Chapter 19: Energy Harvesting and Chip Autonomy

Chip-integrated micro-fuelcell (CFC) after post-CMOS processing. Measured voltage and power density of a fuel-cell cascade
Chip-integrated micro-fuelcell (CFC) after post-CMOS processing. Measured voltage and power density of a fuel-cell cascade

Energy harvesting micro-generators provide alternative sources of energy for many technical and personal applications. Since the power delivered by such miniaturized devices is limited, they need to be optimized and adapted to the application. The associated electronics not only has to operate at very low voltages and use little power. It also needs to be adaptive to the fluctuating harvesting conditions. A joint development and optimization of transducer and electronics is essential for improved efficiency.