Co-design of ultra-low power RF/Microwave receivers and converters for RFID and energy harvesting applications

The paper addresses a new approach to the integrated design of RF/Microwave receivers for power harvesting and conversion systems for ultra-low power densities. Such systems can be very useful in typical humanized environments in the presence of existing wireless systems with power densities as low as a few μW/cm². Despite of the scarce RF power available, energy usable to extend battery life or to self-power low-duty cycle electronics may be scavenged by highly efficient receivers and power converter circuits designed in a unique design process. A multi-band antenna is used as the RF power receiver. Its rigorous frequency-dependent equivalent circuit in the presence of an incident field is used in the joint design of a rectifier stage and of a boost converter that can dynamically track the maximum power point. This is obtained by a new simulation platform combining SPICE-like time-domain models of dispersive multiport components with the transient analysis of the storage and control sub-systems.