Smart Power Unit-mW-to-nW Power Management and Control for Self-Sustainable IoT Devices

Self-sustainability and intelligence will be critical features of the next generation of Internet of Things devices. Power management circuits need to be energy-efficient in multiple power modes, from nW sleep to mW active, and to support energy harvesting (EH) from multiple environmental sources. T...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on power electronics Vol. 36; no. 5; pp. 5700 - 5710
Main Authors: Mayer, Philipp, Magno, Michele, Benini, Luca
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: New York IEEE 01.05.2021
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Subjects:
Adaptive voltage scaling
Batteries
DC-DC converters
Electric converters
Electric power supplies
Energy conversion efficiency
Energy efficiency
Energy harvesting
energy management
event detection
Firmware
Intelligent devices
Intelligent sensors
Internet of Things
Microcontroller based design
Microcontrollers
Peak load
Peak load current
Power efficiency
Power management
Power management and control
Power management circuits
Power supply
Power supply unit
Power system management
Quiescent currents
sensor systems and applications
Sustainability
Sustainable development
Voltage scaling
ISSN:0885-8993, 1941-0107, 1941-0107
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Self-sustainability and intelligence will be critical features of the next generation of Internet of Things devices. Power management circuits need to be energy-efficient in multiple power modes, from nW sleep to mW active, and to support energy harvesting (EH) from multiple environmental sources. This article presents an adaptive and firmware-configurable power supply unit that enables intelligent devices to operate in the sub μW range while achieving self-sustainability through EH. The microcontroller-based design allows efficient conversion from batteries, dc, ac environmental sources, and nA quiescent currents. Source and load power points are decoupled with multiple dc-dc converters aiming to supply loads with adaptive voltage scaling and achieving high reliability. Experimental results show the flexibility and efficiency of this approach: the proposed power supply unit achieves a quiescent current of 54 nA and a maximum peak load current of 300 mA, delivered with an end-to-end power efficiency above 85%.
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ISSN:0885-8993
1941-0107
1941-0107
DOI:10.1109/TPEL.2020.3031697