NEW PUBLICATION: An Ultra-Low-Quiescent-Current On-Chip Energy Management Circuit in 65 nm CMOS for Energy Harvesting Applications

A new open-access study published in Journal of Low Power Electronics and Applications reports the development of an ultra-low-quiescent-current energy management (EM) circuit designed to improve energy harvesting (EH) in low-power applications. The work, carried out by the TECNUN team, led by Mehdi Shahabi, with the supervision of Andoni Beriain and Noemí Pérez Hernández, demonstrates how efficient on-chip power management can support the future autonomous biomedical and Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

The study presents the design, simulation, and experimental results of the first integrated EM circuit implemented in a 65 nm CMOS process. The EM achieves an exceptionally low quiescent current of 160 nA at typical operating voltages, making it highly suitable for EH systems where power availability is extremely limited, such as implantable medical sensors or batteryless IoT nodes. This first tape-out also served as the foundation for a second iteration, where the architecture was further improved and power consumption reduced.

The work contributed to the development of implementable circuit-level solutions that could support future EH biomedical applications, in line with the goals of the Blood2Power project.

The article, “An Ultra‑Low‑Quiescent‑Current On‑Chip Energy Management Circuit in 65 nm CMOS for Energy Harvesting Applications,” is published in Journal of Low Power Electronics and Applications and is available open access at https://doi.org/10.3390/jlpea15040065.