A Bipolar 40 mV Self-Starting Boost Converter with
Transformer Reuse for Thermoelectric Energy Harvesting
Nachiket V. Desai Yogesh K. Ramadass
Massachusetts Institute of Texas Instruments
Technology 12500 TI Boulevard
77 Massachusetts Avenue Dallas, Texas 75243
Cambridge, Massachusetts yogesh.ramadass@ti.com
02139
ndesai@mit.edu
ABSTRACT
This paper presents a converter for boosting the low-voltage
output of thermoelectric energy harvesters to power stan-
dard CMOS circuits. The converter can start up from a
fully de-energized state off a bipolar 40 mV input and can
harvest net positive energy from voltages as low as 30 mV
in steady state. A single transformer is multiplexed between
an oscillator that is used during startup and a flyback con-
verter that is used during steady-state operation. During
steady-state operation, the converter is automatically shut
off if the input power is found to be too low. Simulation
results on the converter designed in a 0.35 m CMOS pro-
cess demonstrate a peak steady-state conversion efficiency of
68% at an output voltage of 5.5 V and input voltage range
between 30 mV and 500 mV in magnitude.
Categories and Subject Descriptors
B.7.1 [Integrated Circuits]: Types and Design Styles
General Terms
Design, Performance
Keywords
energy harvesting, thermoelectric generators, flyback con-
verters, Meissner oscillator, bipolar input, flux-commutation
1. INTRODUCTION
Advances in low-power biomedical and industrial sensor
design [9, 3, 13] have made energy harvesting an attractive
alternative to batteries for powering wearable or otherwise
hard-to-reach sensors. Such constraints on the location of
these sensors also preclude the use of solar or vibration en-
ergy harvesters as a source of energy. Thermal energy har-
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2627369.2627609.
221
Anantha P.
Chandrakasan
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, Massachusetts
02139
anantha@mtl.mit.edu
vesting is a likely candidate owing to the presence of rea-
sonable thermal gradients in industrial settings, or between
the human body and the environment. Thermoelectric gen-
erators (TEGs) that are capable of powering wristwatches
and sub-mW radios have been explored and demonstrated
[8, 11].
Bulk-mode TEGs typically generate 20-30 mV at open-
circuit for every 1 K of temperature difference across them
and are typically modeled as a Thevenin source with output
impedance as low as 2 [10]. Harvesting energy using these
devices usually implies working off an output voltage as low
as 30 mV in the worst case, when the temperature difference
across the device is around 2 K and the converter loads the
TEG to 70% of its open-circuit voltage. Boost converters
are typically used to convert these voltages to levels where
CMOS circuits can be powered. Starting up these converters
proves to be a significant challenge since most switches have
threshold voltages far exceeding the output of the TEG. This
problem has been addressed by incorporating a battery [5]
to operate the switches during startup or a motion-activated
mechanical switch [10]: approaches that can significantly in-
crease the cost and complexity of integration. A low-voltage
negative resistance oscillator along with a charge multiplier
using native MOSFETs is used for startup in [12].
In addition to the low magnitude, the polarity of the in-
duced voltage depends on the direction of heat flow, which
could vary across different applications or within the same
application (such as HVAC systems). Two separate transformer-
based oscillators are used in [1] for both low-voltage startup
and steady-state operation, one each for each polarity. A
transformer-based oscillator for startup and a transformer-
based boost converter are used in [6], leading to higher effi-
ciency but with the capability to support a single polarity.
This paper presents a circuit topology that uses a single
transformer for starting up and operating in steady state
from a bipolar supply. The transformer-based Meissner os-
cillator is modified to ensure the conditions for oscillation
are maintained irrespective of supply polarity, and the fly-
back converter uses flux commutation inside the core for
steady-state operation.
2. MEISSNER OSCILLATOR
The harvester uses a transformer-based oscillator for start-
ing up from a state of zero energy in the system. Once
enough energy has been built up to power the clock gener-
 Vsup Vsup
1:N
VINT
CINT
Native
NMOS
Figure 1: Schematic of Meissner oscillator
ators and gate drives, the flyback converter is activated for
steady-state operation. An intermediate crude flyback stage
