Design of a highly efficient CMOS rectifier for passive communication systems

This paper presents the design of a highly efficient CMOS rectifier for passive communication systems. The integrated rectifier is implemented in a 0.13 μm CMOS technology. The measured overall RF-to-DC power conversion efficiency for a DC output power of 10 μW (1V and 10 μA) is about 25%. The maximum efficiency for a DC output voltage of 1V is about 43% at UHF and the efficiency of the rectifier at -15 dBm RF input power is still 20%. This rectifier is using a self threshold cancelation technique to enhance the efficiency significantly.