We just receive the DC/DC converter we bought on the internet!

The chip integrate an LTC3108 and a small 1:100 transformer from coilcraft. It should be able to operate with voltages as low as 20 mV and produce a stabilized 5V output. It also integrates a storage capacitor.

But after cabling it to our Mint MFC, big deception L… When plugged to the card, the voltage at the terminal at the MFC dropped from 500 mV to 20 mV, and we only got an output of Vout =100 mV, and Vstore = 40mV across the storage capacitor…

Until now, we didn’t find what was wrong with the cabling. The most probable is that the components on the board are over-dimensioned for our MFC, as this converter was made for thermal applications such as harvesting energy from a peltier element.

As we didn’t find any commercial chip fitting our application better, and we don’t have the infrastructure to build one ourselves, we will probably have to contact some industrial to have one custom made. So the next step will probably be to model the circuit (on Pspice for ex.) …