This application claims the priority of Republic of China Patent Application No. 106140179 filed on Nov. 20, 2017, in the State Intellectual Property Office of the R.O.C., the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The invention relates to an energy acquisition and power supply system, and particularly, to an energy acquisition and power supply system for power process applied to wearable devices and IoT (Internet of Things).
With increasingly advanced science, subsequent to development of information technologies, such as computers, internet, interconnection network etc., IoT (Internet of Things, IOT) technology has become a hot topic in recent years. Particularly, modern society takes portability of electronic equipments very seriously. For example, physiological signal detection instruments are miniaturized to portable devices. Therefore, modern biomedical products already trend to allow subjects to be cable of monitoring body condition for 24 hours.
Although the biomedical products mentioned above already reduce volume substantially and can monitor physiological signals of subjects for 24 hours, they are still pretty inconvenient for the subjects. If it is feasible to combine a detection reception system with a portable electronic product, such as a mobile phone, a watch or a notebook computer, the burden of a subject could be reduced definitely when a physiological signal extraction system is used.
However, in order for convenience of use for a subject, sufficient power supply is required in addition to reducing power consumption of a detection system. For a power management system, reduction of energy loss on elements is necessary. A conventional full-wave bridge rectifier is achieved by using only one output voltage regulation capacitor. As an example shown in
By way of an example, refer to
Furthermore, in a modern power management system, voltage regulator is also one of important components. Voltage regulators are generally classified into two types, one is switching regulator, and the other is low dropout linear regulator (low dropout regulator, LDO) with simpler built-up members in comparison to the switching regulator, as shown in
The conduction element Mp of the low dropout linear regulator is mainly capable of converting the input current into the output current. For stability of the voltage regulator and accuracy of the output voltage, the conduction element Mp has to be operated in a saturation region in order for higher open-loop gain of the entire system. The conduction element Mp may be classified into N type field effect transistor and P type field effect transistor. The N type transistor is used as one source follower with a very low output impedance, together with a small output capacitance, to design an output point at a non-dominant pole in order for better stability of the voltage regulator. However, the gate end needs a higher voltage level and the output voltage difference of the voltage regulator has to be larger for driving the N type transistor. Alternatively, the P type transistor is used as the conduction element, which output voltage difference depends on the conduction resistance and the output current. It is advantageous of low output voltage difference and quiescent current. However, for such architecture, the dominant pole is usually designed on the output end, but the dominant pole will change with the output current, so that stability issue has to be considered particularly.
Therefore, those skilled in the art of power supply technology strive for implement one rectifier with low voltage, low loss and high energy conversion efficiency, as well as implement a reference voltage circuit with low power consumption, low temperature coefficient and low voltage effectively in order to achieve an effective power supply system.
In view of the shortages of the prior art mentioned above, the invention proposes an energy acquisition and power supply system for increasing a conversion efficiency of a full-wave bridge rectifier, and reducing a cost of a low dropout linear regulator. In addition, high order terms of a curve of temperature coefficient are compensated, and a circuit is operated in a low current region for the purposes of temperature coefficient reduction and power consumption reduction.
For the objects said above and for other objects, the invention provides an energy acquisition and power supply system, including: a rectification unit for rectifying an input energy to a DC voltage lower than the input in order to perform a power supply process for a back end circuit, the rectification unit including: a plurality of power elements for rectifying a voltage to a DC voltage by switching a conduction path for the input energy, each of the power elements including a transistor capable of conduction path switching, a current regulator having a dynamic substrate selection circuit and a reverse leakage current suppression circuit as well as a voltage regulator having an adaptive voltage control circuit, wherein the dynamic substrate selection circuit selects a substrate potential of the transistor capable of conduction path switching dynamically to reduce a substrate leakage current of the transistor capable of conduction path switching, and the reverse leakage current suppression circuit is utilized for switching the power element at a local end to reduce transient reverse leakage current and current consumption of the power element at the local end for an input voltage, such that an output current for the power element at the local end is maximized; the adaptive voltage control circuit is used to increase a conduction voltage for lowering a conduction resistance, increasing switching speed when the power element at the local end are conducted in order to improve conversion performance; a voltage regulation capacitor for outputting the DC voltage rectified by the power element as a DC voltage with low ripple, and a first voltage regulation unit for stabilizing and transferring the DC voltage output by the rectification unit to the back end circuit as power supply.
Optionally, two switch transistors are added on a body end of the transistor capable of conduction path switching for the dynamic substrate selection circuit, the body end of the transistor capable of conduction path switching can conduct one of the two switch transistors in correspondence according to potential levels at a voltage input end and a voltage output end for reducing the substrate leakage current of the transistor capable of conduction path switching.
