A self-biased active precision rectifier for Energy harvesting systems

A high efficiency precision rectifier for Energy harvesting systems is presented. The precision rectifier utilizes single supply op-amp for AC-DC conversion process. The op-amp enables low forward diode voltage drop and less reverse leakage current in order to achieve large power conversion efficiency (PCE). The op-amp utilized in the precision rectifier is self-biased meaning no external supply needed to bias the op-amp instead it uses part of the harvested energy for its biasing. The proposed precision rectifier is designed and simulated in 0.15μm CMOS process technology using Cadence virtuoso tool. The proposed rectifier achieves power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 69% for a 1 KHz sinusoidal input of 0.8V for a 40KΩ load resistor. This efficiency is 2.5 times better than its counterpart of the passive rectifier with large rectified output DC voltage. The relation between PCE and the load is presented.