A Fully Integrated Power Converter for Thermoelectric Energy Harvesting With 81% Peak Efficiency and 6.4-mV Minimum Input Voltage

This letter introduces a fully integrated inductive power converter for thermal energy harvesting using the thermoelectric generator (TEG). With a three-step self-start block, the power converter can cold-start from 83 mV. After self-start, the minimum input voltage to sustain the power converter operation is only 6.4 mV. An integrated maximum power point tracking block keeps impedance matching at the TEG output. A novel low-power zero-current switching block realizes accurate switching with little overhead. The proposed power converter is implemented in a 55-nm CMOS process and achieves 81% peak end-to-end efficiency.