A hybrid ambient energy harvesting integrated chip (IC) for the Internet of Things (IoT) and portable applications

This paper presents a hybrid energy-harvesting integrated chip (IC), which is suitable for the Internet of Things and portable devices. The proposed IC was designed for the harvesting of energy from ambient light as well as vibrations in the environment. A constant voltage method is used to balance power conversion efficiency against the complexity of the circuit used to process lighting energy. An on-chip bridge rectifier is used to handle the AC signal generated by the vibration energy. Both functions are integrated on a single chip using the UMC 0.18 um bipolar-CMOS-DMOS process. Experiment results and a demonstration board verify the efficacy of the proposed design.