Integrated capacitive power-management circuit for thermal harvesters with output power 10 to 1000µW

Energy harvesters [1] power energy-autonomous wireless sensor systems by converting ambient environmental energy into electrical energy. Thermoelectric generators (TEG's) are a suitable compact power supply for both on-the-body and industrial sensors. Due to changing conditions, the generated power and voltage vary. Therefore a power management circuit (PMC) has to store the generated energy in a rechargeable battery or capacitor. It contains a DC/DC-converter with variable conversion factor and a controller that sets the conversion factor.