A 12 mV start-up converter using piezoelectric transformer for energy harvesting applications

Thomas Martinez (1) , Gaël Pillonnet (2, 3) , F. Costa (4)

1 SATIE-EPI - Electronique de Puissance et Intégration
2 CEA-LETI - Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives - Laboratoire d'Electronique et de Technologie de l'Information
3 UGA [2016-2019] - Université Grenoble Alpes [2016-2019]
4 SATIE - Systèmes et Applications des Technologies de l'Information et de l'Energie

This paper presents a novel topology of start-up converter for sub 100 mV thermal energy harvesting based on an Armstrong oscillator topology using a piezoelectric transformer (PT) and a normally-on MOSFET. Based on a Rosen-type PT and off-the-shelf components, the proposed start-up topology begins to oscillate at 12 mV input voltage corresponding to a temperature gradient of 2°C and achieves 1 V output voltage with only 18 mV input voltage applied to the harvester.

Domaines: Electronique

Thomas Martinez, Gaël Pillonnet, F. Costa. A 12 mV start-up converter using piezoelectric transformer for energy harvesting applications. PowerMEMS 2016, Dec 2016, Paris, France. ⟨hal-01735597⟩