A Biofuel-Cell-Based Energy Harvester With 86% Peak Efficiency and 0.25-V Minimum Input Voltage Using Source-Adaptive MPPT

This article presents an efficient cold-starting energy harvester system, fabricated in 65-nm CMOS. The proposed harvester uses no external electrical components and is compatible with biofuel-cell (BFC) voltage and power ranges. A power-efficient system architecture is proposed to keep the internal circuitry operating at 0.4 V while regulating the output voltage at 1 V using switched-capacitor dc–dc converters and a hysteretic controller. A startup enhancement block is presented to facilitate cold startup with any arbitrary input voltage. A real-time on-chip 2-D maximum power point tracking with source degradation tracing is also implemented to maintain power efficiency maximized over time. The system performs cold startup with a minimum input voltage of 0.39 V and continues its operation if the input voltage degrades to as low as 0.25 V. Peak power efficiency of 86% is achieved at 0.39 V of input voltage and 1.34 μW of output power with 220 nW of average power consumption of the chip. The end-to-end power efficiency is kept above 70% for a wide range of loading powers from 1 to 12 μW. The chip is integrated with a pair of lactate BFC electrodes with 2 mm of diameter on a prototype-printed circuit board (PCB). Integrated operation of the chip with the electrodes and a lactate solution is demonstrated

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationMicroelectromechanical systems (MEMS) resonators on Si have the potential to replace the discrete passive components in a power converter. The main intention of this dissertation is to present a ring-shaped aluminum nitride (AlN) piezoelectric microreson

Power management systems based on switched-capacitor DC-DC converter for low-power wearable applications

The highly efficient ultra-low-power management unit is essential in powering low-power wearable electronics. Such devices are powered by a single input source, either by a battery or with the help of a renewable energy source. Thus, there is a demand for an energy conversion unit, in this case, a DC-DC converter, which can perform either step-up or step-down conversions to provide the required voltage at the load. Energy scavenging with a boost converter is an intriguing choice since it removes the necessity of bulky batteries and considerably extends the battery life. Wearable devices are typically powered by a monolithic battery. The commonly available battery such as Alkaline or Lithium-ion, degrade over time due to their life spans as it is limited by the number of charge cycles- which depend highly on the environmental and loading condition. Thus, once it reaches the maximum number of life cycles, the battery needs to be replaced. The operation of the wearable devices is limited by usable duration, which depends on the energy density of the battery. Once the stored energy is depleted, the operation of wearable devices is also affected, and hence it needs to be recharged. The energy harvesters- which gather the available energy from the surroundings, however, have no limitation on operating life. The application can become battery-less given that harvestable energy is sufficiently powering the low-power devices. Although the energy harvester may not completely replace the battery source, it ensures the maximum duration of use and assists to become autonomous and self-sustain devices. The photovoltaic (PV) cell is a promising candidate as a hypothetical input supply source among the energy harvesters due to its smaller area and high power density over other harvesters. Solar energy use PV harvester can convert ambient light energy into electrical energy and keep it in the storage device. The harvested output of PV cannot directly connect to wearable loads for two main reasons. Depending on the incoming light, the harvested current result in varying open-circuit voltage. It requires the power management circuit to deal with unregulated input variation. Second, depending on the PV cell's material type and an effective area, the I-V characteristic's performance varies, resulting in a variation of the output power. There are several works of maximum power point tracking (MPPT) methods that allow the solar energy harvester to achieve optimal harvested power. Therefore, the harvested power depends on the size and usually small area cell is sufficient for micro-watt loads low-powered applications. The available harvested voltage, however, is generally very low-voltage range between 0.4-0.6 V. The voltage ratings of electronics in standard wearable applications operate in 1.8-3 V voltages as described in introduction’s application example section. It is higher than the supply source can offer. The overcome the mismatch voltage between source and supply circuit, a DC-DC boost converter is necessary. The switch-mode converters are favoured over the linear converters due to their highly efficient and small area overhead. The inductive converter in the switch-mode converter is common due to its high-efficiency performance. However, the integration of the inductor in the miniaturised integrated on-chip design tends to be bulky. Therefore, the switched-capacitor approach DC-DC converters will be explored in this research. In the switched-capacitor converter universe, there is plenty of work for single-output designs for various topologies. Most converters are reconfigurable to the different DC voltage levels apart from Dickson and cross-coupled charge pump topologies due to their boosting power stage architecture through a number of stages. However, existing multi-output converters are limited to the fixed gain ratio. This work explores the reconfigurable dual-output converter with adjustable gain to compromise the research gap. The thesis's primary focus is to present the inductor-less, switched-capacitor-based DC-DC converter power management system (PMS) supplied by a varying input of PV energy harvester input source. The PMS should deliver highly efficient regulated voltage conversion ratio (VCR) outputs to low-power wearable electronic devices that constitute multi-function building blocks

