Conventional Rectifier Circuit Research Articles

Design of Double-Gate Tri-Active Layer Channel Based IGZO Thin-Film Transistor for Improved Performance of Ultra-Low-Power RFID Rectifier

In a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) circuit, the rectifier plays a vital role since it converts the received RF energy from a distant transmitter (reader) to power the entire RF circuit of the passive tag. The thin-film transistors have the potential to affect the rectifier circuit performance using the channel structural modification in the device to accomplish better gate-control for low-power operations. In this paper, the authors have presented a novel design of a double-gate amorphous In-Ga-Zn-O (IGZO) based thin-film transistor with a tri-active layer channel structure. Further, the experimental characterization of the device has been implemented using the SPICE model to analyze the device performance in the rectifier circuits. The simulation reports the competitive results with an improved rectifier performance using the proposed structure. The performance of ultra-low-power rectifier topologies has been compared with the conventional rectifier circuit. Among others, the differential rectifier circuit arrangement has a high power conversion efficiency of 20.06 % for low input 0.45 V-0.61 V, whereas Self-$\text{V}_{\mathrm {TH}}$ -Cancellation (SVC) configuration optimum power consumption is $0.14~\mu W$ . The promising results suggest the device deployment in the passive RFID tags and implantable devices in ultra-low-power integrated circuits.

Analysis and Design of a Reconfigurable Rectifier Circuit for Wireless Power Transfer

An efficient and reconfigurable rectifier circuit, with the capability of automatically switching from low-power to high-power operation mode, is presented in this paper. The new topology allows the rectifier to convert RF power to dc power efficiently over an extended input power range. The circuit consists of diodes as rectifying elements and of n-channel field effect transistor in a depletion mode acting as the automated switch. Without using an external dc source, the circuit directly uses the rectified output dc voltage to bias the transistor, allowing high conversion efficiency over a wide input power range. This results in a compact and self-contained circuit. A total of two prototypes optimized for near-field and far-field wireless power transfer systems are fabricated and the measured results show that the performance exceeds that of the conventional rectifier circuit, which can only stay efficient over a limited range of the input power. The proposed design can maintain more than 50% of conversion efficiency over more than 25-dB range of the input power, with peak efficiency of 88% and 80% for near-field and far-field rectifiers, respectively. A system-level validation also confirms the improvement of the proposed rectifier design.

Design and Analysis of Modified Diode Rectifier Circuit Suitable for Piezoelectric Energy Harvester for Biomedical Applications

Nowadays renewable energy sources play a significant role in the energy harvesting. For the past decade various energy harvesting methods have been discussed by researchers for capturing the energy from different sources. From the survey, one of the most prominent methods is the use of piezoelectric transducers for harvesting the energy. It is known that piezoelectric energy harvesting is the easiest method of energy harvesting from the various sources available such as human walking, dancing etc. Therefore this method can be implemented in system for wide variety of applications. The piezoelectric transducer AC output is of very low voltage and power and hence insufficient to drive any electrical application. Most of the small scale electrical application generally runs on the DC voltage, therefore the AC voltage obtained from the piezo transducer vibration is rectified using rectifiers to generate DC voltage. Thus in this paper, a modified rectifier AC/DC converter with the combination of an inductor is placed in the rectifier, which enhances the voltage and power from the rectifier output. In order to enhance the voltage rating, a DC/DC converter has been added at the end of a rectifier circuit. From the simulation results the proposed circuit modified rectifier has improved the output voltage as well as output current by 10.19 volts and 0.1019 amps respectively for input voltage of 5V. When compared with conventional rectifier circuit.

A common-gate bootstrapped CMOS rectifier for VHF isolated DC–DC converter

A common-gate bootstrapped CMOS rectifier dedicated for VHF (very high frequency) isolated DC–DC converter is proposed. It uses common-gate bootstrapped technique to compensate the power loss due to the threshold voltage, and to solve the reflux problem in the conventional rectifier circuit. As a result, it improves the power conversion efficiency (PCE) and voltage conversion ratio (VCR). The design saves almost 90% of the area compared to a previously reported double capacitor structure. In addition, we compare the previous rectifier with the proposed common-gate bootstrapped rectifier in the case of the same area; simulation results show that the PCE and VCR of the proposed structure are superior to other structures. The proposed common-gate bootstrapped rectifier was fabricated by using CSMC 0.5 μm BCD process. The measured maximum PCE is 86% and VCR achieves 77% at the operating frequency of 20 MHz. The average PCE is about 79% and average VCR achieves 71% in the frequency range of 30–70 MHz. Measured PCE and VCR have been improved compared to previous results.

Energizing implantable transmitters by means of coupled inductance coils.

In the study of energizing implantable oscillators by coupling of inductance coils, it is pointed out that the best stability is not necessarily obtained where the magnetic flux density takes its maximum. The conversion of the induced ac voltage to a useful dc voltage can be made in conventional rectifier circuits, but great improvement in operation and economy is offered by transistor rectifier circuits. Two types of transistor rectifiers?the common-base and the common-collector arrangements?are discussed in detail.

Harmonic Generation, Rectification, and Lifetime Evaluation with the Step Recovery Diode

This paper deals with a p-n junction device which will be called a Step Recovery Diode because its conductivity variation during reverse recovery approximates a step function. The transition from reverse storage conduction to cutoff for this diode can occur in about a nanosecond, and it can produce associated discontinuities up to about an ampere and/or a hundred volts. This step recovery action can be conveniently used to generate waveforms which are very rich in high-order harmonics in the gigacycle region. In many cases it offers considerable advantage in circuit simplicity and power-handling capability over alternative diode harmonic generators. This paper is concerned with the factors that go into the appropriate mating of this diode with its circuit, and with evaluation of the performance that can be achieved. As a by-product of this analysis, a generalized evaluation of rectification efficiency is obtained which is useful for many conventional semiconductor diodes in conventional rectifier circuits. This analysis also leads to a convenient method for evaluating the lifetime of semiconductor diodes, which is particularly useful in the fractional nanosecond range because it separates out capacitive effects.