Open AccessSwitched‐capacitor power sensing in low‐power energy harvesting systems
Author(s) -
Proynov P.,
Szarka G. D.,
McNeill N.,
Stark B. H.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
electronics letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.375
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1350-911X
pISSN - 0013-5194
DOI - 10.1049/el.2012.3907
Subject(s) - capacitor , energy harvesting , reservoir capacitor , sense (electronics) , electrical engineering , power (physics) , microcontroller , voltage , energy storage , low voltage , power factor , switched capacitor , switched mode power supply , decoupling capacitor , boost converter , electronic engineering , computer science , engineering , physics , quantum mechanics
A method for power sensing in low‐power energy harvesting systems is presented. The technique utilises a small sense capacitor between the converter output and the main storage capacitor. The storage capacitor is disconnected from the converter for a short period of time and the change of sense capacitor voltage is measured. This change is proportional to the average output current of the converter for the period of the measurement, thus the relative output power can be determined using only voltage measurements. The method has been experimentally validated in a low‐power energy harvesting system that employs a microcontroller‐based control implementation.