is also used to speed up the startup process. The operation
of the transformer-based Meissner oscillator and its deriva-
tive capable of operating from bipolar supply voltages are
described in detail below.
2.1 Unipolar Operation
A schematic of the Meissner oscillator is shown in figure 1.
This oscillator is similar to the one presented in [4]. Since
oscillations in the zero energy state need to start up from
the low ( 30 mV) supply, a native NMOS device with zero
threshold voltage is used to obtain reasonable gm without
sacrificing voltage gain due to the low output impedance of
depletion mode devices. Connecting the secondary to the
supply instead of ground also serves to increase the gm and
thus the loop gain during startup. A transformer with large
(N = 20, 50, 100) turns ratio is used to satisfy the loop gain
condition. The phase condition is satisfied by the specific
connection of the terminals of the transformer. Neglecting
leakage inductances, the loop gain of the oscillator is
1 tive supply voltages, the auxiliary branch acts as a common
Lpos (s) = (gm sL1 ) (N ) (1)
s2 L2 Cg + sR2 Cg + 1
where Cg is the total capacitance from the gate of the na-
tive MOS transistor to ac ground, which includes the gate-
source capacitance of the transistor and the winding capac-
itance of the transformer secondary coil. L1 and L2 are
the inductances measured looking into the primary and sec-
ondary of the transformer respectively and R2 is the winding
loss referred to the secondary side of the transformer. The
first term in equation (1) is the gain of the common-source
amplifier formed by the transistor and the primary side of
the transformer, the second term captures the transformer
turns ratio and the way the terminals of the transformer are
connected, and the third term corresponds to the loading of
the transformer secondary by the gate capacitance Cg .
p
1
From equation (1), the circuit oscillates at f = 2 L2 Cg
The secondary terminal is coupled to a diode rectifier through
a DC-blocking capacitor. The diode rectifier charges a low
capacitance node VINT , since the oscillator cannot supply a
large load current while satisfying conditions for oscillation.
2.2 Bipolar Operation
The expression for loop gain in equation (1) is valid when
the supply voltage is positive. For negative supply voltage
the loop gain changes to
gm sL1 1 In order to use the same transformer that was used in sec-
Lneg (s) = (N ) 2 (2)
1 + gm sL1 s L2 Cgs + sR2 Cgs + 1
The change in the first term of equation (2) compared to
equation (1) results in a reduction in magnitude and inver-
Vsup Vsup
1:N
CINT
Vsup
Native
NMOS Auxiliary
Native Branch
NMOS
Depletion
PMOS
Figure 2: Schematic of modified Meissner oscillator for bipo-
lar operation
sion of phase of the loop gain, which makes the circuit inca-
pable of oscillation when the supply voltage is negative. An
intuitive explanation for this is that the native NMOS acts
as a source follower instead of a common source amplifier
when the supply voltage is negative. The phase shift en-
countered upon traversing the loop at the frequency where
the loop gain is real is then radians, which causes the
oscillation conditions to not be met.
In figure 2, we introduce a circuit that can oscillate with a
supply voltage of either polarity. This is done by introducing
an auxiliary amplifier/source follower branch to complement
the action of the native NMOS. This branch acts as a source
follower when the supply voltage is positive and has no effect
on the phase of the loop function at resonance. For nega-
source amplifier and inverts the phase of the loop gain to
satisfy the oscillation criteria. Instead of using a resistive
load on the auxiliary branch, an appropriately-sized deple-
tion mode PMOS is used so that the branch can be turned
off after the startup phase is completed.
With the auxiliary branch, the loop transfer functions
change to
gm,aux ro,aux
Lpos,aux (s) = Lpos (s) (3)
1 + gm,aux ro,aux
Lneg,aux (s) = Lneg (s) (gm,aux ro,aux ) (4)
where Lpos (s) and Lneg (s) are as defined in equations (1)
and (2), gm,aux is the transconductance of the native MOS
transistor in the auxiliary branch and ro,aux is the small-
. signal output resistance of the auxiliary branch. The cur-
rent through the auxiliary branch is scaled down from that
through the transformer primary branch to ensure the gm ro
product remains the same in magnitude at the resonant fre-
quency. This ensures that the magnitude of the startup
voltage remains the same irrespective of the polarity of the
supply.
3. FLYBACK CONVERTER
tion 2 as the magnetic energy storage element for a boost