Optionally, the dynamic substrate selection circuit utilizes a deep well structure technology in a CMOS process such that potentials of the transistor capable of conduction path switching and the two switch transistors are separated on one semiconductor substrate.
Optionally, the reverse leakage current suppression circuit is composed of one common-gate-type comparator, such that as an output voltage which is output from the transistor capable of conduction path switching is greater than an input voltage, a gate voltage of the transistor capable of conduction path switching is pulled to the potential of the output voltage for the voltage of an output node to be pulled to a ground potential through an output stage rapidly; on the contrary, as an output voltage which is output from the transistor capable of conduction path switching is less than an input voltage, an gate voltage of the transistor capable of conduction path switching is pulled to a ground potential for the voltage of an output node to be pulled to the input voltage through an output stage rapidly, such that the gate of the transistor capable of conduction path switching achieves a rapid conduct signal and suppresses a reverse leakage current.
In an embodiment of the invention, the first voltage regulation unit includes: a first temperature curvature compensation reference voltage circuit and a first high stability linear voltage regulation circuit, the first temperature curvature compensation reference voltage circuit including: a first (N-1) order temperature curvature compensation positive reference voltage circuit, a first (N-1) order temperature curvature compensation negative reference voltage circuit and a first adder, the first temperature curvature compensation reference circuit performing temperature compensation according to a DC voltage output from the voltage regulation capacitor of the rectification unit, wherein the first (N-1) order temperature curvature compensation positive reference voltage circuit is used for generating a (N-1) order temperature curvature compensation positive reference voltage positively correlated with a temperature, the first (N-1) order temperature curvature compensation negative reference voltage circuit is used for generating a (N-1) order temperature curvature compensation negative reference voltage negatively correlated with a temperature, and the first adder is used for adding up the first (N-1) order temperature curvature compensation positive reference voltage and the first (N-1) order temperature curvature compensation negative reference voltage to output a first temperature compensation reference voltage, in order for being applicable to a large temperature range of N order temperature curvature compensation reference voltage.
In an embodiment of the invention, the first voltage regulation unit further includes: a first high stability linear voltage regulation circuit, which includes: a first error amplifier, a first stability enhancer, a first conduction element and a first high impedance feedback network, the first error amplifier receives a DC voltage output from a voltage regulation capacitor of the rectification unit, a first temperature compensation reference voltage output from the first temperature curvature compensation reference voltage circuit, and a feedback voltage output from the first high impedance feedback network, as well as adjusts a conduction voltage which is output for conducting the first conduction element (such as transistor), while the first stability enhancer is arranged between the first error amplifier and the first conduction element to enhance the stability of the entire circuit, and a steady DC voltage is converted from the received input voltage by the first conduction element for the back end circuit, wherein as the output DC voltage changes with the back end circuit, the output DC voltage is fed back to the first error amplifier and the first stability enhancer through the first high impedance feedback network for adjusting the output DC voltage, and transferred to the back end circuit via the first conduction element.
In an embodiment of the invention, the first error amplifier operates in a low bias current mode and the high impedance feedback network is implemented in a manner of a large impedance as a transistor in a cutoff region to achieve a low quiescent current.
In an embodiment of the invention, the first stability enhancer in the first high stability linear voltage regulation circuit includes: a first voltage buffer and a first pole-zero tracking circuit, in which a parasitic capacitance at an output of the first error amplifier is an input capacitance of the first voltage buffer, wherein the input capacitance is less than a parasitic capacitance at an gate end of the first conduction element, and an input impedance of the first conduction element is an output impedance of the first conduction element, wherein the input impedance is less than an output impedance of the first error amplifier, such that an original non-dominant pole is divided into two higher frequency non-dominant poles; the first pole-zero tracking circuit allows the first conduction element to be capable of performing pole-zero compensation with a dominant pole through resistor and capacitor in conjunction with a feedback mechanism of the first conduction element, adjusts the resistance of a resistor in connection with the first conduction element, and forms a fixed magnification with an equivalent resistance of the first conduction element to achieve compensation of dominant pole, whereby a unity gain frequency moves toward a high frequency for more stable voltage regulation process, and for increase of response speed under a stable condition.
In an embodiment of the invention, the energy acquisition and power supply system further includes at least a power supply battery and a charging/power supply determination unit, which is used for the at least a power supply battery to store a rectified DC voltage flowed from the rectification unit, for controlling the at least a power supply battery to supply a power stored therein to the back end circuit.
