Design of rectenna series‐association circuits for radio frequency energy harvesting in CMOS FD‐SOI 28 nm. Issue 1 (8th November 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hamani, Abdelaziz; Allard, Bruno; Vuong, Tan‐Phu; Yagoub, Mustapha C.E.; Touhami, Rachida
• Is Part Of: IET circuits, devices & systems. Volume 12:Issue 1(2018)
• Page Start: 40
• Page End: 49
• Publication Date: 2017-11-08
• Subjects: rectennas -- energy harvesting -- CMOS integrated circuits -- maximum power point trackers -- passive networks -- radiofrequency integrated circuits -- silicon -- elemental semiconductors -- silicon-on-insulator; series-connected rectenna series-association circuit -- radiofrequency energy harvesting -- CMOS FD-SOI technology -- post-layout simulation -- maximum power point -- MPP -- passive bypass circuit -- size 28 nm -- power 14 muW -- power 5 muW -- power 7 muW -- efficiency 10 percent -- efficiency 20 percent -- Si; Electronic circuits -- Periodicals; Electronic systems -- Periodicals; 621.381505
• DOI: 10.1049/iet-cds.2017.0119
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1751-858X

Abstract

Abstract : Series‐connected rectenna associations are proposed to improve the harvesting performance of conventional rectenna circuits by recovering power from different directions. With an available input power of −20 dBm, post‐layout simulations evaluated the total output power of four series‐connected rectennas designed in Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor Fully Depleted Silicon On Insulator (CMOS FD‐SOI) 28 nm technology, to 14 µW at maximum power point (MPP), while the post‐layout simulation of a single rectenna yields 5 µW at the same input power level. However, the rectenna association performance may be significantly degraded when dealing with different input power levels among rectennas. Therefore, a passive bypass circuit has been added at the output of the series association to short‐circuit the weakest rectenna. The proposed design is cost‐effective since there is a negligible silicon penalty and no additional power losses. In the designed four series‐connected rectenna association, the total output power is 7 µW at MPP with the bypass circuit when the strongest and the weakest rectennas receive −20 and −35 dBm, respectively. Also, thanks to the bypass circuit, the efficiency of the rectenna association and the ratio of maximum achieved power are improved by, respectively, 10 and 20%.