converter, the standard inductor-based topology has been
modified to a topology resembling the flyback converter. An
unoptimized version of this modified topology is shown in
222
 D2
Vsup Vsup
CSTOR
Vsup
Vpri D1
1:N
Vsec
SW
Figure 3: Schematic of unoptimized flyback converter
Table 1: Energy harvesting transformer parasitics
Primary
Secondary
Winding
Turns Ratio Winding
Capacitance
Capacitance (Cs )
(Cp )
1:20 4.05 nF 6 pF
1:50 26.7 nF 4.8 pF
1:100 84.4 nF 2.8 pF
figure 3. A switch connected to the primary side of the trans-
former stores energy in the transformer core in one phase of
the driver clock cycle. The stored energy is transferred to
the output in the complementary phase by the secondary.
Diodes D1 and D2 conduct when the supply is negative and
positive respectively.
The converter operates in DCM using PFM control. The
low-power control circuits used for the main flyback con-
verter that monitor the output OV, UV etc. operate at 2
kHz [7]. Based on the output resistance of the TEG being
used for an application, the on-time of the switch can be set
to achieve near-MPPT condition.
3.1 Transformer Flux Commutation
The transformers used for the targeted application [2] have
large turns ratios and thus large primary winding capac-
itances, as shown in table 1. Due to this large parasitic
capacitance on the primary, the node Vpri in figure 3 can-
not rise a diode drop above VSTOR for diode D2 to turn
on when the supply is positive. Instead, when the switch
turns off under a positive supply the flux in the transformer
core commutates as a result of the resonance between the
primary winding inductance and its associated parasitic ca-
pacitance. Diode D1, being connected to the secondary, can
easily conduct once the flux in the core changes directions.
This is shown in figure 4. This also prevents the large volt-
age generated by the transformer on the Vsec node in the
case where D2 conducts in figure 3. Since diode D2 in fig-
ure 3 is not used for either polarity of the converter input
Vsup , it can be dropped from the circuit.
In order to allow for the transformer flux to commutate
when Vsup is positive, the flyback converter switch needs to
be turned off for sufficient time. Based on the secondary
winding inductance values in [2] and the capacitance values
in table 1, the worst case oscillation period is 2.8 s for the
223
SW
Vpri
VSTOR
Vsec
Power
Transfer
Figure 4: Waveforms for flux commutation in transformer
core for positive supply voltage
1:100 transformer. To accommodate this minimum off-time,
the switching period of the flyback converter is chosen to be
16 s and the maximum possible on-time is 12 s. Since the
flux commutation requires less than a full oscillation period
of the secondary winding inductance and capacitance, this
allows sufficient time for flux commutation for every on-time
setting.
3.2 Intermediate Crude Flyback Converter
If the bipolar Meissner oscillator of section 2 were used
to charge the large ( 5 F) output capacitor CSTOR , it
would either cease to oscillate or slow down the startup pro-
cess considerably because of its limited current-driving ca-
pability. Instead, the oscillator is made to charge up a rela-
tively small capacitor CINT , which is isolated from CSTOR ,
to around 600 mV. The energy stored in CINT is used to
operate a ring oscillator that drives a small, low-Vth switch
that drives the flyback converter and charges the output
capacitor CSTOR . The low-Vth crude-stage switch and nor-
mal Vth main switch in figure 5 can be connected in par-
allel since flux-commutation ensures that the drain of the
switches doesnt rise enough to damage the former. The
main low-side switch that operates during steady-state is
switched at the output voltage, which can be as high as 5.5
V, and achieves higher efficiency.
4. CONVERTER STARTUP AND STATE TRAN-
SITIONS
4.1 Transformer Multiplexing
The secondary coil of the transformer in the flyback con-
verter of figure 5 is connected to the output through a diode
and a pass gate. The pass gate allows the path to CSTOR
to be turned off when the bipolar Meissner oscillator is op-
erating. The complete schematic of the oscillator is shown
in figure 5. The diode rectifier branch going to CINT goes
through a depletion mode PMOS device which is only turned
off when the flyback converter is operating.
On the primary side, the native NMOS transistor from the
bipolar Meissner oscillator is connected in series to a deple-
tion mode PMOS switch that turns off the branch when the
flyback converter commences operation, as shown in figure 5.
 Vsup Vsup Vsup
1:N
En
......... CSTOR
En2 D1
CSTOR
1:N
D1
SWcrd SWmain En2 En
(Low VT) En1

