Title :
Thermal energy harvesting for power amplifiers
Author :
Niotaki, Kyriaki ; Georgiadis, Anthimos ; Collado, Ana
Author_Institution :
Centre Tecnol. de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya (CTTC), Castelldefels, Spain
Abstract :
This work proposes the use of a thermoelectric generator (TEG) to obtain DC electrical power by harvesting the heat generated in a power amplifier (PA) circuit. A 1 Watt, 2.45 GHz class-E power amplifier is built using microstrip technology and the generated heat and temperature distribution on the PA circuit board are evaluated. Then a commercial TEG is used to recover DC electrical power from this generated heat. Additionally, a thermal circuit model is created and the harvested power is simulated and measured demonstrating a Carnot efficiency of 2.3%. The recovered DC power can be used to power low power sensors and monitoring and control circuitry in the vicinity of the PA.
Keywords :
Carnot cycle; UHF power amplifiers; energy harvesting; microstrip circuits; power measurement; temperature distribution; thermoelectric conversion; Carnot efficiency; DC electrical power recovery; PA circuit board; TEG; class-E power amplifier; control circuitry; frequency 2.45 GHz; heat generation; low power sensors; microstrip technology; monitoring circuitry; power 1 W; power measurement; temperature distribution; thermal circuit model; thermal energy harvesting; thermoelectric generator; Integrated circuit modeling; Materials; Power amplifiers; Resistance heating; Temperature measurement; Thermal resistance; energy harvesting; power amplifier; thermal harvesting; thermoelectric generator (TEG);
Conference_Titel :
Radio and Wireless Symposium (RWS), 2013 IEEE
Conference_Location :
Austin, TX
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4673-2929-3
Electronic_ISBN :
2164-2958
DOI :
10.1109/RWS.2013.6486686
