Wide-range adaptive RF-to-DC power converter for UHF RFIDs

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Mahmoud H. Ouda, et al., "Wide-range adaptive RF-to-DC power converter for UHF RFIDs." IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters 26 (8), 2016, 634.

A wide-range, differential, cross-coupled rectifier is proposed with an extended dynamic range of input RF power that enables wireless powering from varying distances. The proposed architecture mitigates the reverse-leakage problem in conventional, cross-coupled rectifiers without degrading sensitivity. A prototype is designed for UHF RFID applications, and is implemented using 0.18 μm CMOS technology. On-chip measurements demonstrate a sensitivity of -18 dBm for 1 V output over a 100 kΩ load and a peak RF-to-DC power conversion efficiency of 65%. A conventional, fully cross-coupled rectifier is fabricated alongside for comparison and the proposed rectifier shows more than 2× increase in dynamic range and a 25% boosting in output voltage than the conventional rectifier.