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This paper presents the complete measured performance and characterization of a fabricated power conditioning integrated circuit for energy harvesters with on-chip maximum power point tracking (MPPT) and external energy storage. This ultra-low power circuit employs an AC/DC-to-DC converter compatible with both AC and DC voltage energy harvesters. The MPPT design follows the perturbation and observation algorithm. This MPPT is capable of tracking the maximum power point of types of energy harvesters. The circuit is implemented using the AMS CMOS 0:35 μm high voltage technology and all the circuit blocks use analog electronic techniques, with the transistors operating in the sub-threshold region, in order to obtain a minimum power consumption. This power conditioning circuit consumes less than 2 μW while featuring an input voltage range of -0:5V to -50V and a power range from 10 μW to 200mW.

This paper presents the design of an ultra-low power consumption power conditioning circuit with an analogue maximum power point tracker to maximize the scavenged power generated by energy harvesting devices. Excess power is stored in a large storage capacitor to be used once the power generated by the harvester falls below the power required by the load. The circuit was designed to work with various types of energy harvesters such as solar cells and piezoelectric devices, thus making it compatible with both AC and DC input voltages. The AC/DC-to-DC converter topology employed, does not make use of any rectifier, in order to maximize the power efficiency of the converter. This power conditioner was designed using the AMS High Voltage 0.35 µm CMOS technology. The power conditioner cold starts with a minimum input voltage of 1 V and can subsequently operate with a wide voltage range of 0.2 V to 50 V to be compatible with various types of harvesters. It consumes 250 nW and can work with harvesters capable of generating power in the microwatt and milliwatt range.

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