An energy harvesting chip designed to extract maximum power from a TEG

Abstract

In this paper, we present measurement results from a prototype chip (fabricated in 130 nm CMOS technology), designed to extract maximum power from a Thermoelectric Generator (TEG). From analytical expression, we prove that the maximum extracted power is around 75% of the available power in a TEG, without using a closed loop maximum peak power tracking to regulate the input voltage. In our measurements, the TEG is modeled by a voltage source (50mV-200mV) with a series resistance of 5 Ohms. The prototype is fully electric, starts from 50 mV and can extract 60% (at 50 mV) to 65% (at 200 mV) of the available power. Hence the measurement result closely agrees with the analytical expression.