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Optimal control applied to TEG harvesting: The necessity of a ring oscillator
Author(s) -
García Andrés,
Robein Marcos
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
international journal of energy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.808
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1099-114X
pISSN - 0363-907X
DOI - 10.1002/er.6678
Subject(s) - linear congruential generator , voltage , ring oscillator , electronic circuit , energy harvesting , generator (circuit theory) , control theory (sociology) , thermoelectric generator , spice , energy (signal processing) , electrical engineering , computer science , thermoelectric effect , engineering , physics , control (management) , quantum mechanics , power (physics) , magnet , artificial intelligence
Summary In this article, unlike the available literature, an optimal theorem is presented to design conditioning circuits for thermoelectric generator (TEG) energy harvesting without previous ad‐hoc assumptions about the electric/electronic structure. The results show that simple linear time‐invariant (LTI) conditioning circuits plus an extra non‐linear element transforming the TEG's constant voltage into a square wave (ring oscillator) are in fact the optimal choice to pick up the biggest output's energy. This research opens the door to new developments: ring oscillators with ultra‐low voltages (less than 1 mV) and non‐linear optimal control techniques applied to micro energy harvesting. Real measurement along with LT‐Spice simulations is presented to validate the theoretical results, presenting transfer functions for simulation and modeling purposes.