TSP #21 - Tutorial and Experiments on Energy Harvesting ICs

In this episode Shahriar investigates some state-of-the-art energy harvesting ICs from Linear Technology. The LTC3105 is a highly efficient 400mA Step-Up DC/DC Converter with Maximum Power Point Control and 250mV Start-Up. After exploring the IC's internal block diagram, the evaluation board for this energy harvesting chip is presented. Various experiments, including the calculation of efficiency, maximum power delivery, start-up behavior and MPPC are presented. As a last experiment, a two stage energy harvesting setup using a solar panel and a super-capacitor capable of charging an iPhone is demonstrated.
The second IC of interest is the LTC3109 which is an Auto-Polarity, Ultralow Voltage Step-Up Converter and Power Manager Energy Harvesting chip. The block diagram and the evaluation board of this IC is presented. The ultra-low voltage capability of the circuit is demonstrated through the use of a Peltier cooler thermo-electric component to generate a 5V output voltage. As a final experiment, several ice cubes are used in conjunction with the thermo-electric generator in order to harvest enough energy to charge an iPhone for 30 seconds.
The Signal Path
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[@powertomato]

There is a pretty highy pitched sound starting at approx. minute 25, which was driving my cat crasy while watching this video. :) Great explanations and a very good work you've done here! Thanks for doing this

[@KB4QAA]

Fascinating specialty area with all sorts of applications. I don't know why I have never heard of this before. Great demos, thanks.

[@Hydrogen4Health]

Your probably one of the smartest guys I've seen. This video was great. I really enjoyed it. Thank you for taking the time to share your talent with us. Looking forward to more.

[@Nermash]

Great video, best energy harvesting demo I've seen so far. IMHO 150 USD for LTC3105 demo board is a little steep, considering that chip sells for 3.5 bucks... Come on Linear, learn from TI, we want EnergyPad (TM by me) boards for 13,5 $ :)))

[@Thesignalpath]

The main input probe terminal is touching the output and the ground touches the ground. This brings the probe as close to the circuit as possible and avoids any long wires connecting the board to the probe ground. This in turn minimizes ground loop inductances which can degrade the boost converter output quality.

[@smling11]

Always enjoy your tutorial. Very well prepared, so an extra hour you put in is converted hundred hours saved in total of the viewer. Wish you have smaller size version that could be downloaded for keeping.

[@oo00xAnathemax00oo]

Your every videos are best of the BEST!

[@ronaldlijs]

Excellent video, excellent research, with the big picture in mind and the examples. Excellent!

[@kibi15]

Another fantastic video as usual Shahriar. Thanks very much for this information. I'll have to start some of my own experiments.

[@joes5669]

LT makes great stuff. I use their LT Spice software all the time. Great video!!

[@Thesignalpath]

You are welcome! I have had my Ph.D. since 2010 and have been working since 2009.

[@JeremyVeleber]

This was great! I think you should do more of these "magic" demos. I appreciate the effort that you put into creating these videos. Thanks man.

[@TheCrazyInventor]

That was a truly awesome video! :) Those devices are totally amazing. Start up from 250mV... Or the peltier powered led blinker. Jeez... :/ Thank you very much for taking your time to show us these devices.

[@Thesignalpath]

Yes, this is due to the change in the boost conversion frequency and inductor current as a function of the load and input voltage. The sound emits from the inductor due to vibration within the audible frequencies.

[@ggattsr]

Another outstanding video. Thanks so much for the time and effort you put into your videos and the knowledge you so freely share. Much appreciated. Learning is so addictive.......

[@stivep1]

You use your brain to educate us of what's new. How about to educate us of what is known as impossible but yet, you Shahriar put it in question. That is the biggest difference between going Easy Life and Walking on the edge of approval/ denial. Are you afraid of society reaction over any controversy? Or you will never challenge one? Jules Gabriel Verne (February 8, 1828 - March 24, 1905) fantasy is scientifically proven, but in 1850 it was only a dream. Happy New Year Wesley

[@jimviau327]

This is So Cool ! One can harvest from temperature difference and power up small circuit for self powered IOT stuff. Amazing ! Thanks for this great presentation.

[@Jose-tw9bl]

This is brilliant! Thank's for your time and effort in making this!

[@manse990]

thanks Shahriar....excellent tutorial. please keep posting

[@Thesignalpath]

Yes! You are right. Thank you for pointing that out. I will fix it. Great catch!

[@jaggar28]

Many many thanks for the thorough review!

[@Nikkuuu69]

Yes! I read up on this a few days ago and it really got my attention. Thanks for making this!

[@budcarr8673]

Great Video. I learned a lot. These devices can be confusing, thanks for the explanation.!

