A 900 MHz, Wide-Input Range, High-Efficiency, Differential CMOS Rectifier for Ambient Wireless Powering.

Abdulaziz Alhoshany

doi:10.3390/s22030974

Abstract

This paper presents a wide dynamic-range CMOS rectifier with high efficiency and high sensitivity for RF energy harvesting. A new adaptive-biasing scheme is implemented using stacking diodes with dynamic threshold voltage to mitigate the reverse-leakage current of the NMOS rectifying devices at high RF power levels. The proposed design employs the adaptive-biasing technique to control the conduction of the PMOS rectifying devices with self-bulk biasing of the feedback diodes to minimize the leakage current. The proposed novel techniques extend the dynamic range of the RF-to-DC power converter with high efficiency, which is 17 times better than a conventional cross-coupled rectifier. The prototype is implemented using a standard 65 nm CMOS technology and occupies a 0.0093 mm2 active area. The proposed design achieves a peak power conversion efficiency (peak PCE) of 73%, −18.8 dBm 1-V sensitivity, and a superb dynamic range of 17.3 dB with efficiency greater than 80% of its peak PCE, which outperforms the state-of-the-art RF CMOS rectifiers, when operating at UHF 900 MHz with a 100-KΩ load.

Highlights

The advancement in wireless power transfer (WPT) techniques and integrated circuits technology has enabled an evolution of miniaturized battery-less electronic devices such as biomedical implants, wireless sensors, and radio frequency identifications (RFIDs) [1,2,3,4,5]
A new wide-dynamic range RF CMOS rectifier with high efficiency has been proposed at the ultrahigh frequency (UHF) band
The proposed rectifier employs the adaptive-biasing scheme for the NMOS rectifying transistors to increase the forward current at a low-input power, and to minimize the leakage current at high-RF power levels

Summary

Introduction

The advancement in wireless power transfer (WPT) techniques and integrated circuits technology has enabled an evolution of miniaturized battery-less electronic devices such as biomedical implants, wireless sensors, and radio frequency identifications (RFIDs) [1,2,3,4,5]. The battery replacement process is difficult and costly, when the miniaturized devices are located in remote or inaccessible locations, and practically infeasible for biomedical implantable devices. WPT is considered a cost-effective technology to power enormous devices and avoid battery replacement. The core of the WPT receiver is the RF rectifier, which is delivered usable output DC power to the load from the input

Methods

Results

Conclusion