Thermoelectric Generator for Charging Mobile Devices

Abstract

Electronic gadgets are more and more demanding nowadays. When the users are difficult to reach the grid or have no charger along with them, aside from conventional power bank, thermoelectric generator (TEG) can be another choice to charge up their electronic gadgets. Most of the TEG can only generates low voltage which is not enough to charge up the electronic gadgets. So, the voltage needs to be stepped up. Boost converter with voltage sensor or switching regulator is considered and both are compared in terms of efficiency performance, stability, and reliability by using software. In low voltage application, a switching regulator is more suitable to be used to step up TEG voltage for charging mobile devices compared with self-constructed boost converter.