Power management circuits for self-powered systems based on micro-scale solar energy harvesting |
| |
Authors: | Eun-Jung Yoon |
| |
Affiliation: | Department of Electronics Engineering, Incheon National University, (Songdo-dong) 119 Academy-ro, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon, Republic of Korea |
| |
Abstract: | In this paper, two types of power management circuits for self-powered systems based on micro-scale solar energy harvesting are proposed. First, if a solar cell outputs a very low voltage, less than 0.5 V, as in miniature solar cells or monolithic integrated solar cells, such that it cannot directly power the load, a voltage booster is employed to step up the solar cell’s output voltage, and then a power management unit (PMU) delivers the boosted voltage to the load. Second, if the output voltage of a solar cell is enough to drive the load, the PMU directly supplies the load with solar energy. The proposed power management systems are designed and fabricated in a 0.18-μm complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor process, and their performances are compared and analysed through measurements. |
| |
Keywords: | power management circuit energy harvesting MPPT solar cell voltage booster |
|
|