Performance optimization of energy harvesting solutions for 0.18um CMOS circuits in embedded electronics design. Issue 1 (1st January 2020) - Fouad, Hafez
Abstract: The performance and potential of energy-harvesting devices depend strongly on the performance and specific properties of materials and used technology. The recent explosion in capability of embedded electronics has not been matched by battery technology. The slow growth of battery energy density has limited device lifetime and added volume and weight. The amount of energy from harvesting is typically small and variable, requiring circuits and architectures which are low power and can scale their power consumption with user requirements and available energy. The energy harvesting research falls into two key areas. One is developing optimal structures of energy harvesting and the other is designing electronic circuits that are efficient enough to store the generated charge. Optimization of microelectronic devices to reduce energy consumption, while all devices strive to achieve good efficiency, balancing performance and power consumption, the application area will dictate design constraints such as size, energy budget, and maximum power. Regarding the research area of optimal design of electronic circuits, a highly efficient CMOS rectifier for vibrational energy harvesting system is proposed. Based on the design considerations, rectifier plays an important role in the application of energy harvesting system and wireless power transfer system. So, the performance of the rectifier decides the efficiency of the system. The proposed low voltage Rectifier is designed for operating frequency of 13.56 MHz using two-stage structure and an Improved precision active diode under a standard 0.18um CMOS process can perform the minimum operating voltage is lower than previous published paper and the rectifier can work at a wide range of input voltage amplitudes of 0.45 V up to 1.95 V. So, the proposed rectifier is suitable to work in Different Types of vibrational energy harvesting system, Electrostatic Energy harvester, Electromagnetic Energy Harvester, Piezoelectric Energy Harvester. The proposed rectifier can achieve peak voltage conversion efficiency of over 81% and power efficiency over 79%. Simulated power consumption of the rectifier is 0.23uW, which is about 28% smaller than the best recently published results.