Analysis and design of CMOS full-wave rectifying charge pump for RF energy harvesting applications

Abstract

A high-efficiency integrated full-wave CMOS rectifying charge pump using diode-connected PMOS transistors for radio-frequency (RF) energy harvesting was designed. Leakage current and body effect were taken into account in deriving the output voltage, power consumption and power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the rectifying charge pump. Negative rectifying charge pump was introduced to handle full-wave RF signal and to improve PCE and a body-connected structure was adopted to lower threshold voltage. By using the commercially available 40 nm CMOS process, low-voltage operation as low as 390 mV was achieved. Simulation results indicate that the circuit can achieve a PCE of over 44% and output voltage 1 V for input voltage larger than 390 mV of a single narrow band 900 MHz RF signal.