A 2-pin input multi frequency power scavenging unit for wireless sensor nodes and RFID tags

This paper presents a multi frequency power scavenging unit dedicated but not exclusively designed for supplying RFID transponders and wireless sensor nodes. The power scavenging unit converts the incoming AC power into DC power (from 1MHz up to 2.45GHz). The circuit is used in a fully-passive multi frequency RFID transponder according to the EPC HF and EPC Class 1 Gen 2 UHF standard and is developed in a 0.13 µm low cost CMOS technology. A new concept is utilized to combine a balanced HF and an unbalanced UHF frontend to harvest energy from the magnetic or electro-magnetic field.

[1]  R. Colella,et al.  A Cost-Effective UHF RFID Tag for Transmission of Generic Sensor Data in Wireless Sensor Networks , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[2]  Gerald Holweg,et al.  Measurement methods for power requirements of high performance UHF RFID tags , 2009, 2009 IEEE International Conference on RFID.

[3]  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.

[4]  Bo Gao,et al.  A System-on-Chip EPC Gen-2 Passive UHF RFID Tag With Embedded Temperature Sensor , 2010, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[5]  Gerald Holweg,et al.  A Triple-Band Passive RFID Tag , 2008, 2008 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference - Digest of Technical Papers.

[6]  P.V. Nikitin,et al.  Performance limitations of passive UHF RFID systems , 2006, 2006 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium.

[7]  P. Nikitin,et al.  Sensitivity and Impedance Measurements of UHF RFID Chips , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[8]  Fan Zhang,et al.  A 9.2µA gen 2 compatible UHF RFID sensing tag with −12dBm Sensitivity and 1.25µVrms input-referred noise floor , 2010, 2010 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference - (ISSCC).