08/03/2022
Joule thief Circuit ......
"Joule thief" is a nickname for a minimalist self-oscillating voltage booster that is small, low-cost, and easy-to-build; typically used for driving light loads. It can use nearly all of the energy in a single-cell electric battery, even far below the voltage where other circuits consider the battery fully discharged (or "dead"). Hence the name suggests the notion that the circuit is stealing energy or "Joules" from the source. The term is a pun on the expression "jewel thief", one who steals jewelry or gemstones.
The circuit uses the self-oscillating properties of the blocking oscillator, to form an unregulated voltage boost converter. As with all power conversion technology, no energy is actually created by the circuit. Instead, the output voltage is increased at the expense of higher current draw on the input. As a result, the amount of power entering the circuit is the same as the amount leaving, minus the losses in the conversion process.
In the November 1999 issue of Everyday Practical Electronics (EPE) a simple circuit was published by Z. Kaparnik that consisted of a transformer-feedback single-transistor voltage converter. The Joule Thief circuit is based on the blocking oscillator, which uses a vacuum tube / thermionic valve and dates to prior to World War II. The name Joule Thief was originally given to the circuit that consisted of a single cell, a single transistor, a coil with two windings, a single resistor (typically 1000 ohms), and a single LED. The name caught on, became popular, and since then others have borrowed the Joule Thief name and applied it to other circuits. However, these other circuits are not true Joule Thief circuits.