A Regulated Charge Pump With a Low-Power Integrated Optimum Power Point Tracking Algorithm for Indoor Solar Energy Harvesting

This brief presents a regulated charge pump (CP) with an integrated optimum power point tracking (OPPT) algorithm designed for indoor solar energy harvesting. The proposed OPPT circuit does not require a current sensor that consumes power proportionally to the load. The solar cell voltage is regulated at the optimum power point; the CP output is regulated according to the target voltage. The controller of the OPPT circuit and CP dissipates only 450 nW; thus, the proposed technique is appropriate for indoor solar energy harvesting applications under dim lighting conditions.

[1]  Hoi-Jun Yoo,et al.  A regulated charge pump with small ripple voltage and fast start-up , 2006 .

[2]  Anantha Chandrakasan,et al.  A Battery-Less Thermoelectric Energy Harvesting Interface Circuit With 35 mV Startup Voltage , 2010, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[3]  Liang Chen,et al.  Flyback inverter controlled by sensorless current MPPT for photovoltaic power system , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics.

[4]  Chris Van Hoof,et al.  Integrated capacitive power-management circuit for thermal harvesters with output power 10 to 1000µW , 2009, 2009 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference - Digest of Technical Papers.

[5]  Chris Van Hoof,et al.  5μW-to-10mW input power range inductive boost converter for indoor photovoltaic energy harvesting with integrated maximum power point tracking algorithm , 2010, 2011 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference.

[6]  Kenji Suzuki,et al.  Nano-watt power management and vibration sensing on a dust-size batteryless sensor node for ambient intelligence applications , 2010, 2010 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference - (ISSCC).

[7]  Toshihiko Noguchi,et al.  Short-current pulse-based maximum-power-point tracking method for multiple photovoltaic-and-converter module system , 2002, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron..

[8]  Hui Shao,et al.  The Design of a Micro Power Management System for Applications Using Photovoltaic Cells With the Maximum Output Power Control , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems.

[9]  Jan M. Rabaey,et al.  Energy Scavenging for Wireless Sensor Networks: with Special Focus on Vibrations , 2012 .

[10]  David Blaauw,et al.  Circuits for a Cubic-Millimeter Energy-Autonomous Wireless Intraocular Pressure Monitor , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers.

[11]  Michel Declercq,et al.  A high-efficiency CMOS voltage doubler , 1998, IEEE J. Solid State Circuits.

[12]  Toru Tanzawa,et al.  Optimization of word-line booster circuits for low-voltage flash memories , 1999 .

[13]  M. Vitelli,et al.  Optimization of perturb and observe maximum power point tracking method , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics.

[14]  Luca Benini,et al.  Design of a Solar-Harvesting Circuit for Batteryless Embedded Systems , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers.