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US 10,651,683 B2Granted
Harvesting power from ambient energy in an electronic device
AssigneeArm Limited
InventorsParameshwarappa Anand Kumar Savanth, James Edward Myers, David Walter Flynn
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An electronic device 50 has at least one harvesting unit 52 for harvesting power from ambient energy. At least one circuit 54, including processing circuitry 56, is supplied with power from the harvesting unit 52. Control circuitry 60 is provided to adjust at least one property of the processing circuitry 56 or the at least one harvesting unit 52 to reduce impedance mismatch between an output impedance of the harvesting unit 52 and an input impedance of the at least one circuit 54.
Claims23
An electronic device, comprising:
- at least one harvesting unit including a power generation circuit configured to convert ambient energy into an electrical signal having a voltage, the harvesting unit having an output impedance;
- a load circuitry, coupled to the harvesting unit via the electrical signal having an input impedance, the load circuitry including:
- a clock generator configured to generate a clock signal, and
- a processor, coupled to the clock generator via the clock signal, configured to perform data processing;
- and
- a control circuitry, coupled to the harvesting unit via the electrical signal and to the load circuitry via a control signal, configured to adjust at least one property of the processing load circuitry or the harvesting unit to reduce impedance mismatch between the output impedance of the at least one harvesting unit and the input impedance of the load circuitry, including a control signal to:
- adjust a property of the clock signal based, at least in part, on the voltage generated by the harvesting unit or a harvester parameter indicative of environmental conditions of the harvesting unit, to change the input impedance of the load circuitry and reduce the impedance mismatch.
4 more elements
A method of operating an electronic device, comprising:
- generating an electrical signal by at least one harvesting unit the electrical signal having a voltage, the harvesting unit including a power generation circuit configured to convert ambient energy into the electrical signal, the harvesting unit having an output impedance;
- supplying the electrical signal to a load circuitry having an input impedance, the load circuitry including a clock generator configured to generate a clock signal and a processor, coupled to the clock generator via the clock signal, and configured to perform data processing;
- and,
- adjusting, by a control circuitry coupled to the harvesting unit via the electrical signal and to the load circuitry via a control signal at least one property of the load circuitry or the harvesting unit to reduce impedance mismatch between the output impedance of the harvesting unit and the input impedance of the load circuitry, including:
- adjusting, by the control circuitry, a property of the clock signal based, at least in part, on the voltage generated by the harvesting unit or a harvester parameter indicative of environmental conditions of the harvesting unit, to change the input impedance of the load circuitry and reduce the impedance mismatch.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.