Electronic – Lowest voltage drop diode possible

diodesenergy-harvesting

I am harvesting energy from an NFC device using a tuned antenna on my PCB. Though this method I am able to generate about 3.05V. I would like to charge a super capacitor using the power harvested from the NFC device. To do this I have used the simple diode circuit provided here (and shown in Figure 1 below).

The problem I am facing is my circuit requires a minimum of 3V to operate within operating conditions, however with the added drop by typical diodes I believe there with be various situations where the generated voltage will drop below the required 3V. Are there any Diodes available which have ultra low voltage drops of less then 0.01V? and is that even possible?

Please note:

  • my system load will be < 5mA
  • The 3.05V generated was without a diode in the circuit

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Best Answer

An ideal diode controller and MOSFET can be applied this situation -- the net effect is that of a Iload*Rds(on) voltage drop diode. Probably the simplest to apply would be Linear's LTC4412.

Dedicated supercapacitor charger ICs also likely would solve the issue, but would require careful specification.

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