Voltage-Double RF Rectifier using Inductive Matching Network

An RF rectifier based on a Greinacher voltage doubler is presented in this paper. A typical Greinacher voltage doubler mainly consists of a series and a shunt diodes. In this approach, an inductance is deliberately placed to the shunt diode to provide an additional input matching parameter such that a better control of the input impedance results in better reflection coefficient compared to a typical matching approach. A demonstration of the validity of this configuration is designed for the 2.45 GHz ISM band and the fabricated PCB is less than 4 cm
²
. Measured peak efficiency of 65.3% with a corresponding dc output voltage of 2.98 V is achieved at an input power of 8 dBm. Measured efficiency is as good as a rectifier without voltage doubler and the dc output voltage is sufficient for most power management modules. Measured peak dc output voltage is 7.30 V for an input power of 20 dBm.