Performance of Open Voltage control algorithm for sensor node power management unit

Basic limiting factors for wireless sensor network deployment are closely related to the power consumption. Low power consumption can be achieved by reducing the sensor node's energy requirements or effective utilization of energy harvesting. For effective energy management it is critical to track the optimal electrical operating point. For this purpose maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithms are used. This paper observes the performance of Open Voltage (OV) MPPT algorithm on a bidirectional power management unit. The bidirectional power management unit, designed at the authors' department, finds utilization in wireless sensor networks with solar-driven energy harvesting modules. The design of the bidirectional power management unit is described along with the OV MPPT implementation. A brief comparison with other MPPT algorithms such as Constant Voltage Method, Short Current Pulse Method, Perturb and Observe Method, Incremental Conductance Method and Temperature Method is presented in the concluding remarks.