High Frequency Limitations of Active Rectifier Circuits for RFID Applications

J. Fischer, J. Borg, J. Johansson (Luleå Univ. of Techn., Sweden)

This paper analyses the frequency limitations of an active rectifier for RFID applications that has been optimised for 13.56 MHz. The rectifier utilises an active MOS diode with threshold cancellation and a control scheme to reduce reverse leakage. The rectifier is implemented in AMS 0.35 µm CMOS and simulated in Cadence Spectre. For an input voltage of 2 V and an output current of 20 µA, a power and voltage conversion efficiency of 83 % and 89 %, respectively, are achieved at 13.56 MHz. We show that reducing the width of the main MOS transistor from 90 to 60 µm improves the upper frequency limit, but beyond 30 MHz the finite speed of the threshold cancellation control circuit limits the efficiency of the rectifier circuit.