boosting the low-voltage output of thermoelectric energy harvesters to power standard electronic circuits. The converter can start up from a fully depleted state of the system off a bipolar ±13 mV input and can boost it to output voltages of up to 5 V. The converter comprises two transformers, one for each polarity that are multiplexed between an oscillator (used during startup) and a flyback converter (used during normal operation). To eliminate leakage currents in the input stage, the unused converter is completely turned off at startup and both converters are automatically shut off if the input power is found to be too low. Measurement results of the converter designed in a 180 nm CMOS process demonstrate a peak end-to-end conversion efficiency of 85% and nearly perfect impedance matching over the full input voltage range. This is the first time that a converter for ultra-low bipolar input voltages achieves the same performance as a unipolar converter.

Suggested Citation

  • Harald Dillersberger & Bernd Deutschmann & Douglas Tham, 2020. "A Bipolar ±13 mV Self-Starting and 85% Peak Efficiency DC/DC Converter for Thermoelectric Energy Harvesting," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-11, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:20:p:5501-:d:431987
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Anna Richelli, 2021. "Current Research on Embedded DC/DC Converters," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-2, September.
    2. Denis Artyukhov & Nikolay Gorshkov & Maria Vikulova & Nikolay Kiselev & Artem Zemtsov & Ivan Artyukhov, 2022. "Power Supply of Wireless Sensors Based on Energy Conversion of Separated Gas Flows by Thermoelectrochemical Cells," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-16, February.

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