DTV band micropower RF energy-harvesting circuit architecture and performance analysis

A design architecture for a micropower RF energy-harvesting in the Digital TV (DTV) band is presented. The rectifying antenna (rectenna), given a single tone excitation at 550 MHz, has a measured conversion efficiency of 0.4% for −40 dBm input and 18.2% for −20 dBm input, respectively. A DC-DC boost converter circuit is designed and fabricated to be used along with this rectenna. The DC-DC boost converter circuit is able to operate with voltages as low as 400mV DC while the measured DC-DC conversion efficiency is at least 11.3%.

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