[@aerofart]

One of your best videos!

[@fbonacic]

Brilliant video! Keep it up!

[@WalidIssa]

Thanks for your professional tutorials. Could you please make a tutorial about buck and boost converters and choosing the values of design ?

[@AimSkyward]

Excellent, very interesting and informative. Keep it up.

[@bubbleslaboratory]

Terrific IC review!!! please keep them coming.

[@Thesignalpath]

Thanks. Very kind of you to say.

[@Thesignalpath]

Yes, you are right about that. However, it is always good to get every electron out! ;)

[@Thesignalpath]

10uA is very low. Try looking through all the ICs Linear and Maxim offer for energy harvesting. As for discharge rate, I will check and get back to you.

[@Thesignalpath]

That is very kind of you to say.

[@NerdNordic]

Yey, popcorn time! Thanks Shahriar! :D

[@nicomedia62]

Only one word, superb!

[@DavideArzarello]

Great tutorial , clear and informative !

[@ElectronicsPubVideos]

Another interesting video! Thanks.

[@k3ith1]

Excellent video. I would pay for these lectures/lessons;

[@bakupcpu]

Nice video you made! I actually got myself one of those little baby but mine start at 20 mV I have lots of little experiment to do with it and one final project.

[@DanPartelly]

Great one,man.

[@RobertGallop]

Awesome video, would love to see more of the same! Do you have an idea how best we can inform linear and/or other companies to keep sending you stuff? I certainly enjoy how thorough you are and I learn much more about their products than I ever could on their own websites. Thanks!

[@im2geek4you]

Awesome video. Thanks for sharing!

[@snoeg]

Excellent presentation. Thanks!

[@jfernandmy]

Thumbs up for the CASIO calculator! I've got the exact same calculator!

[@movax20h]

For anybody wanting to play with this IC, LTC3105. In LTSpice VII, there is pretty accurate model avaialable for it, and you can check built in examples. It is quite capable device. But the MPPC isn't that great - if MPPC voltage is set pretty low (i.e. 0.4V, via 40kOhm resistor), the voltage can oscillate a lot, even go negative on input. Reducing input capacitance, doesn't help much, and similarly inductor could be changed a bit, but it doesn't help much. I was not able to really convince the IC to operate the PV cell model to operate at optimal voltage. The only improvement in setting MPPC was startup behaviour, but once it is up, I see no difference at all.

[@Ian_Shelly]

Great video, very interesting!

[@anikanarayanan3914]

What potentiometer did you use in the LTC3105 evaluation board, for the solar panel application? Great video!

[@nlimchua]

great presentation. Where can I get my hands on eval boards for both chips? I'd like to try some experiments of my own. thanks.

[@JamesSleeman]

This has given me an idea, I have a roof cavity and a steel roof, it's always much warmer in the roof than it is outside, a few peltiers affixed to the underside of the steel roof could actually produce a useful amount of energy from that differential, probably enough for charging a phone. PS: auto boost+buck DC converter boards based on the LM2377 are cheap and neat, search for "LM2577 auto" at ebay, like your first example input can be lower or higher than output, handy in the hacks drawer!

[@benwilliam1010]

great video, thanks for your effort!

[@Thesignalpath]

I had many beers while waiting for the ice to melt!

[@38911bytefree]

Interesting, never heard about it. Someone come once with the idea of getting little power form RF waves in the air using a long wire. Enough for a low low power application form a supercap .... By the way, just discovered your channel, and wanted to know if you would be able to make in the future some vid about sigma delta converters and how to calculate the effective bits of data. Although the seems simple it drives me crazy to set up its basic parameters. You are good at explainning for sure

[@jaminboy119]

Thanks for such a brilliant tutorial. Really very good! I have been looking everywhere for that LTC3105 evaluation board you were using. Could you tell me where you got them please?

[@prankmypants]

Good vid thanks. Question1: is a capacitor or a battery going to self discharge quicker? Question2: is it possible to make an inductorless MPPT system using a voltage trigger that literally only discharges the caps when they are above the MPPT point of the cells?

[@guillermoarb]

Thankyou. An amazing video

[@Thesignalpath]

I got them from Linear Technology directly. I think you can find it on their site.

[@Thesignalpath]

I think the best way would be to buy they products and drop them an email. Hopefully they will take notice. :)

[@张博-d1g]

Very impressive!

[@Thesignalpath]

To completely charge it with my setup? Thousands! ;)

[@makutingting]

i learned a lot from this, thanks!

[@NerdNordic]

Hi Shahriar! Could you maybe do a video on linear regulator's? Im mean stuff like bode plots an all that good stuff. That would be awesome!

