This paper presents a fully integrated 32-MHz relaxation oscillator (ROSC) capable of sub-1-µs start-up time operation for low-power intermittent VLSI systems. The proposed ROSC employs current mode architecture that is different from conventional voltage mode architecture. This enables compact and fast switching speed to be achieved. By designing transistor sizes equally between one in a bias circuit and another in a voltage to current converter, the effect of process variation can be minimized. A prototype chip in a 0.18-µm CMOS demonstrated that the ROSC generates a stable clock frequency of 32.6 MHz within 1-µs start-up time. Measured line regulation and temperature coefficient were ±0.69% and ±0.38%, respectively.

This paper presents a fully integrated voltage boost converter consisting of a charge pump (CP) and maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controller for ultra-low power energy harvesting. The converter is based on a conventional CP circuit and can deliver a wide range of load current by using nMOS and pMOS driver circuits for highly efficient charge transfer operation. The MPPT controller we propose dissipates nano-watt power to extract maximum power regardless of the harvester's power generation conditions and load current. The measurement results demonstrated that the circuit converted a 0.49-V input to a 1.46-V output with 73% power conversion efficiency when the output power was 348µW. The circuit can operate at an extremely low input voltage of 0.21V.