Efficient Far-Field Radio Frequency Energy Harvesting for Passively Powered Sensor Networks

An RF-DC power conversion system is designed to efficiently convert far-field RF energy to DC voltages at very low received power and voltages. Passive rectifier circuits are designed in a 0.25 mum CMOS technology using floating gate transistors as rectifying diodes. The 36-stage rectifier can rectify input voltages as low as 50 mV with a voltage gain of 6.4 and operates with received power as low as 5.5 muW(22.6 dBm). Optimized for far field, the circuit operates at a distance of 44 m from a 4 W EIRP source. The high voltage range achieved at low load current make it ideal for use in passively powered sensor networks.

[1]  Shoichi Masui,et al.  A Passive UHF RFID Tag LSI with 36.6% Efficiency CMOS-Only Rectifier and Current-Mode Demodulator in 0.35/spl mu/m FeRAM Technology , 2006, 2006 IEEE International Solid State Circuits Conference - Digest of Technical Papers.

[2]  Qiuting Huang,et al.  A 0.5mW passive telemetry IC for biomedical applications , 1998, Proceedings of the 23rd European Solid-State Circuits Conference.

[3]  G. Iannaccone,et al.  Design criteria for the RF section of UHF and microwave passive RFID transponders , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[4]  Klaus Finkenzeller,et al.  Book Reviews: RFID Handbook: Fundamentals and Applications in Contactless Smart Cards and Identification, 2nd ed. , 2004, ACM Queue.

[5]  M. Hata,et al.  Empirical formula for propagation loss in land mobile radio services , 1980, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology.

[6]  Jieh-Tsorng Wu,et al.  MOS charge pumps for low-voltage operation , 1998, IEEE J. Solid State Circuits.

[7]  Bin Wang,et al.  Study of stress-induced leakage current and charge loss of nonvolatile memory cell with 70 /spl Aring/ tunnel oxide using floating-gate integrator technique , 2004, IEEE International Integrated Reliability Workshop Final Report, 2004.

[8]  S. Lazar,et al.  Design of multistage rectifiers with low-cost impedance matching for passive RFID tags , 2006, IEEE Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFIC) Symposium, 2006.

[9]  A. von Jouanne,et al.  Piezoelectric power generation interface circuits , 2003, Proceedings of the IEEE 2003 Custom Integrated Circuits Conference, 2003..

[10]  Brian Ellis.  The Design of CMOS Radio-Frequency Integrated Circuits , 2004 .

[11]  Michael P. Flynn,et al.  An RF powered, wireless temperature sensor in quarter micron CMOS , 2004, 2004 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (IEEE Cat. No.04CH37512).

[12]  Martin Fischer,et al.  Fully integrated passive UHF RFID transponder IC with 16.7-μW minimum RF input power , 2003, IEEE J. Solid State Circuits.

[13]  T. Ohguro,et al.  The impact of scaling down to deep-submicron on CMOS RF circuits , 1998, Proceedings of the 23rd European Solid-State Circuits Conference.

[14]  Kartikeya Mayaram,et al.  Efficient Far-Field Radio Frequency Power Conversion System for Passively Powered Sensor Networks , 2006, IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference 2006.

[15]  C. Dehollain,et al.  Remotely powered addressable UHF RFID integrated system , 2005, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[16]  Scott Meninger.  A low power controller for a MEMS based energy converter , 1999 .

[17]  I. J. Bahl.  High-Q and low-loss matching network elements for RF and microwave circuits , 2000 .

[18]  S. Chatzandroulis,et al.  A miniature pressure system with a capacitive sensor and a passive telemetry link for use in implantable applications , 2000, Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems.

[19]  M.P. Flynn,et al.  Wireless, remotely powered telemetry in 0.25 /spl mu/m CMOS , 2004, 2004 IEE Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFIC) Systems. Digest of Papers.

[20]  Thomas H. Lee,et al.  The Design of CMOS Radio-Frequency Integrated Circuits: RF CIRCUITS THROUGH THE AGES , 2003 .

[21]  K.-L. Krieger,et al.  A new passive CMOS telemetry chip to receive power and transmit data for a wide range of sensor applications , 1997, Proceedings of International Solid State Sensors and Actuators Conference (Transducers '97).

[22]  H.T. Friis,et al.  A Note on a Simple Transmission Formula , 1946, Proceedings of the IRE.

[23]  J. F. Dickson,et al.  On-chip high-voltage generation in MNOS integrated circuits using an improved voltage multiplier technique , 1976 .

[24]  H. Yoshida,et al.  A 950-MHz rectifier circuit for sensor network tags with 10-m distance , 2006, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[25]  Martinez Araiza,et al.  Wireless transmission of power for sensors in context aware spaces , 2002 .

[26]  Torsten Lehmann,et al.  On-chip active power rectifiers for biomedical applications , 2005, 2005 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems.

[27]  Y. Fujita,et al.  A 950 MHz rectifier circuit for sensor networks with 10 m-distance , 2005, ISSCC. 2005 IEEE International Digest of Technical Papers. Solid-State Circuits Conference, 2005..

[28]  Chi-Ying Tsui,et al.  Analysis and Design Strategy of UHF Micro-Power CMOS Rectifiers for Micro-Sensor and RFID Applications , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers.

[29]  Soumyajit Mandal,et al.  Low-Power CMOS Rectifier Design for RFID Applications , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers.

[30]  Jacob Killens.  UTILIZING STANDARD CMOS PROCESS FLOATING GATE DEVICES FOR ANALOG DESIGN , 2001 .

[31]  Kyu-Jin Cho,et al.  A recursive frequency tracking method for passive telemetry sensors , 2003, Proceedings of the 2003 American Control Conference, 2003..