Converter and controller for micro-power energy harvesting

A pulsed-resonant ac-dc converter and an integrated-circuit (IC) controller have been designed, fabricated, and tested for harvesting energy from low-voltage (1.2 V), low-power (1-100 /spl mu/W) energy transducers with output frequency in the 10 Hz-1 kHz range. Simulations using foundry models suggest that the silicon loss could be as low as 0.6 /spl mu/W, and the efficiency could reach 70%. With the IC experimentally packaged, the measured efficiency is between 50% and 70%, depending on the size and the loss in the resonant inductor.