Integrated Solar Energy Harvesting and Storage

• Published in: IEEE transactions on very large scale integration (VLSI) systems Vol. 17; no. 5; pp. 627 - 637
• Main Authors: Guilar, N.J., Kleeburg, T.J., Chen, A., Yankelevich, D.R., Amirtharajah, R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01-05-2009; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Capacitors; CMOS process; Constraining; Design. Technologies. Operation analysis. Testing; Dielectric, amorphous and glass solid devices; Electronics; Energy harvesting; Energy storage; Exact sciences and technology; Harvesting; Image storage; Imaging devices; Integrated circuits; Integrated optics; low-power design; Optoelectronic devices; photo diodes; Photodiodes; Power generation; Power system interconnection; Scavenging; Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices; Solar energy; System-on-a-chip; Very large scale integration; White light; Performance evaluation; Light source; White light; Output power; CMOS image sensors; Energy recovery; Photodiode; Energy harvesting; Interconnection; photodiodes; Integrated circuit; Solar energy; Optoelectronic device; low-power design; Low-power electronics; Capacitor; Energy storage
• ISSN: 1063-8210; 1557-9999
• DOI: 10.1109/TVLSI.2008.2006792

To explore integrated solar energy harvesting as a power source for low power systems, an array of energy scavenging photodiodes based on a passive-pixel architecture for CMOS imagers has been fabricated together with storage capacitors implemented using on-chip interconnect in a 0.35-mum bulk process. Integrated vertical plate capacitors enable dense energy storage without limiting optical efficiency. Tests were conducted with both a white light source and a green laser. Measurements indicate that 225 muW/mm 2 output power may be generated by white light with an intensity of 20 kLUX.