P3.6 - Efficient Boost Converter for Thermoelectric Energy Harvesting
- Event
- AMA Conferences 2017
2017-05-30 - 2017-06-01
Nürnberg, Germany - Band
- Proceedings Sensor 2017
- Chapter
- P3 - Industrial Electronics
- Author(s)
- J. Gruber, S. Mathis - Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), Winterthur (Switzerland)
- Pages
- 642 - 645
- DOI
- 10.5162/sensor2017/P3.6
- ISBN
- 978-3-9816876-4-4
- Price
- free
Abstract
This paper presents a new boost converter for thermoelectric energy harvesting. The output voltage is regulated at 3.6 V for use with embedded systems. The booster reaches high efficiency at low input voltages of few 10 mV. A first prototype operates at about 15 mV input voltage with an efficiency of 45%. At 120 mV input voltage the efficiency increases to 74%. Using a 30x30mm sized low cost thermoelectric generator (TEG) in combination with the new developed booster, enough energy can be harvested to power an embedded wireless sensor.