Analysis of the Power Conversion Modes for Power-Efficient Energy Harvesting Interfaces

Hyun Jin Kim; Chul Woo Kim

doi:10.23075/jicas.2020.6.4.002

Hyun Jin Kim Korea University
Chul Woo Kim Korea university

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23075/jicas.2020.6.4.002

Keywords: DC-DC converter, Energy harvesting, Internet of Things

Abstract

This paper analyzes the power conversion efficiency of conventional buck and buck-boost modes for power-efficient energy harvesting interfaces. In the state-of-the-art energy harvesting interfaces, they transfer harvested power mostly based on the conventional buck-boost mode. Since the power conversion efficiency is one of the most important performance factors for energy harvesting converters, this paper focuses on comparing the conventional power conversion modes based on formulas. In addition, the energy harvesting converter is designed in a 180 nm CMOS process and is simulated to prove that the power can be transferred properly with the analyzed power conversion modes. The converter operates in the discontinuous conduction mode with pulse-skipping modulation and employs the conventional open-circuit voltage method to track the maximum power point of each source. An adaptive on-time controller manages the inductor charging period, and a zero current detector, which is digitally operated, determines the optimum zero current point.

Author Biographies

Hyun Jin Kim, Korea University

Hyun Jin Kim (S’19) received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Korea University, Seoul, Korea in 2019, where he is currently pursuing the M.S. degree. His research interests include power management IC designs, low-power CMOS analog circuit designs, and energy harvesting circuit designs.

Chul Woo Kim, Korea university

Chul Woo Kim (S’98–M’02–SM’06) received B.S. and M.S. degrees in electronics engineering from Korea University in 1994 and 1996, respectively, and a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, IL, USA, in 2001.

In 1999, he was a summer intern with Design Technology, Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA. In 2001, he joined the IBM Microelectronics Division, Austin, TX, where he was involved in cell processor design. Since 2002, he has been with the School of Electrical Engineering, Korea University, where he is currently a professor. He was a Visiting Professor at the University of California at Los Angeles in 2008 and the University of California at Santa Cruz in 2012. He has coauthored two books, namely, CMOS Digital Integrated Circuits: Analysis and Design (McGraw Hill, 2014, fourth edition) and High-Bandwidth Memory Interface (Springer, 2013). His current research interests are in the areas of wireline transceivers, memory, power management, and data converters.

Dr. Kim received the Samsung HumanTech Thesis Contest Bronze Award in 1996; the ISLPED Low-Power Design Contest Award in 2001 and 2014; the DAC Student Design Contest Award in 2002; SRC Inventor Recognition Awards in 2002; the Young Scientist Award from the Ministry of Science and Technology, South Korea, in 2003; the Seoktop Award for excellence in teaching in 2006 and 2011; the ASP-DAC Best Design Award in 2008; the Special Feature Award in 2014; and the Korea Semiconductor Design Contest: Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy Award in 2013. He was selected as a distinguished lecturer of the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society from 2015 to 2016. He served on the Technical Program Committee of the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference and as a guest editor of the IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits. He is currently on the editorial board of the IEEE Transactions on VLSI Systems.

Homepage : https://kilby.korea.ac.kr/

Analysis of the Power Conversion Modes for Power-Efficient Energy Harvesting Interfaces

Abstract

Author Biographies

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