CINT

Vsup Cp Rleak
En1
Native
NMOS Auxiliary
Native Branch
NMOS Figure 8: Schematic of circuit used to store maximum value
Depletion
En1 PMOS of voltage on anode of diode D1. The circuit on the primary
side of the transformer is the same as in figure 5.

Figure 5: Complete schematic of converter with bipolar

Once VSTOR exceeds the POR trigger-on level by the
Meissner oscillator on the bottom and dual flyback stages
threshold voltage of a low-Vth switch, energy can be directly
on the top
transferred from CSTOR to CINT using a sub-regulator, con-
siderably speeding up the startup. Once CSTOR is charged
to 1.8 V, the main-POR goes high, the main oscillator and
Bipolar Ring Crude
Meissner Osc. VINT Oscillator Boost
Sub-Regulator control circuits [7] (operating at 2 kHz) are activated, and
the main primary side switch is used. Upon reaching steady-
VSTOR
state operation the startup circuits are disabled using depletion-
CS POR Main Main POR & mode PMOS gating switches to reduce loss in the converter.
(~ 0.6 V) Boost Clk Gen

Figure 6: Block diagram of complete thermoelectric energy 5. AUTOMATIC SHUTDOWN

harvesting system The thermoelectric energy harvesters output can drop to
arbitrarily low power levels depending on the operating con-
ditions. Below a threshold, the net energy stored in the
This branch is connected in parallel to the two switches from magnetic core of the transformer when the low-side of the
the flyback converter on the primary side of the transformer. flyback converter is on becomes insufficient to charge the
parasitics on the high-side and turn on D1 in figure 5 while
the switching losses stay the same irrespective of the TEG
4.2 Startup State Transitions voltage. In this scenario, the net energy harvested is nega-
A complete block diagram of the converter is shown in fig- tive and it is beneficial to shut down the converter till more
ure 6, while the states transitioned by the converter before favorable conditions arise.
reaching steady state are shown in figure 7. During cold- To detect this condition, the maximum value of the volt-
start, the bipolar Meissner oscillator charges CINT . Once age at the anode of diode D1 is stored on a capacitor Cp with
VINT crosses the cold start Power-On Reset (POR) thresh- a large shunt resistor Rleak to leak the stored charge with a
old, the flyback converter is operated in the crude-boost large time constant, as shown in figure 8. When the input
mode to charge CSTOR till VINT falls below a hysteretic is large enough to turn D1 on and supply net positive en-
threshold (between 630 mV and 540 mV at 25 C and nomi- ergy, the voltage stored on the capacitor Cp is a few hundred
nal corner). The bipolar Meissner oscillator then takes over mV above VSTOR . This voltage is compared against VSTOR
again to charge CINT back to the POR level. The POR using a clocked strong-ARM comparator with 1:2 sized in-
trigger-on threshold varies from 630 mV at 25 C and nom- put transistors. This provides enough input offset across
inal process corner to 500 mV at 100 C and fast corner. PVT variation to prevent a small difference (< 100 mV) be-
During this period CSTOR holds most of its stored charge tween the voltages across Cp and CSTOR from making the
since the main sensing and control circuits driven by VSTOR comparator signal that the TEG voltage is large enough to
have not yet been activated. supply net positive energy. The output of the comparator is
checked at the 2 kHz system clock frequency. When the con-
verter shuts off in the absence of adequate power to harvest,
Cold Start Crude Boost Charges VSTOR, VINT Main Boost
charges VINT Ring Osc. Discharges VINT Supplies ILOAD only the control circuits that run on the 2 kHz system clock
with 330 nA quiescent current are left on. The converter
is turned on for 16 cycles every two seconds to check if net
CS POR Triggers Sub-Regulator Starts Main POR Triggers positive energy can be harvested.
VINT = 0.6V VSTOR = 1.8V
6. SIMULATION RESULTS
Figure 7: State transition diagram of converter during The converter was designed and simulated in a 0.35 m
startup high-voltage CMOS process. TEGs were modeled as a volt-

