A Digital Coreless Maximum Power Point Tracking Circuit for Thermoelectric Generators

This paper describes a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) circuit for thermoelectric generators (TEG) without a digital controller unit. The proposed method uses an analog tracking circuit that samples the half point of the open-circuit voltage without a digital signal processor (DSP) or microcontroller unit for calculating the peak power point using iterative methods. The simulation results revealed that the MPPT circuit, which employs a boost-cascaded-with-buck converter, handled rapid variation of temperature and abrupt changes of load current; this method enables stable operation with high power transfer efficiency. The proposed MPPT technique is a useful analog MPPT solution for thermoelectric generators.