In an embodiment of the invention, a power supply path between the at least a power supply battery and the back end circuit is provided with a second voltage regulation unit, which further includes: a second high stability linear voltage regulation circuit, which includes: a second error amplifier, a second stability enhancer, a second conduction element (such as transistor) and a second high impedance feedback network, the second error amplifier receives a DC voltage output from a voltage regulation capacitor of the rectification unit, a second temperature compensation reference voltage output from the second temperature curvature compensation reference voltage circuit, and a feedback voltage output from the second high impedance feedback network, as well as adjusts a conduction voltage which is output for conducting the second conduction element, while the second stability enhancer is arranged between the second error amplifier and the second conduction element to enhance the stability of the entire circuit, and a steady DC voltage is converted from the received input voltage by the second conduction element for the back end circuit, wherein as the output DC voltage changes with the back end circuit, the output DC voltage is fed back to the second error amplifier and the second stability enhancer through the second high impedance feedback network for adjusting the output DC voltage, and transferred to the back end circuit via the second conduction element.
In an embodiment of the invention, the second stability enhancer in the second high stability linear voltage regulation circuit includes: a second voltage buffer and a second pole-zero tracking circuit, in which a parasitic capacitance at an output of the second error amplifier is an input capacitance of the second voltage buffer, wherein the input capacitance is less than a parasitic capacitance at an gate end of the second conduction element, and an input impedance of the second conduction element is an output impedance of the second conduction element, wherein the input impedance is less than an output impedance of the second error amplifier, such that an original non-dominant pole is divided into two higher frequency non-dominant poles; the second pole-zero tracking circuit allows the second conduction element to be capable of performing pole-zero compensation with a dominant pole through resistor and capacitor in conjunction with a feedback mechanism of the second conduction element, adjusts the resistance of a resistor in connection with the second conduction element, and forms a fixed magnification with an equivalent resistance of the second conduction element to achieve compensation of dominant pole, whereby a unity gain frequency moves toward a high frequency for more stable voltage regulation process, and for increase of response speed under a stable condition.
In an embodiment of the invention, the energy acquisition and power supply system further includes a boost unit, which is used for rectifying the input energy to a DC voltage higher than an input in order to perform the power supply process for another back end circuit.
In an embodiment of the invention, a power supply path from the boost unit to the another back end circuit is provided with a third voltage regulation unit, which further includes: a third high stability linear voltage regulation circuit, which includes: a third error amplifier, a third stability enhancer, a third conduction element and a third high impedance feedback network, the third error amplifier receives a DC voltage output from a voltage regulation capacitor of the rectification unit, a third temperature compensation reference voltage output from the third temperature curvature compensation reference voltage circuit, and a feedback voltage output from the third high impedance feedback network, as well as adjusts a conduction voltage which is output for conducting the third conduction element, while the third stability enhancer is arranged between the third error amplifier and the third conduction element to enhance the stability of the entire circuit, and a steady DC voltage is converted from the received input voltage by the third conduction element for the another back end circuit, wherein as the output DC voltage changes with the back end circuit, the output DC voltage is fed back to the third error amplifier and the third stability enhancer through the third high impedance feedback network for adjusting the output DC voltage, and transferred to the another back end circuit via the third conduction element.
In an embodiment of the invention, the third stability enhancer in the third high stability linear voltage regulation circuit includes: a third voltage buffer and a third pole-zero tracking circuit, in which a parasitic capacitance at an output of the third error amplifier is an input capacitance of the third voltage buffer, wherein the input capacitance is less than a parasitic capacitance at an gate end of the third conduction element, and an input impedance of the third conduction element is an output impedance of the third conduction element, wherein the input impedance is less than an output impedance of the third error amplifier, such that an original non-dominant pole is divided into two higher frequency non-dominant poles; the third pole-zero tracking circuit allows the third conduction element to be capable of performing pole-zero compensation with a dominant pole through resistor and capacitor in conjunction with a feedback mechanism of the third conduction element, adjusts the resistance of a resistor in connection with the third conduction element, and forms a fixed magnification with an equivalent resistance of the third conduction element to achieve compensation of dominant pole, whereby a unity gain frequency moves toward a high frequency for more stable voltage regulation process, and for increase of response speed under a stable condition.
