A Self-Starting 70 mV-1 V, 65% Peak Efficient, TEG Energy Harvesting Chip with 5 ms Startup Time

Abstract

This paper presents design and measurement results of a DC–DC converter, intended to harvest energy from a thermo-electric generator (TEG). The prototype chip was fabricated in 130[Formula: see text]nm CMOS technology. The designed converter can extract maximum power from a TEG, without using an input capacitor ([Formula: see text] or a closed loop maximum peak power tracking circuit to regulate the input voltage ([Formula: see text]. The converter uses a low voltage oscillator coupled with charge pump to directly power the auxiliary circuits; and auxiliary circuits drives two inductors in two half cycles of a clock pulse. The measurement has been performed by using a TEG, and a voltage source (50–200[Formula: see text]mV) with a series resistance of 5[Formula: see text]ohms. The result shows that the prototype can self-starts from 70[Formula: see text]mV with 5[Formula: see text]ms startup time and can work up to a minimum of 50[Formula: see text]mV; and can extract, 57.2% (at 50[Formula: see text]mV) to 65% (at 200[Formula: see text]mV), of the available power.