Paper Info
Title
A High-Efficiency Dual-Polarity Thermoelectric Energy-Harvesting Interface Circuit With Cold Startup and Fast-Searching ZCD
Abstract
This article presents an auto-polarity thermoelectric energy-harvesting interface circuit based on a single-inductor boost/buck–boost hybrid converter. The power stage is configured automatically as a boost converter for a positive input voltage or a buck–boost converter for a negative input voltage. A collaborative efficiency-improving scheme of frequency selection and maximum power point tracking (MPPT) is implemented for input power ranging from 1 to 800 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{W}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> . An improved digital zero-current detection (ZCD) technique with fast searching is proposed to turn off power switches accurately. Dual-polarity cold startup is realized with the aid of a pair of cross-coupled Dickson charge pumps. This work is fabricated with a 0.13- <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> CMOS process. From the measured results, the interface starts up from a 140- or −160-mV thermoelectric generator (TEG) voltage. It boosts input voltages ranging from 10 mV to 0.4 V and from −10 mV to −0.4 V to a 1.2-V output voltage. It achieves a peak end-to-end efficiency of 90% with a 0.3-V input voltage or 88% with a −0.4-V input voltage. Moreover, end-to-end efficiencies are higher than 80% for input voltages from 90 mV to 0.4 V and from −110 mV to −0.4 V.
Year
DOI
Venue
2022
10.1109/JSSC.2021.3128625
IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits
Keywords
DocType
Volume
Auto-polarity,boost,buck–boost,cold startup,dual-polarity,energy harvesting,frequency selection,maximum power point tracking (MPPT),thermoelectric generator (TEG),zero-current detection (ZCD)
Journal
57
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
6
0018-9200
0
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.34
19
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Qin Kuai121.39
Ho-Yin Leung200.34
Qiping Wan392.68
Philip K. T. Mok4718171.27