R1810 Boost DC/DC Converter Series with Low Current Consumption and Maximum Power Point Control Function

14 July 2021 - 0 Comments

RICOH Electronic Devices has introduced the R1810 Boost DC/DC Converter which is a complete energy harvesting solution designed for powering low current consuming IoT devices by extracting energy from Photovoltaic cells. The R1810 Converter is especially tailored to collect, convert and store energy in an external energy storage capacitor, followed by regulation of the output voltage to the required level. Its target applications include wireless sensors, home and building automation, remote monitoring, presence detection, and industrial equipment controls. It starts up with only 9µW provided from a single cell photovoltaic element, the start-up voltage is only 0.5V and once started, the operation continues even if the input voltage drops below 0.2V. It has a high efficiency performance of 66% at 5µA output current.

The advanced R1810 has an internally fixed maximum power point voltage (VMP) and output voltage setting (VSET) to optimize the performance of the electrical circuit with respect to the selected energy harvester type. Once sufficient energy available on the input and increases above the VMP level, the boost DC/DC Converter will be enabled to transfer energy from the input to the output. When the amount of transferred power exceeds the supplied power from the photovoltaic cell, the input voltage decreases below VMP and the DC/DC converter stops switching.

Moreover, it has two monitoring circuits that indicate the status of the conversion process on the respective outputs and a built-in reverse current protection is enabled to prevent a current flow from output to input when light on the photovoltaic cell is blocked.

Key Benefits

Providing a low quiescent current (IQ_VOUT =Typ.600nA), and high efficiency (66%@ IOUT=5µA)
Start up with low input energy, 9 µW (low illuminance) is possible
Maximum power point control function is built-in