Impact of Circuit Parameters on Input Impedance of 433.92MHz ISM Band RF Rectifiers

RF energy harvesters are popular energy source for Internet of Things (IoT) cloud edge devices and also as core circuit of IoT wake-up radio sub-system. Design methodology to estimate input impedance of multi-stage classical Dickson RF rectifiers based on computer transient simulation is proposed. The impact of various design component parameters on rectifiers' input impedance based on TSMC 0.35μm CMOS technologies is discussed subsequently. The data provided in this paper can guide circuit designer to gauge the non-linearity behavior of input impedance, before designing the corresponding impedance matching network for the RF rectifier under different conditions to ensure maximum output voltage and power conversion efficiency.