Rectification Performance of a Broadband RF-to-DC Rectifier on Wideband Pulses

For wireless power transfer and energy harvesting applications, an advantage of having a broadband rectifier is the coverage of a wide range of narrowband frequencies as well as wideband pulses. Many broadband rectifiers have been recently proposed, but their reported characteristics are mainly evaluated at discrete frequencies. Due to the nonlinear nature of rectifiers, such frequency domain characteristics may not directly correspond to the time-domain, especially when input signals are wideband pulses. In this letter, we report the performance evaluation of a broadband rectifier on wideband pulses with various pulse parameters. Here, we use our recently proposed broadband rectifier as a test device. Using Gaussian-modulated RF pulses with various pulse parameters (i.e., pulsewidth, pulse repetition interval, and power), the rectification performance is verified via simulation and measurement. The results demonstrate sufficient rectification efficiency even for short pulses under appropriate parameters, where a maximum rectification efficiency of 71% is obtained.