A 0.35μm CMOS Solar energy scavenger with power storage management system

Abstract

In this paper we present an integrated solar energy scavenger realized in a 0.35 μm CMOS technology. The proposed system collects solar energy from the environment through integrated diodes, accumulates it and, delivers it to the load when it is enough to allow proper operation of the CMOS circuitry. The proposed system is suitable for discrete-time regime applications, such as sensor network nodes or, generally, systems that require power supply periodically for short time slots. In order to properly design the system, we developed a model of the integrated solar cell on the basis of measurement data extracted from a test chip. The power management circuit, including a charge pump a comparator and a linear voltage regulator, has been extensively simulated.