Design of a Real-Time Microcontroller for Interleaved Boost Converter

Devre ve kullanılan elemanların boyutlarını küçültmek, çıkış gerilimi dalgalılık ve darbe genlik modülasyonu doluluk oranını azaltmak için literatürde paralel yapıdaki yükseltici tip güç dönüştürücüsü önerilmiştir. Bu yapının yüklü ve yüksüz durumda kararlı çıkış sağlayabilmesi için çeşitli kontrol metotları uygulanmış ve performansları deneysel ortamda karşılaştırılmıştır. Tasarlanan sistem, integral, oransal-integral, bulanık mantık kontrol metotlarının uygulandığı gerçek zamanlı mikro denetleyici temelli bir geri besleme yapısı içermektedir. Elde edilen sonuçlara göre bulanık mantık denetleyicili sistemin tepki süresi diğer yöntemlere göre daha düşük olduğundan dolayı güç verilen sistem için daha kararlı bir güç kaynağı olmaktadır.Interleaved boost converters proposed in the literature for reduce the size of the circuit and the amount of components, and to decrease the output voltage ripple and pulse width modulation duty cycle. In order to obtain a stable voltage at the output of interleaved boost converters, various control methods have been applied and the performances have been compared in the experimental environment. The proposed system consists of a real-time microcontroller-based feedback structure in which integral, proportional-integral, fuzzy logic control methods are applied. According to the results, the response time of the fuzzy logic controller system is lower than other control methods, so it becomes a more stable power source for the energized system

45-nm SOI CMOS Bluetooth Electrochemical Sensor for Continuous Glucose Monitoring

Due to increasing rates of diabetes, non-invasive glucose monitoring systems will become critical to improving health outcomes for an increasing patient population. Bluetooth integration for such a system has been previously unattainable due to the prohibitive energy consumption. However, enabling Bluetooth allows for widespread adoption due to the ubiquity of Bluetooth-enabled mobile devices. The objective of this thesis is to demonstrate the feasibility of a Bluetooth-based energy-harvesting glucose sensor for contact-lens integration using 45~nm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology. The proposed glucose monitoring system includes a Bluetooth transmitter implemented as a two-point closed loop PLL modulator, a sensor potentiostat, and a 1st-order incremental delta-sigma analog-to-digital converter (IADC). This work details the complete system design including derivation of top-level specifications such as glucose sensing range, Bluetooth protocol timing, energy consumption, and circuit specifications such as carrier frequency range, output power, phase-noise performance, stability, resolution, signal-to-noise ratio, and power consumption. Three test chips were designed to prototype the system, and two of these were experimentally verified. Chip 1 includes a partial implementation of a phase-locked-loop (PLL) which includes a voltage-controlled-oscillator (VCO), frequency divider, and phase-frequency detector (PFD). Chip 2 includes the design of the sensor potentiostat and IADC. Finally, Chip 3 combines the circuitry of Chip 1 and Chip 2, along with a charge-pump, loop-filter and power amplifier to complete the system. Chip 1 DC power consumption was measured to be 204.8~$\mu$W, while oscillating at 2.441 GHz with an output power $P_{out}$ of -35.8 dBm, phase noise at 1 MHz offset $L(1\text{ MHz})$ of -108.5 dBc/Hz, and an oscillator figure of merit (FOM) of 183.44dB. Chip 2 achieves a total DC power consumption of 5.75~$\mu$W. The system has a dynamic range of 0.15~nA -- 100~nA at 10-bit resolution. The integral non-linearity (INL) and differential non-linearity (DNL) of the IADC were measured to be -6~LSB/$\pm$0.3~LSB respectively with a conversion time of 65.56~ms. This work achieves the best duty-cycled DC power consumption compared to similar glucose monitoring systems, while providing sufficient performance and range using Bluetooth