[@MrKawsarali]

Excellent video! Can you please do a comparison of the LTC3105/3108 vs. bq25504 from TI? If not, can you at least let me know your opinion about their relative performance in reply to this comment? Thank you very much for the great works!

[@lucas081264]

Very good video indeed

[@witeshade]

Would there be any way to dampen or muffle the sound, or use a better quality inductor to reduce the noise? It seems like high pitched squealing coming off your product would not be so good in the long run.

[@kennybode]

Exelente video , Thanks

[@tylerfreeman5041]

Amusing but how many years does it take to charge your phone fully?

[@norbs]

Really good, thank you very much.

[@Thesignalpath]

I tested it. It turns out that capacitor had died during my initial testing before the video was recorded. It was acting as an open-circuit.

[@cedngo]

Can you please do a tutorial with the Piezoelectric speakers and the LTC3588 ? your video is very inspiring thanks.

[@joojoo812]

amazing video thanks

[@mohammadr4372]

Hey shahriar,What do you think about your fluke 289?i already have a fluke 87 and i am thinking about purchasing a second meter.many youtube videos describe the battery life to be low and I'm not 100% sure whether or not I'm willing to take that risk. Thanks in advance.

[@dangtrungnam2809]

I am very surprise with the LTC3105.

[@techbitar]

Thank you!

[@robertoin]

I know this is old, but people from Analog don't answer me. Im using the LTC3105 with a 1W,5V rated solar panel, to charge a 3.7V LiPo (it doesn't discharge much so I guess I can used constant voltage). The thing is I don't think the MPPC pin is just a current source as shown in the block diagram. I have a 390k resistor there, and the voltage varies around 2.5V or 3V. Any ideas why this could be?

[@suevu2256]

What are the connectors he used on the LTC3105 terminals called (the yellow, red, and blue clamp things that he used to connect the terminals on the demo board to other things)?

[@reginr]

Thank you! :)

[@poorchava]

Is that only my impression or the capacitor on the input of LTC3105 evaluation board is soldered in wrong way (positive mark to GND)?

[@surenbono6063]

...linear tech got lotsa potential for future of wearables... Kids should be thought to learn waste energy recycling

[@EletronManiacos]

We can hear the tone changing with the voltage...

[@DavidMG99]

👍👍

[@krish2nasa]

What is the switching frequency of LTC3105?

[@jaminboy119]

Yes, I looked there first but I think they have been superseded by another board that has several of their energy harvesting chips on and is a lot more expensive. Thanks anyway.

[@stivep1]

HINT: Speed of your popularity and prosperity is directly proportional to level of controversy. The less you risk the slower you go up ................... or down :) Wesley

[@TheAmmoniacal]

Bought one of these chips but managed to kill it during soldering, very hard to do DFN/QFN - even struggle to solder SSOP. It's a shame they make it so hard, why can't they do DIPs anymore :(

[@ADQAutomotive]

TheAmmoniacal Did you try "deadbugging" with some thin magnet wire or similar?

[@TheAmmoniacal]

ADQAutomotive Nope, got mad and smashed a hole in it. Found a replacement chip from Linear that wasn't QFN! I have learned to solder most packages since then though! Fine tip, fine solder, good flux, all that was needed!

[@stivep1]

Thanks Shahriar :) I have problem with your statement about laws of conservation of energy. One should, not care that science world think of something as impossible. As long as it works it is yet to find out how. I do not care what energy comes from and how is being perceived by you too. For me Free Energy is the energy-we do not have to pay for. Linear is in business to make money. There is plenty of brain power to find unfounded, unexplained, unconfirmed and not for profit Wesley

[@surivenu6489]

Why do you exponent the LDO Output? it is in volts why cant you use in volts

[@efox29]

Thesis: mm-Wave Data Converters: Technology Challenges and Architectures

[@MrDehicka]

But that 10% will be available earlier and can used right away. It may be usefull in some applications.

[@Georgealey]

thank you

[@lakshyasingh8931]

FUCKING GOD! GOD! I LOVE YOU!

[@MatrixOfDynamism]

what type of work are you doing after your PhD, it must be research work.

[@theideagirlsays]

video blogging energy harvesting data (DARPA, COUGAR) and other technologies found in an alien radio signal called WOW!

[@InsurgentX]

Inquiring minds want to know: How many ice cubes does it take to charge an iPhone?

[@OneCoolDude08]

Linear part number DC2042A, they are $200 USD. Cha Ching!! You might be better off with Sparkfun BOB-09946 which is the poor mans version.

[@aptsys]

Those sourcemeters are expensive!

[@nachobatero]

Excellent video! Thank you very much , I learned a lot!