The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 07, 2017
Filed:
Dec. 17, 2016
University of Virginia Patent Foundation, Charlottesville, VA (US);
Benton Calhoun, Charlottesville, VA (US);
Aatmesh Shrivastava, Charlottesville, VA (US);
University of Virginia Patent Foundation, Charlottesville, VA (US);
Abstract
The low input voltage boost converter with peak inductor current control and offset compensated zero detection provide a boost converter scheme to harvest energy from sources with small output voltages. Some embodiments described herein includes a thermoelectric boost converter that combines an Icontrol scheme with offset compensation and duty cycled comparators to enable energy harvesting from TEG inputs as low as 5 mV to 10 mV, and the peak inductor current is independent to first order of the input voltage and output voltage. A control circuit can be configured to sample the input voltage (V) and then generate a pulse with a duration inversely proportional to Vso as to control the boost converter switches such that a substantially constant peak inductor current is generated.