A UHF-RFID power management circuit for body sensor networks

In this paper, a UHF-RFID power management circuit is presented. It is able to power body sensor networks nodes, starting from −25dBm UHF-RFID input signal power. It is based on an initial Dickson's RF-DC rectifier circuit, followed by an ultra-low-voltage integrated boost converter, realized in 180nm CMOS technology, that is used to further step-up of the rectified DC-voltage and to guarantee the RF-to-load isolation. Measurements demonstrate the ability of the power management circuit to provide 400mV output voltage when a −25dBm continuous wave at 866.5MHz (European UHF RFID frequency) is applied at the input.