A High Sensitivity CMOS Rectifier for 5G mm-Wave Energy Harvesting

Abstract

This manuscript details the design and analysis of a CMOS rectifier in TSMC 65 nm for the 5G NR2 band and aims to overcome the challenge of achieving high rectified voltage while optimizing for PCE (power conversion efficiency). Using a frequency-scaled testbench, the transistor currents are investigated, providing key insights on the rectification mechanism that guide the design. The testbench is then used to determine the optimal number, $N$ , of summing rectifiers to be used in a power splitting and voltage summing strategy that maximizes PCE for high target output voltage. In addition, a unit-cell rectifier design highlights how to target a specific output voltage while maintaining dc power matching for optimal PCE. Two rectifiers are presented: a unit-cell rectifier targeting -13 dBm and an $N$ -scaled rectifier targeting $-$ 10 dBm. Both designs achieve a PCE of 15% at 27.5 GHz, while the former achieves 200 mV and the latter achieves 400 mV output voltage, for their respective target input powers. Finally, a survey of rectifiers operating around 30 GHz is presented where a x2 improvement over the current state-of-the-art is ascertained.