Photovoltaic Energy Harvesting Chip With P&O Maximum Power Point Tracking Circuit and Novel Pulse-Based Multiplier

• Published in: IEEE transactions on power electronics 2021-11, Vol.36 (11), p.12867-12876
• Main Authors: Yan, Jian-Zhou, Pan, Wei-Han, Wu, Hung-Hsien, Hsu, Tien, Wei, Chia-Ling
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Circuits; CMOS; Energy harvesting; Inductors; Internet of Things; Maximum power point trackers; maximum power point tracking (MPPT); Maximum power tracking; Microcontrollers; Modules; multiplier; perturb and observe (P&O); photovoltaic (PV) cells; Photovoltaic cells; Registers; Sensors; Signal processing; Timing
• ISSN: 0885-8993; 1941-0107
• DOI: 10.1109/TPEL.2021.3082533

A photovoltaic (PV) energy harvesting chip with novel multiplier-based perturb and observe (P&O) maximum power point tracking (MPPT) circuit for Internet-of-Things applications is proposed, and it can be powered by only a small PV module. The proposed P&O MPPT circuit can accurately detect the maximum power point of the PV module without using a power-hungry microcontroller or inaccurate analog multiplier. Instead, a high-accuracy pulse-based multiplier is proposed. Its input signals are analog, while its output signal is digital. Moreover, a new MPPT controller based on the proposed multiplier is also presented. The chip was fabricated using a 0.18 μm 1P6M mixed-signal CMOS process. According to the measured results, the available power from the chosen PV module is 0.1-3 mW, the maximum tracking efficiency of the proposed MPPT circuit is 99.3%, and the maximum total efficiency of the proposed harvesting chip is 94.7%.