Compared to the conventional technology, the energy acquisition and power supply system proposed in the invention comprises a high energy conversion efficiency rectification unit, a pole-zero compensation linear voltage regulation unit and a temperature curvature compensation reference voltage circuit. The high energy conversion efficiency rectification unit includes a power element and a voltage regulation capacitor therein. The power element, which is capable of energy conduction, includes a current regulator and a voltage regulator, which are capable of reducing leakage current and reducing output and input voltage differences separately for the purpose of improving energy conversion efficiency. The voltage regulation capacitor facilitates to stabilize the output voltage. Accordingly, one rectifier with low voltage, low loss and high energy conversion efficiency can be implemented. Moreover, the pole-zero compensation linear voltage regulation unit includes an error amplifier, a stability enhancer, a power element and a feedback network therein. The error amplifier enhances the accuracy of the output voltage; the stability enhancer is capable of stability enhancement, while the feedback network detects and feeds back the output voltage to the error amplifier and reduces a quiescent current. Accordingly, one voltage regulator with low power consumption, low area and high stability is implemented. In the temperature curvature compensation reference voltage circuit, with a (N-1) order reference voltage circuit featuring positive correlation of temperature and negative correlation of temperature, in conjunction with implementation of low power circuit, the issue that the output voltage changes with temperature is mitigated, such that one reference voltage circuit with low power consumption, low temperature coefficient and low voltage is implemented. In a boost unit, a voltage is increased through a conduction element and a pulse controlled capacitor for the input signal, wherein a charge transfer auxiliary transistor and a dynamic control auxiliary transistor are utilized to avoid the issue of charge redistribution, reduce voltage drop during conversion and, through a cross-coupled output stage, reduce the voltage loss of the output stage and, in turn, increase the efficiency of the boost unit. The system also comprises a voltage regulation unit, which may reduce the temperature coefficient of the voltage regulation unit by having a temperature curvature compensation reference voltage circuit and a high linearity linear voltage regulator, increasing the dynamic range of output load current.
The above and other aspects, features and other advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as being limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. In the drawings, the shapes and dimensions of elements may be exaggerated for clarity, and the same reference numerals will be used throughout to designate the same or like components.
Refer to
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Not only the transistors mentioned above influence the energy conversion efficiency for the leakage current of a substrate, but also another reverse leakage current will reduce the energy conversion efficiency of a rectifier. The gate control signal of a main transistor comes from an input voltage, while the input voltage is a sinusoidal signal, instead of a rapid clock signal, so that rapid switching between a positive half cycle and a negative half cycle is impossible, and a reverse leakage current is generated accordingly. To prevent the reverse leakage current, a rapid control signal has to be generated, such that the transistor can be switched rapidly. Therefore, the current regulator 1130 according to the invention further uses the reverse leakage current suppression circuit 1132 to suppress the reverse leakage current. The reverse leakage current suppression circuit is comprised of one common-gate-type comparator. As shown in
However, the voltage difference between the body end and the source of the main transistor cannot maintain zero by using the dynamic substrate selection technology, so that a threshold voltage will increase with substrate effect, resulting in increased voltage difference between the output voltage and the input voltage of the rectifier. That is, a conduction resistance exists in the main transistor, so that higher energy conversion efficiency cannot be achieved in measurement. To address such issue, the adaptive voltage control (AVC) circuit 1136 is added to the power elements in the rectification unit 11 of the energy acquisition and power supply system according to the invention, in order for increasing the conduction voltage to reduce the conduction resistance when the power element at the local end is conducted, such that a switching speed is increased to improve conversion performance. As shown in
Next, Refer to
Specifically, a reference voltage generated by a conventional reference voltage circuit under a condition of room temperature is about 1.3 V, but a reference voltage of a linear voltage regulator of the system is 0.6 V. In order to meet specifications of the energy acquisition and power supply system according to the invention, one reference voltage circuit with low voltage output is required for a low dropout linear regulator to use. As shown in
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In an integrated biomedical SoC (System on Chip), an output capacitance Cout is expected to be reduced as smaller as possible for saving the area of a printed circuit board (PCB). However, the reduced output capacitance will influence the location of the dominant pole in frequency response. If a non-dominant pole is close to the dominant pole too much, the phase margin of the voltage regulator may be insufficient, and the system is unstable accordingly. A non-dominant pole P2 results from the output impedance of the error amplifier 126 and the parasitic capacitance at the gate end of the conduction element 128. To ensure stabilization of the entire system, one voltage buffer 1271 is added between the error amplifier 126 and the conduction element 128, characterized in that the parasitic capacitance output from the error amplifier 126 is less than the parasitic capacitance at the gate end of the conduction element 128, and the output impedance of the conduction element 128 is less than the output impedance of the error amplifier 126, so that the original non-dominant pole is divided into two higher frequency non-dominant poles. In a circuit design, two non-dominant poles may be pushed outside bandwidth for a more stabilized voltage regulator.
