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A 3.5 mV Input Single-Inductor Self-Starting Boost Converter with Loss-Aware MPPT for Efficient Autonomous Body-Heat Energy Harvesting.

Soumya BoseTejasvi AnandMatthew L Johnston
Published in: IEEE journal of solid-state circuits (2020)
A single-inductor self-starting boost converter is presented suitable for thermoelectric energy harvesting from human body heat. In order to extract maximum energy from a thermoelectric generator (TEG) at small temperature gradients, a loss-aware maximum power point tracking (MPPT) scheme was developed that enables the harvester to achieve high end-to-end efficiency at low input voltages. The boost converter is implemented in a 0.18 μm CMOS technology and is more than 75% efficient for a matched input voltage range of 15 mV-100 mV, with a peak efficiency of 82%. Enhanced power extraction enables the converter to sustain operation at an input voltage as low as 3.5 mV. In addition, the boost converter self-starts with a minimum TEG voltage of 50 mV leveraging a dual-path architecture without using additional off-chip components.
Keyphrases
  • endothelial cells
  • heat stress
  • high throughput
  • energy transfer
  • quantum dots