Self-powered integrated rectifier for wireless medical energy harvesting applications

This paper reports on the results of an integrated rectifier for wirelessly powered medical electronic devices. To considerably enhance the rectification efficiency, high-performance active diodes are incorporated. In addition, a fine cost-effective and energy-efficient back telemetry mechanism with increased robustness against physical variations in the external reader and internal transponder (implant) has been equipped. Fabricated in a 0.18-μm technology, the design demonstrates that it is able to achieve maximum conversion efficiency approximately 90%, while at the same time dramatically reducing the overhead to practical implementation. It has also been proved for its full functionality in the asserted built-in robust back telemetry.