Silicon Labs’ app note featuring low power boost for microcontrollers. Link here (PDF)
Boosting the output voltage of common alkaline button-cells to at least 1.8 V needed by microcontrollers provides an “always on” standby power source sufficient for low-power oscillator interrupt/sleep state operation. Two ultralow power op amps are used in a charge pump configuration to double an input voltage, creating an output voltage of approximately 2x the input voltage. Output currents up to 100 µA are available at 90% efficiency; even load currents as low as 10 µA achieve 80% efficiency, beating commercially available charge pump ICs and inductorbased boost regulators.
