Efficient power management circuits for energy harvesting applications

Boost regulator;Pulse frequency modulation;PFM;Buck regulator;Single inductor multiple output;SIMO;Energy harvesting;TEG;Photovoltaic cell;Low power circuits;Internet of things;Wireless sensor network;WSN;IOT

Ahmed, Khondker Zakir ; Mukhopadhyay, Saibal Electrical and Computer Engineering Swaminathan, Madhavan Raychowdhury, Arijit Chatterjee, Abhijit De, Vivek ; Mukhopadhyay, Saibal

University:Georgia Institute of Technology

Department:Electrical and Computer Engineering

关键词: Boost regulator;    Pulse frequency modulation;    PFM;    Buck regulator;    Single inductor multiple output;    SIMO;    Energy harvesting;    TEG;    Photovoltaic cell;    Low power circuits;    Internet of things;    Wireless sensor network;    WSN;    IOT;   

Others  :  https://smartech.gatech.edu/bitstream/1853/56236/1/AHMED-DISSERTATION-2016.pdf

美国|英语

来源: SMARTech Repository

【 摘 要 】

Low power IoT devices are growing in numbers and by 2020 there will be more than 25 Billion of those in areas such as wearables, smart homes, remote surveillance, transportation and industrial systems, including many others. Many IoT electronics either will operate from stand-alone energy supply (e.g., battery) or be self-powered by harvesting fromambient energy sources or have both options. Harvesting sustainable energy from ambient environment plays significant role in extending the operation lifetime of these devices and hence, lower the maintenance cost of the system, which in turn help make them integral to simpler systems. Both for battery-powered and harvesting capable systems, efficient power delivery unit remains an essential component for maximizing energy efficiency. The goal of this research is to investigate the challenges of energy delivery for low power electronics considering both energy harvesting as well as battery-powered conditions and to address those challenges. Different challenges of energy harvesting from low voltage energy sources based on the limitations of the sources, the type of the regulator used and the pattern of the load demands have been investigated. Different aspects of the eachchallenges are further investigated to seek optimized solutions for both load specific and generalized applications. A voltage boost mechanism is chosen as the primary mechanism to investigate and to addressing those challenges, befitting the need for low power applications which often rely on battery voltage or on low voltage energy harvesting sources. Additionally, a multiple output buck regulator is also discussed. The challenges analyzed include very low voltage start up issues for an inductive boost regulator, cascading of boost regulator stages, and reduction of the number of external component through reusing those. Design techniques for very high conversion ratio, bias current reduction with autonomousbias gating, battery-less cold start, component and power stage multiplexing for reconfigurable and multi-domain regulators are presented. Measurement results from several silicon prototypes are also presented.