Low-voltage DC-DC converter for IoT and on-chip energy harvester applications

The power saving issue as well as clean energy harvesting for wireless and cost-affordable electronics (e.g. IoT applications, sensor nodes or medical implants), belong to very attractive research topics recently. With this in mind, the paper addresses one of the most important parts of the energy conversion system chain – the power management unit. The core of such a unit will be formed by an inductor-less, low-voltage DC-DC converter based on the cross-coupled dynamic-threshold charge pump topology. The charge pump utilizes a power-efficient ON/OFF regulation feedback loop, especially designed for strict low-voltage start-up conditions by a driver
booster. Together, they serve as the masters to control the charge pump output (up to 600 mV), depending on the voltage value produced by a renewable energy source available in the environment. Low-power feature is also ensured by a careful design of the hysteresis-based bulk-driven comparator and fully integrated switched-capacitor voltage divider, omitting the static power
consumption. The presented converter could also employ the on-chip RF-based energy harvester for use in a wireless power transfer system.