Voltage and current triggered switch, and step-down DC-DC converters containing such a switch
AssigneeNational Research Council of Canada
InventorsHeping Ding, George Xiao, Ryan Griffin, Ye Tao
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A voltage and current triggered switch that turns on when a voltage across the switch reaches a turn-on voltage and that turns off when a current through the switch drops below a holding current. The switch features a Zener diode having a breakdown voltage. The Zener diode is connected to set the turn-on voltage of the switch to be the breakdown voltage of the Zener diode. Also provided is a step-down DC-DC converter comprising such a switch. Also provided is a system that has a tribo-electricity source or a piezo-electricity source, the provided step-down DC-DC converter and a load connected to an output of the stepdown DC-DC converter.
Claims22
A voltage and current triggered switch that turns on when a voltage across the switch reaches a turn-on voltage and that turns off when a current through the switch drops below a holding current, the switch comprising:
- a Zener diode having a breakdown voltage, the Zener diode connected to set the turn-on voltage of the switch to be the breakdown voltage of the Zener diode;
- wherein the voltage and current switch is composed of discrete components that produce a leakage current in the voltage and current triggered switch while in an off state on the order of 20 nA.
A voltage and current triggered switch that turns on when a voltage across the switch reaches a turn-on voltage and that turns off when a current through the switch drops below a holding current, the switch comprising:
- a Zener diode having a breakdown voltage, the Zener diode connected to set the turn-on voltage of the switch to be the breakdown voltage of the Zener diode;
- a positive terminal and a negative terminal;
- a PNP bipolar junction transistor (BJT);
- an NPN BJT;
- a first resistor;
- a second resistor;
- wherein the positive terminal is connected to an emitter of the PNP bipolar junction transistor, and to a first terminal of the first resistor, and a second terminal of the first resistor is connected to a base of the PNP BJT;
- the negative terminal is connected to an emitter of the NPN BJT and to a first terminal of a second resistor, and a second terminal of the second resistor is connected to a base of the NPN BJT;
- a collector of the PNP BJT is connected to the base of the NPN BJT, and a collector of the NPN BJT is connected to the base of the PNP BJT.
An apparatus comprising:
- a step-down DC-DC converter comprising a voltage and current triggered switch that turns on when a voltage across the switch reaches a turn-on voltage and that turns off when a current through the switch drops below a holding current, the switch comprising:
- a Zener diode having a breakdown voltage, the Zener diode connected to set the turn-on voltage of the switch to be the breakdown voltage of the Zener diode;
- wherein the voltage and current switch is composed of discrete components that produce a leakage current in the voltage and current triggered switch while in an off state on the order of 20 nA.
A method comprising:
- rectifying AC electricity from a tribo energy harvesting device or a piezo energy harvesting device;
- storing the rectified electricity in a first capacitor;
- once the voltage across the first capacitor has built up to a turn-on voltage set by the breakdown voltage of a Zener diode, closing a V&I triggered switch with turn-on voltage threshold set by Zener diode breakdown voltage (VITSZ) to transfer the energy stored in the first capacitor to an inductor;
- opening the VITSZ, triggered by a current dropping below a threshold current;
- transferring energy from current in the inductor to a voltage across a second capacitor;
- and
- a load consuming the energy stored in the second capacitor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.