Inductively Coupled CMOS Power Receiver For Embedded Microsensors

Inductively coupled power transfer can extend the lifetime of embedded microsensors that save costs, energy, and lives. To expand the microsensors' functionality, the transferred power needs to be maximized. Plus, the power receiver needs to handle wide coupling variations in real applications. Therefore, the objective of this research is to design a power receiver that outputs the highest power for the widest coupling range. This research proposes a switched resonant half-bridge power stage that adjusts both energy transfer frequency and duration so the output power is maximally high. A maximum power point (MPP) theory is also developed to predict the optimal settings of the power stage with 98.6% accuracy. Finally, this research addresses the system integration challenges such as synchronization and over-voltage protection. The fabricated self-synchronized prototype outputs up to 89% of the available power across 0.067%~7.9% coupling range. The output power (in percentage of available power) and coupling range are 1.3× and 13× higher than the comparable state of the arts.Ph.D

Emerging Power Electronics Technologies for Sustainable Energy Conversion

This Special Issue summarizes, in a single reference, timely emerging topics related to power electronics for sustainable energy conversion. Furthermore, at the same time, it provides the reader with valuable information related to open research opportunity niches

Emerging Power Electronics Technologies for Sustainable Energy Conversion

This Special Issue summarizes, in a single reference, timely emerging topics related to power electronics for sustainable energy conversion. Furthermore, at the same time, it provides the reader with valuable information related to open research opportunity niches