224
 0.6 V 0.6 V
0V 0V CS POR
0.6 V 0.6 V Ring Osc
0V 0V Output
0.6 V
0.6 V VINT
0V 0V
3V 5V
VSTOR
0V 0V

400 s 75 s
(a) Vsup = 40 mV (b) Vsup = -40 mV

Figure 9: Simulated transient waveforms for startup with 1:100 transformer and bipolar harvester output voltages

0.7 0.7
0.6 0.6
0.5 0.5
Efficiency

Efficiency
0.4 0.4
0.3 0.3
VSTOR = 3.6V
0.2 0.2
VSTOR = 4.2V
0.1 0.1
VSTOR = 5.5V
0 0
-300
-280
-260
-240
-220
-200
-180
-160
-140
-120
-100
-80
-60
-40
30
50
70
90
110
130
150
170
190
210
230
250
270
290

(a) Vsup (mV) > 0 (b) Vsup (mV) < 0

Figure 10: Flyback converter efficiency plots for different input voltages for N=100 transformer and a TEG with 5 output
resistance, at 70% input regulation and with different VSTOR values

age source in series with a source resistance varying from 1
to 5 , based on which the on-time of the low-side switch
in the flyback converter would be set to achieve near-MPPT
condition. The transformer was modeled using measured
values for the primary and secondary coil inductance, par-
asitic series resisistance and shunt capacitance, and the in-
tercoil coupling coefficient.
Simulated waveforms for the converter startup at nominal
process corner and 27 C are shown in figure 9 for N=100 and
input voltages of 40 mV. The VSTOR node drives the main
control circuits which are power-gated off until the main
POR triggers. In this simulation, the crude flyback con-
verter is allowed to operate beyond the main POR trigger
threshold (1.8 V) on VSTOR to demonstrate its reliability
in charging the node. As described in section 4.2, the con-
verter initially switches back and forth between the bipolar
Meissner oscillator (ring oscillator, CS POR OFF) mode and
the crude flyback (ring oscillator, CS POR ON) mode. The
zoomed portion of the waveform shows the value of VSTOR
rising in small increments for each cycle the ring oscillator
is on. Once the sub-regulator turns on, the voltage VSTOR
rises rapidly due to the positive feedback effect of VINT ris-
ing increasing the amount of charge transferred in each cycle.
The self-start voltage rises to 100 mV at 100 C and fast
process corner.
In figure 9, the VSTOR node is charged up much faster in
the case where the input voltage is negative than when the
input in positive. This is because the POR voltage on VINT
where the bipolar Meissner oscillator turns off is set to be
attainable by the oscillator across corners. This gate-drive
level for the small switch on the primary side of the cride
flyback converter is close to its Vth . The additional bias
on this switch along with the lower threshold voltage when
the input is negative increases the stored flux substantially,
which strengthens the forward turn-on of the diode D1 in
figure 6 and increases the amount of energy flowing to VSTOR
in each iteration of the charge-discharge cycle of VINT .
Simulated efficiency plots for the flyback converter with
a 1:100 transformer and input voltage varying between 30
mV and 100 mV are shown in figure 10 with the output
voltage clamped at voltage levels typical for power manage-
ment IC inputs. For positive input voltages (section 5), the
conversion efficiency drops sharply around 30 mV input be-
cause the initial flux in the transformer core is insufficient
to charge the parasitic capacitance on the secondary side
of the transformer to a diode drop above VSTOR and turn
on the high-side diode. The efficiency decreases for larger

225
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226