Efficient Far-Field Radio Frequency Energy Harvesting for Passively Powered Sensor Networks

Author

Le, Triet ; Mayaram, Karti ; Fiez, Terri

Author_Institution

Oregon State Univ., Corvallis

Volume

43

Issue

5

fYear

2008

fDate

5/1/2008 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1287

Lastpage

1302

Abstract

An RF-DC power conversion system is designed to efficiently convert far-field RF energy to DC voltages at very low received power and voltages. Passive rectifier circuits are designed in a 0.25 mum CMOS technology using floating gate transistors as rectifying diodes. The 36-stage rectifier can rectify input voltages as low as 50 mV with a voltage gain of 6.4 and operates with received power as low as 5.5 muW(22.6 dBm). Optimized for far field, the circuit operates at a distance of 44 m from a 4 W EIRP source. The high voltage range achieved at low load current make it ideal for use in passively powered sensor networks.

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; passive networks; rectifiers; transistor circuits; wireless sensor networks; CMOS technology; RF-DC power conversion system; far-field radio frequency energy harvesting; floating gate transistors; passive rectifier circuits; passively powered sensor networks; Batteries; CMOS technology; Circuits; Low voltage; Monitoring; Power conversion; Radio frequency; Radiofrequency identification; Rectifiers; Sensor systems; Far field; RF powered; floating gate; high efficiency; interface circuit; micro power; passively powered; power conversion; rectifier; sensor network;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Solid-State Circuits, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9200

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JSSC.2008.920318

Filename

4494663