A fully integrated 60 mV cold-start circuit for single coil dc-dc boost converter for thermoelectric energy harvesting

Abstract

Harvesting energy from ambient energy sources, such as thermal gradients is one solution to address the dramatic increase in energy consumption of personal electronics. While in the field, energy abundantly available in form of heat. The use of primary cells set to the competition a dramatic cost challenge. In principle the Bi2Te3 is a mature material for harvesting thermal energy, but challenge the community with a low voltage cold-start requirement. In this brief, a fully integrated, low voltage self-oscillating inductive converter driver was demonstrated as a cold-start function suited for circuit grazing the limits of thermodynamics voltage.