Abstract: A power management system for an energy harvesting device configured to provide a source voltage. The power management system may include a conditioning and control circuit configured to perform an initialization process by accumulating energy from the source voltage until an output voltage becomes regulated for a load. The power management system may include a priming circuit configured to supplement the source voltage during a load period upon actuation of a power management switch which may cause the transferring of a priming charge from a low-leakage energy storage element to the conditioning and control circuit. The conditioning and control circuit may combine the priming charge with the energy accumulating from the source voltage. The initialization process may cause the output voltage for the load to become regulated during the load period following actuation of the power management switch.

Abstract: A self-optimizing energy harvester comprises a thermoelectric generator coupling to a thermal source, producing a source voltage greater than a minimum start-up voltage, where the thermoelectric generator drives a boost circuit and a feedforward circuit, delivering power to a load. A conventional boost circuit has a maximum output power only at the input voltage for which a fixed set point resistor is chosen. The feedforward circuit dynamically optimizes the boost circuit according to a dynamic set point resistance, thus increasing output power for a wide range of input voltages, relative to using a fixed reference resistor. The dynamic set point resistance is the sum of a variable resistance and a reference resistance. A sample element forms a differential voltage between the source and input voltage elements, and the variable resistance corresponds to the differential voltage. A reference resistor is chosen to establish the minimum start-up voltage.