Hi,
My circuit sleeps most of the time and needs 2V during sleep to continue the intended operation
My battery is 3.6V (Lithium Thionyl Battery), even though the circuit can work at that voltage, yet it wastes lots of battery power due to the higher voltage.
Is it a good idea to use a DC/DC converter which is used when the circuit is sleeping?
Is such a converter chip available?
Thanks,
WI
wonderfuliot:
even though the circuit can work at that voltage, yet it wastes lots of battery power due to the higher voltage.
Show us your current circuit. It should not "waste" power if it is correct.
wonderfuliot:
Is it a good idea to use a DC/DC converter which is used when the circuit is sleeping?
Is such a converter chip available?
Maybe.
Yes, but are you able to design an efficient circuit around such a chip? Try to buy a pre-built module online.
Is it a good idea to use a DC/DC converter which is used when the circuit is sleeping?
Generally, no. But your secret circuit could be a rare exception.
The circuit is Atmega328PB with 2 hall sensors connected via GPIOs.
The system runs off 3.6V and since its sleeping most of the time, reducing the voltage to a lower level than 3.6V would yield substantial savings, if such a DC-DC converter was available.
since its sleeping most of the time, reducing the voltage to a lower level than 3.6V would yield substantial savings
Not if the circuit is designed properly.
Its worth comparing the sleep current of your device with the self-discharge rate of the cell. If the cell's
self-discharge dominates, there's little reason to improve the sleep current consumption.
If the sleep current dominates, then using a micropower regulator for sleep mode would make sense.
You'd need to switch it in and out somehow if you want 3.6V in normal operation.
Anything involving powers or currents this low is generically called "micropower", its a good search
keyword.