Step-Up DC-DC Converter Supplied by a Thermoelectric Generator for IoT Applications

José Almeida, P. Mendonça dos Santos, João Caldinhas Vaz, Ricardo A. Marques Lameirinhas (), Catarina Pinho Correia Valério Bernardo and João Paulo N. Torres
Additional contact information
José Almeida: Academia Militar/CINAMIL, Av. Conde Castro Guimarães, 2720-113 Amadora, Portugal
P. Mendonça dos Santos: Academia Militar/CINAMIL, Av. Conde Castro Guimarães, 2720-113 Amadora, Portugal
João Caldinhas Vaz: Instituto de Telecomunicações, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal
Ricardo A. Marques Lameirinhas: Instituto de Telecomunicações, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal
Catarina Pinho Correia Valério Bernardo: Instituto de Telecomunicações, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal
João Paulo N. Torres: Instituto de Telecomunicações, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal

Energies, 2024, vol. 17, issue 21, 1-15

Abstract: This research work aims to design and prototype a DC-DC converter to step up the low voltage of a small, low-power thermoelectric generator (TEG). The system is based on an inductive boost converter and attains a regulated output voltage of 1.2 V. The design’s optimisation was based on simulation and experimental validation and it was implemented with only ten low-cost commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components. To reduce complexity, the low-side switch MOSFET of the boost converter is directly driven by an LC oscillator, switching at 1.25 MHz. For loads above 20 k Ω , the converter ensures voltages higher than 1.2 V, supplied by the TEG voltage of 0.5 V, while registering identical efficiency values to those of more complex and expensive CMOS-integrated solutions. These designed features suggest applications in remote IoT nodes and portable devices, delivering sufficient power to backup the supply of corresponding sensing and communication low-power circuits, reducing the necessity of battery replacements or increasing their lifetime.

Keywords: energy harvesting; thermoelectric generator; boost converter; commercial off-the-shelf components (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/21/5288/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/21/5288/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:17:y:2024:i:21:p:5288-:d:1505604

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().