DC/DC converter design principles for wireless sensor node applications

摘要

With the advancement of energy harvesting elements, energy can be found and captured in almost any application, allowing for a wide variety of systems to be powered remotely. Applications such as "smart homes" and "mesh sensor networks" take advantage of the harvesting elements in order to power back-end electronics (microcontrollers, radios, and so on) in remote wireless sensor nodes (WSN). These systems can be completely self-powered by the harvesting element or assisted by a battery. In both cases, the primary power source is variable in nature and must be regulated for the back-end electronics via power conversion stages (linear or switch-mode).