Title :
Platform Architecture for Solar, Thermal, and Vibration Energy Combining With MPPT and Single Inductor
Author :
Bandyopadhyay, Saurav ; Chandrakasan, Anantha P.
Author_Institution :
Massachusetts Inst. of Technol., Cambridge, MA, USA
Abstract :
A platform architecture combining energy from solar, thermal, and vibration sources is presented. A dual-path architecture for energy harvesting is employed that has a peak efficiency improvement of 11%-13% over the traditional two-stage approach. The system implemented consists of a reconfigurable multi-input, multi-output switch matrix that combines energy from three distinct energy-harvesting sources-photovoltaic, thermoelectric, and piezoelectric. The system can handle input voltages from 20 mV to 5 V and is capable of extracting maximum power from individual harvesters all at the same time utilizing a single inductor. A proposed time-based power monitor is used for achieving maximum power point tracking for the photovoltaic harvester. This has a peak tracking efficiency of 96%. The peak efficiencies achieved with inductor sharing are 83%, 58%, and 79% for photovoltaic boost, thermoelectric boost, and piezoelectric buck-boost converters, respectively. The switch matrix and the control circuits are implemented on a 0.35-μm CMOS process.
Keywords :
CMOS integrated circuits; energy harvesting; maximum power point trackers; photovoltaic power systems; piezoelectric transducers; power inductors; solar power; thermoelectric conversion; CMOS process; MPPT; control circuits; dual-path architecture; efficiency 58 percent; efficiency 79 percent; efficiency 83 percent; efficiency 96 percent; energy harvesting; energy-harvesting sources; harvesters; inductor sharing; input voltages; maximum power point tracking; peak efficiency improvement; peak tracking efficiency; photovoltaic boost; photovoltaic harvester; photovoltaic source; piezoelectric buck-boost converters; piezoelectric source; platform architecture combining energy; reconfigurable multiinput multioutput switch matrix; single inductor; size 0.35 mum; solar energy; solar source; thermal energy; thermal source; thermoelectric boost; thermoelectric source; time-based power monitor; two-stage approach; vibration energy; vibration source; voltage 20 mV to 5 V; Computer architecture; Energy harvesting; Impedance; Inductors; Photovoltaic systems; Switches; Dual-path architecture; energy combining; energy harvesting; energy scavenging; inductor sharing; maximum power point tracking; perturb and observe; photovoltaic cell; piezoelectric harvester; thermoelectric generator; wireless sensor nodes;
Journal_Title :
Solid-State Circuits, IEEE Journal of
DOI :
10.1109/JSSC.2012.2197239
