83.9% Efficiency 100-mV Self-Startup Boost Converter for Thermoelectric Energy Harvester in IoT Applications
Zhongxia Shang, Yang Zhao, Wei Gou, Li Geng, Yong Lian
Abstract
This brief presents a boost converter with high efficiency for thermo-electrical energy generator (TEG). An on-time calibration based pulse skipping modulation (OTC-PSM) scheme is proposed to reduce the power of the controller. A hardware-efficient maximum power point tracking (MPPT) circuit is introduced for the constant internal resistance source of TEG. The proposed design has been implemented in a standard 180 nm CMOS process, achieving a high efficiency of 83.9% at 120mV input voltage and output power of 600 μW. The proposed OTC-PSM scheme saves considerable power in achieving high efficiency as well as low output ripple. Also, the proposed MPPT is simple and easy to implement for low cost.