Flexible solar-energy harvesting system on plastic with thin-film LC oscillators operating above ft for inductively-coupled power delivery

Yingzhe Hu, Warren Rieutort-Louis, Liechao Huang, Josue Sanz-Robinson, Sigurd Wagner, James C. Sturm, Naveen Verma

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper presents an energy-harvesting system consisting of amorphous-silicon (a-Si) solar cells and thin-film-transistor (TFT) power circuits on plastic. Along with patterned planar inductors, the TFTs realize an LC-oscillator that provides power inversion of the DC solar-module output, enabling a low-cost sheet for inductively-coupled wireless charging of devices. Despite the low performance of the TFTs (ft=1.3MHz at a voltage of 15V), the oscillator can operate above 2MHz by incorporating the device parasitics into the resonant tank. This enables increased quality factor for the planar inductors, improving the power-transfer efficiency and the power delivered. With 3cm-radius single- and double-layer inductors, the system achieves 22.6% and 31% power-transfer efficiency (approaching the analytically-predicted bound), while the power delivered is 20mW and 22mW.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings of the IEEE 2012 Custom Integrated Circuits Conference, CICC 2012
DOIs
StatePublished - 2012
Event34th Annual Custom Integrated Circuits Conference, CICC 2012 - San Jose, CA, United States
Duration: Sep 9 2012Sep 12 2012

Publication series

NameProceedings of the Custom Integrated Circuits Conference
ISSN (Print)0886-5930

Other

Other34th Annual Custom Integrated Circuits Conference, CICC 2012
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CitySan Jose, CA
Period9/9/129/12/12

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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