Detalhes do Documento

Autonomous and portable electronic circuits are typically powered by a battery. Since batteries have a limited life span there is a need to study an alternative to replace batteries with low-cost energy harvesting sources. This work reports the design and prototype of a DC-DC converter to step-up the low voltage of a small low-power thermo electric generator (TEG), with an output voltage of hundreds of mV, to attain a system output voltage of 1.2V. After the theoretical analysis and simulation of the converter, several possibilities for sizing the converter are evaluated, to be implemented only with components off-the-shelf (COTS) In order to be a standalone system, it was also necessary to design an oscillator to drive the MOSFET with a switching frequency of a few MHz. A super-capacitor wasv also introduced in the circuit to retain the TEG input for a reasonable time. Finally, with the inclusion of a Low-dropout regulator and the experimental validation of the final prototype, it was possible to observe a regulated voltage at the output of 1.2 V.