A dual-source energy harvesting interface that combines energy from implanted glucose biofuel cell and thermoelectric generator is presented. A single-inductor dual-input dual-output boost converter topology is employed to efficiently transfer the extracted power to the output. A dual-input feature enables the simultaneous maximum power extraction from two harvesters, while a dual-output allows a control circuit to perform complex digital functions at nW power levels. The control circuit reconfigures the converter to improve the efficiency and achieve zero-current and zero-voltage switching. The measurement results of the proposed boost converter, implemented in a 0.18 µm CMOS process, show a peak efficiency of 89.5% when both sources provide a combined input power of 66 µW. In the singlesource mode, the converter achieves a peak efficiency of 85.2% at 23 µW for the thermoelectric source and 90.4% at 29 µW for the glucose biofuel cell. The converter can operate from minimum input voltages of 10 mV for the thermoelectric source and 30 mV for the glucose biofuel cell.
Abstract-A theoretical analysis of losses in low power thermoelectric harvester interfaces is used to find expressions for properly sizing the power transistors according to the input voltage level. These expressions are used to propose an adaptive FET sizing technique that tracks the input voltage level and automatically reconfigures the converter in order to improve its conversion efficiency. The performance of a low-power thermoelectric energy harvesting interface with and without the proposed technique is evaluated by circuit simulations under different input voltage/power conditions. The simulation results show that the proposed technique improves the conversion efficiency of the energy harvesting interface up to 12% at the lowest input voltage/power levels.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.