TY - JOUR
T1 - Analysis of mm-Wave Multi-Stage Rectifier and Implementation
AU - Fang, Yun
AU - Hong, Wei
AU - Gao, Hao
PY - 2022/10/1
Y1 - 2022/10/1
N2 - In the mm-wave frequency band, the rectifier’s sensitivity is the bottleneck of a wireless-powered IoT transponder’s distance. At a meter’s distance, the received power is weak, and transistors in a front end of a wireless power receiver operate in the weak inversion region. This article presents a mathematical analysis of the mm-wave multi-stage rectifier in the low-power region. A design methodology of a 57–64-GHz fully integrated eight-stage rectifier with a bulk-drain connection in 40-nm CMOS technology is presented. Parasitic effects on a multi-stage rectifier are analyzed. Based on the analysis, an intrinsic threshold voltage modulation is applied to improve the sensitivity. A tree-type power splitter is also proposed for the RF power signal’s phase balance. With this method, the RF signal arrives at each stage with an equal phase, and its suppression at the output is improved by 16 dB. This mm-wave rectifier achieves −7.1-dBm input sensitivity at 57 GHz with 1-V dc output voltage. The overall sensitivity from 57 to 64 GHz is better than −4.5 dBm. Compared to other mm-wave silicon-based rectifier state of the arts, the proposed mm-wave rectifier achieves better sensitivity while maintaining a compact size.
AB - In the mm-wave frequency band, the rectifier’s sensitivity is the bottleneck of a wireless-powered IoT transponder’s distance. At a meter’s distance, the received power is weak, and transistors in a front end of a wireless power receiver operate in the weak inversion region. This article presents a mathematical analysis of the mm-wave multi-stage rectifier in the low-power region. A design methodology of a 57–64-GHz fully integrated eight-stage rectifier with a bulk-drain connection in 40-nm CMOS technology is presented. Parasitic effects on a multi-stage rectifier are analyzed. Based on the analysis, an intrinsic threshold voltage modulation is applied to improve the sensitivity. A tree-type power splitter is also proposed for the RF power signal’s phase balance. With this method, the RF signal arrives at each stage with an equal phase, and its suppression at the output is improved by 16 dB. This mm-wave rectifier achieves −7.1-dBm input sensitivity at 57 GHz with 1-V dc output voltage. The overall sensitivity from 57 to 64 GHz is better than −4.5 dBm. Compared to other mm-wave silicon-based rectifier state of the arts, the proposed mm-wave rectifier achieves better sensitivity while maintaining a compact size.
KW - Transistors
KW - Threshold voltage
KW - Sensitivity
KW - Capacitors
KW - Radio frequency
KW - Wireless communication
KW - Logic gates
UR - https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9867932/
U2 - 10.1109/TMTT.2022.3197755
DO - 10.1109/TMTT.2022.3197755
M3 - Article
SN - 1557-9670
VL - 70
SP - 4491
EP - 4501
JO - IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques
JF - IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques
IS - 10
M1 - 9867932
ER -