Open Access100 mV–1.2 V fully‐integrated DC–DC converters for thermal energy harvesting
Author(s) -
Bassi Giovanni,
Colalongo Luigi,
Richelli Anna,
KovacsVajna Zsolt Miklós
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
iet power electronics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.637
H-Index - 77
eISSN - 1755-4543
pISSN - 1755-4535
DOI - 10.1049/iet-pel.2012.0625
Subject(s) - converters , electrical engineering , voltage , microelectronics , low voltage , capacitor , electronic circuit , electronic engineering , energy harvesting , power (physics) , materials science , engineering , physics , quantum mechanics
Two fully‐integrated DC/DC converters for energy harvesting applications are presented. The startup‐voltages of the converters are, respectively, 140 and 100 mV, the output voltage exceeds 1.2 V, with a power efficiency of about 20%. The architectures for boosting such extremely low voltages are based on an ultra‐low‐voltage oscillator cross connected to a capacitive converter. The overall circuits do not require any external components and can be fully integrated in a standard complementary metal oxide semiconductor low‐voltage technology. The converters have been designed in United Microelectronics Corporation 180 nm process.