A 60-GHz energy harvesting module with on-chip antenna and switch for co-integration with ULP radios in 65-nm CMOS with fully wireless mm-wave power transfer measurement

Abstract

In this paper the architecture and performance of a co-integrated 60 GHz on-chip wireless energy harvester and ultra-low power (ULP) radio in 65-nm CMOS are discussed. Integration of an on-chip antenna with wireless power receiver and wireless data transfer module is the crucial next step to achieve compact and high efficiency fully-integrated monolithic wireless sensor nodes. A single-pole-single-throw 60 GHz RF switch is proposed and simulated to decouple the power harvesting and data transfer module. The designed on-chip RF switch has -2 dB insertion loss in EM simulations, and achieves -18 dB isolation between the energy harvesting module and the data transfer module. A single on-chip monopole antenna for power reception and data transfer is proposed with an adapted layout to reduce power coupling to undesired substrate modes. The simulated antenna shows a gain of -1.68 dBi. The power harvesting performance of the co-integrated antenna, switch and Dickson type multistage rectifier is simulated and leads to a DC output voltage of 1.2 V for -5 dBm input power at 60 GHz. With 15 dBm power transmitted to the tag at 30 GHz, the output voltage is 1.14V in the measurement. This paper is the first to demonstrate the 30 GHz mm-wave wireless energy harvesting with fully on-chip wireless energy receiver.