Highly Efficient Switched Capacitor Converters for Rechargeable Hearing Aids

The paper deals with switched capacitor-based designs for power-efficient rechargeable hearing aids. Switched-capacitor DC-DC power converters are a subset of DC-DC power converters that use only switches and capacitors to convert one voltage to another efficiently. By using switched-capacitor circuits, the aim is to increase the efficiency of hearing aids. To achieve long battery life, a high conversion efficiency is required. At the same time, the physical size should be low as it is desirable for the end-user to have small hearing aids. The voltage levels thus have to be stepped down from the voltage provided by a Li-ion (rechargeable) to levels closer to that of Zn-Air (non-rechargeable).