The dominant pole of the high stability linear voltage regulation circuit 125 will change with a load current IL, while the factor of load change is not considered for the voltage buffer 1271, so that an additional pole-zero tracking technology has to be added for enhancing the stability of circuit further. In the design for voltage regulation of the high stability linear voltage regulation circuit 125, not only a condition of heavy load is considered, but also a condition of light load is considered to determine whether the system is stable. The dominant pole and the unity gain frequency will drift toward a lower frequency with decreased load to reduce the response speed of the voltage regulator, so that the pole-zero tracking circuit 1272 is added between the voltage buffer 1271 and the conduction element 128.
The so called pole-zero tracking is used for pole-zero compensation actually. For a voltage regulator with a conventional architecture, one adaptable output capacitance equivalent series resistance is designed to achieve stability. However, this capacitance equivalent series resistance has to be within a certain range. Otherwise, stabilization still cannot be achieved as the range is exceeded. Moreover, the capacitance equivalent series resistance differs depending on temperature environment, operating voltage, operating resistance and fabrication material, so that it is uneasy to choose a capacitance applicable to all conditions. Therefore, the pole-zero tracking adjust zeros through active circuits. That is, the pole-zero tracking circuit 1272 allows the conduction element 128 to be capable of pole-zero compensation with the dominant pole through resistance and capacitance in conjunction with the feedback mechanism of the conduction element 128. The resistance of a resistor Rc is adjusted through the gate voltage of the conduction element 128, and one fixed magnification is formed with the equivalent resistance of the conduction element 128 to achieve the purpose of compensating for the dominant pole. As such, the unity gain frequency is moved toward a higher frequency, the voltage regulator is more stabilized, and the response speed is increased under a stable condition.
In addition, for a biomedical system, it would be better to reduce the power current to a micro-ampere level, in order to avoid unwanted consumption. In a voltage regulator, the quiescent current is mainly divided into two portions. One portion is the power consumption of the error amplifier. This portion may operate the circuit in a weak inversion region (weak inversion) to reduce the DC bias voltage. The other portion is reduction of the current flowing through a feedback resistor. This portion will consume a considerable area if it is implemented directly by increasing passive resistance, and results in inconvenience for the biomedical system which requires miniaturization. Therefore, the high impedance feedback network 129 of the high stability linear voltage regulation circuit 125 according to the invention replaces the feedback resistor in a conventional voltage regulator by using a transistor to implement a pseudo-resistor. As shown in
Next, refer to
Furthermore, refer to
Rectifiers with existing architectures, like cross-coupled CMOS full-wave bridge rectifiers, gate and drain biased rectifiers, substrate and source biased rectifiers and floating gate rectifiers, have drawbacks of leakage current, so that current conversion efficiency cannot be enhanced; alternatively, additional bias power sources and additional processes are required to achieve high voltage conversion efficiency. Accordingly, area cost is increased, so that they are not applicable to wearable devices and interconnection network applications. Nevertheless, for the rectification unit of the energy acquisition and power supply system according to the invention, the dynamic substrate selection circuit is designed with the deep well structure technology in a CMOS process to reduce leakage current of the substrate generated due to parasitic transistors. Moreover, the reverse leakage current suppression circuit is added for the gate of the main transistor to achieve rapid control signal and suppress reverse leakage current. Further, the adaptive voltage control circuit is added to decrease the voltage difference between the body end and the source of the main transistor. As such, high energy conversion efficiency is achieved. Furthermore, compared to a conventional reference voltage circuit, which only compensates for first order temperature coefficient, the temperature curvature compensation reference voltage circuit in the voltage regulation unit of the energy acquisition and power supply system according to the invention uses a higher order temperature curvature compensation technique to achieve lower temperature coefficient in a large temperature range, and is applicable to an environment of large temperature range, such as automotive electronics. Moreover, the circuit is operated in a low bias current state for reducing power consumption to achieve long term use. In addition, the voltage regulation unit of the energy acquisition and power supply system according to the invention is provided with a pole-zero decomposition & elimination and stability compensation circuit, such that there is a sufficient phase margin in the bandwidth to overcome the stability of low output voltage regulation capacitor. Therefore, compared to linear voltage regulators with other architectures, larger output voltage regulation capacitors are not required to stabilize the system for the same system specifications.
The examples above are only illustrative to explain principles and effects of the invention, but not to limit the invention. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that modifications and variations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Therefore, the protection range of the rights of the invention should be as defined by the appended claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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106140179 A | Nov 2017 | TW | national |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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20160038739 | Liu | Feb 2016 | A1 |
20190156949 | Lee | May 2019 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20190157983 A1 | May 2019 | US |