Enhanced efficieny threshold-cancellation based rectifier for RF energy harvesting applications

In this paper, an efficient RF-DC Rectifier is presented. The rectifier features high efficiency levels in low input power regions, which showed better performance compared to similar works in relevant literature. This is achieved through careful design of the rectifier and optimization of several aspects that affect the rectifier operation. To provide higher voltage levels, multi stage configurations were designed and a comprehensive analysis on the dependence of the Power Conversion Efficiency PCE on operating power range and number of stages is provided. The single stage rectifier achieves 78% efficiency at -20 dBm, while an efficiency of 85% was achieved at -15 dBm using 3-stage rectifier configuration. These values of efficiencies achieved are among the best reported in recent literature.