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Power Management (PMU) Circuit

Title: 
Power Management (PMU) Circuit
Funding Agency: 
STDF - US Egypt Fund
Amount of Fund: 
US$ 100,000
Start date: 
Sat, 01/01/2011
Team Members
Principal Investigator: 
Members From Department: 
Project duration: 
2011 - 13
Submission Date: 
Sat, 01/01/2011
List of Specific Project Objectives: 

The aim of "Power Management (PMU) Circuit for Micro-power Thermoelectric Generators (TEG) with Low Voltage Startup" project is to develop efficient ultra-low-voltage PMU working for TEG input voltages as low as 200mV is proposed. Such PMU can be conceptually divided into two sections: The first is the startup block comprising an exponential-gain charge pump as well as a low-power BGR and voltage comparator that serve as a load to the pump. The second section is the PMU core charging a buffer (super-capacitor) employing a main DC/DC converter, which consists of a cascade of two Dickson-based charge pumps with a variable conversion factor and switching frequency. Feedback is provided from the load buffer by means of a current sensor to a control unit that employs a Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) algorithm so as to maximize the overall power transfer efficiency at low input voltages. System simulation results demonstrate peak efficiency greater than 70% with a controller current consumption less than 2μA. The PMU core was designed and fabricated using a UMC CMOS 180nm process.