Student Research on Thermoelectric Harvesters Recognized

Xi Li has won third place in the Best Student Paper Contest at the IEEE International Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems in Phoenix, Arizona on August 6-9. The award recognizes his outstanding contribution in the field of power and energy circuits and systems.

Li, a Ph.D. candidate in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering,  is a member of Professor Gabriel A. Rincón-Mora’s research team at the Georgia Tech Analog, Power, and Energy IC Research Lab (GTAPE), whose mission is to develop, design, and build silicon-based microchips and microsystems that harness power from tiny batteries, fuel cells, coils, and ambient sources, like motion, light, heat, and radiation to supply and sustain mobile, portable, and self-sustaining devices for biomedical, consumer, industrial, and military applications.

Xi's winning paper, titled “Maximum Power-Point Theory for Thermoelectric Harvesters,” shows how linear losses in the energy-harvesting circuit that draws power from the thermoelectric source reduce the direct current voltage of the source and quadratic losses raise the series resistance. This phenomenon not only decreases the power delivered to the load but also shifts the maximum power point of the system. With the model developed by Xi, engineers can more easily and more effectively design thermoelectric harvesters so they output the highest power possible.