Sunlight-variation-adaptive charge pump circuit with self-reconfiguration for small-scale solar energy harvesting

Eun-Sub Lee; Jun-Myung Choi; Young-Su Kim; Seok-Jin Ham; Jeong-Heon Kim; Sang-Don Byeon; Kyeong-Sik Min

doi:10.1587/elex.9.1423

Eun-Sub Lee, Jun-Myung Choi, Young-Su Kim, Seok-Jin Ham, Jeong-Heon Kim, Sang-Don Byeon, Kyeong-Sik Min

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Keywords: sunlight-variation-adaptive, reconfigurable charge pump, solar energy harvesting, solar battery charger

JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

2012 Volume 9 Issue 17 Pages 1423-1433

DOI https://doi.org/10.1587/elex.9.1423

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Abstract

In this paper, we propose a reconfigurable charge pump (RCP) circuit that could change its architecture according to sunlight variation. In strong sunlight, the RCP works by the parallel mode that can maximize the output current. In moderate sunlight, the RCP changes to the serial-parallel mode. When sunlight becomes weak, the RCP runs by the serial mode to keep its output voltage around the target voltage. Compared with the fixed-mode circuit that maintains the serial mode all the time regardless of sunlight variation, the RCP can generate 2.5 times larger output current and has power efficiency better by 24%, in strong sunlight. The area penalty and overhead in power efficiency of the RCP are only 15.8% and 1.2%.

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