ENERGY GENERATION FROM TINY SOURCES

The invention discloses a device for collection of tiny charges in the Nano-Coulomb-range and below, comprising at least one capacitor stack build by n capacitors and 2n switches (n ∈ N), at least one further capacitor outside the capacitor stack as buffer capacity, at least two additional switches and a DC input source. The n capacitors are dedicated to be sequentially charged by the DC input source one after the other, wherein the 2n switches in the capacitor stack couple the n capacitors sequentially to the DC input source. The at least one further capacitor is dedicated to be charged from the n capacitors of the capacitor stack at once. Furthermore, the invention discloses a method for small charge collection, comprising the steps of sequentially charging the n capacitors of the at least one capacitor stack by coupling one capacitor after the other to the DC input source by selectively closing the switches and discharging the n capacitors of the capacitor stack into at least one further capacitor outside the capacitor stack (n ∈ N). Additionally, the usage of the device or the method according to the invention to collect charges from sources with electrical potentials of a few millivolts is disclosed.