ANALYSIS OF LASER POWER CONVERTERS IN LASER BASED POWER SUPPLIES

Napajanje elektronskih naprav v ekstremnih in industrijskih okoljih pogosto zahteva uporabo visoko zanesljivih električnih napajalnikov, imunih na raznovrstne okolijske in elektromagnete motenje. Zahtevane specifikacije takšnih napajalnikov je mogoče doseči z uporabo sistemov, ki za izvor energije uporabljajo svetlobo laserskih virov. Energija v obliki monokromatske svetlobe je na oddaljeno mesto vodena skozi električno neprevodni medij, s čimer je dosežena inherentna neobčutljivost takšnih napajalnih sistemov na vse vrste elektromagnetih motenj. Lasersko svetlobo vodimo bodisi brezkontaktno po zraku ali priporočljivejše po električno neprevodnem optičnem vlaknu. V slednjem govorimo o sistemih za prenos »moči po optičnem vlaknu« (ang. Power–over–Fiber systems, PoF). Monokromatsko svetlobo je za napajanje elektronskih naprav potrebno pretvoriti v enosmerno električno energijo, kar storimo s fotonapetostnimi pretvorniki optimiziranimi za pretvorbo monokromatske svetlobe laserskih virov – »pretvorniki laserske moči« (ang. Laser Power Converter, LPC). PoF sistem je zaključen s priključitvijo podpornega elektronskega vezja na izhod pretvornika laserske moči, ki poskrbi za prilagoditev napetostnega nivoja za zanesljivo napajanje elektronskih naprav. PoF sistemi napajanja elektronskih naprav so našli svoje mesto v ekstremnih in industrijskih okoljih zaradi lastnosti kot so: • imunost na elektromagnetne motnje (enosmerna in izmenična električna in magnetna polja, razelektritve ozračja, radiofrekvenčne motnje, …), • velika prebojna trdnost med izvorom energije in napajano napravo, • majhna teža vodnikov energije (optična vlakna), • pri poškodbi vodnikov energije ne prihaja do iskrenja, … Zaradi omenjenih lastnosti so bili PoF sistemi razviti in uporabljeni za napajanje: • senzorjev za merjenje parametrov visokonapetostnih daljnovodov, • elektronskih merilnikov pod vodno gladino, • elektronskih podsklopov naprav za magnetno resonanco, • brezpilotnih letal, • elektronskih implantatov v človeškem telesu, • kontrolnih podsistemov v satelitih, • nadzornih video kamer, • merilnikov obratovalnih parametrov vetrnih turbin, … Kljub uspešni implementaciji PoF sistemov v nekaterih nišnih aplikacijah, je prenos energije z lasersko svetlobo še vedno razmeroma neznana tehnološka rešitev. Razlogov za to je veliko, verjetno pa je eden glavnih nizek izkoristek takšnega prenosa energije, ki se v praksi na sistemski ravni giblje nekje med 10 % in 30 %. Največ vložene energije se izgubi pri pretvorbi elektrike v svetlobo, pri čemer sodobne laserske diode dosegajo izkoristke med 40 % in 70 % ter nadalje pri pretvorbi laserske svetlobe nazaj v elektriko, pri čemer najboljši pretvorniki laserske moči dosegajo učinkovitost pretvorbe med 40 % in 60 %. V večini praktičnih aplikacij izgube pri prvotni pretvorbi energije iz elektrike v svetlobo s sistemskega vidika niso problematične, saj je laser postavljen na mestu, kjer je zagotovljena oskrba s potrebno električno energijo. Večje omejitve predstavljajo približno polovične izgube energije pri pretvorbi laserske svetlobe v električno energijo, preostanek energije pa je še dodatno zmanjšan za 10 % do 20 % zaradi izgub na podporni elektroniki. Tako v praksi izgube na sprejemni strani omejujejo največjo električno moč, ki jo lahko napajani napravi zanesljivo zagotovi en pretvornik laserske moči, na približno 1 W. Takšna omejitev največje dovedene moči ne predstavlja večjih problemov za napajanje nizkoenergijskih senzorjev, vendar omejuje doseg splošne uporabnosti PoF sistemov. V želji po razširitvi uporabnosti PoF sistemov se pričajoča doktorska naloga osredotoča na odkrivanje glavnih izgubnih mehanizmov v pretvornikih laserske moči in podporne elektronike. Rezultati sistematične analize in kvantitativnega ovrednotenja izgub so pripeljali do konceptualnih predlogov za izboljšanje sedanjih pretvornikov laserske moči.Electronic devices in extreme and industrial environments often require specialized power supplies immune to a variety of environmental and electromagnetic interferences. Such requirements can be met with power supplies that use lasers as an energy source. The laser light can be transmitted to a powered electronic device either wirelessly through the air or preferably through electrically nonconductive optical fiber. In the latter case, such power supplies are commonly known as Power–over–Fiber (PoF) systems. Energy in the form of monochromatic light must be transformed into electrical energy to power electronic devices. This energy transformation is achieved with photovoltaic (PV) devices optimized for conversion of monochromatic laser light called Laser Power Converters (LPC). Theoretically possible light-to-electricity conversion efficiency of LPCs is impaired by a variety of optical and electrical losses and light energy that is not converted into electrical energy results in energy loss, which in return reduces PoF systems efficiency. For high system efficiencies, LPCs must be made out of an appropriately selected high-quality III-V semiconductors and currently, the best manufactured LPCs exceed 60% conversion efficiency at strictly controlled laboratory conditions. Even thou such a figure is unheard of for the solar cells, an optimized PV converter illuminated with monochromatic light can theoretically convert more than 75% of impinged light to electricity, under the same conditions as the stated manufactured LPC. In this thesis, the reason for such a discrepancy between theoretical and practical conversion efficiency is studied in details and further, novel supporting electronics for LPCs in PoF systems are devised and analyzed in order to increase the system efficiency