Design and Realization of Micropower Processing System for Utilization of the Thermal Energy in Compact Solar Energy Harvesters

Abstract

In this paper, a simple, compact, and low-cost system for utilization of the thermal energy of the sun was designed and realized. The system is intended as a backup power supply of solar compact energy harvester and can serve also as a power supply for cooling the solar panel with thermoelectric cooler. For the system implementation, it was used specialized integrated circuit for power processing of DC small voltages with boost convertor LTC3107. The micropower processing device can charge a battery and backup capacitor extending the battery’s supply life when large periods of discontinuous input thermal energy exist. A printed circuit board (PCB) layout was used for photomask production and the system was fabricated by conventional PCB technology including photolithographic patterning of the printed wires. The system was tested with a Peltier element as a thermoelectric generator and it was found that it works stably in the temperature range 4 °C-46.6 °C, producing maximal output voltage of 2.53 V and storage capacitor voltage 1.78 V from a single thermoelectric convertor. The paper represents a synergistic connection between renewable energy processing, electronics, and microelectronic technology.