A Hybrid Thermoelectric Generator – Battery Power Supply System Toward Replacement-Free Battery

This study proposes a hybrid thermoelectric generator (TEG) – battery power supply system to achieve replacement-free batteries in sensor modules. A TEG is connected in series with the battery to increase the input voltage of a single DC-DC buck converter to drive a sensor IC and to return the majority of the battery power to the battery in every cycle. Experimental results show that the battery lifetime was extended by a factor of 9–84 with a 33 mH inductor and a small converter chip of 0.2 mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup>