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High-Efficiency Broadband Rectifier With Wide Ranges of Input Power and Output Load Based On Branch-Line Coupler
High-Efficiency Broadband Rectifier With Wide Ranges of Input Power and Output Load Based On Branch-Line Coupler
High-Efficiency Broadband Rectifier With Wide Ranges of Input Power and Output Load Based On Branch-Line Coupler
Abstract— In this work, a novel rectifier based on a branch-line have been proposed. These rectifiers are usually optimized
coupler is proposed to operate within wide ranges of input power, for specific operating conditions, including input power level,
operating frequency and output load. In the proposed topology, operating frequency, and fixed output load. However, the
two output ports of the coupler are connected with two identical
sub-rectifiers and the isolation port is directly connected to the available electromagnetic energy is generally not constant. The
ground. The input impedance of the two sub-rectifiers varies variation of input power and operating frequency lead to input
with different input power, operating frequency and output load, impedance variation since the rectifying device is nonlinear.
which leads to impedance mismatching. By using the branch-line This degrades rectifier performance due to the impedance
coupler with grounded isolation port, the power reflected from mismatch. Moreover, the rectifier output needs to be connected
the two sub-rectifiers can be partially re-injected back to the
sub-rectifiers. Thus, the power can be reused and the RF-dc to various loads, such as dc-dc converter or regulator circuits.
conversion efficiency can be improved. Theoretical analysis and The load variation also leads to input impedance change and
performance comparison are carried out. The results indicate thus results in degraded efficiency [9].
that the proposed topology is able to realize high efficiency To reduce the sensitivity of rectifying efficiency to input
with wide input power, frequency and load dynamic ranges. power and output load variations, resistance compression net-
For validation, a rectifier working at 2.45 GHz is designed.
The fabricated rectifier circuit demonstrates a maximum RF-dc works (RCNs) are introduced [9]–[12]. The input impedance
conversion efficiency of 80.8%. The measured efficiency remains variation range is reduced by the RCNs. However, the fre-
over 70% with the input power from 10 dBm to 18.6 dBm and quency bandwidth of RCNs is limited. In [13], an improved
the operating frequency from 2.08 to 2.58 GHz. RF–dc converter based on a class-E rectifier is presented with
Index Terms— Branch-line coupler, high efficiency, microwave wide-dynamic-range input matching and the peak efficiency is
power transmission (MPT), rectifier. 60% for an input power of 17 dBm at 800 MHz. In [14], a
2.4 GHz adaptive rectifier with extended input power range is
I. I NTRODUCTION presented using extra control circuit. The device is fabricated
on CMOS technology, with peak efficiency being 47%. In [15],
M ICROWAVE power transmission (MPT) is a promising
technology and has potential applications where the
power transmission through wires is inconvenient or impossi-
two sub-rectifying circuits working at different input power
levels are combined by a 2:1 power divider. There are two peak
ble, such as wireless sensors. The efficiency of the total MPT power conversion efficiencies and thus the input power range
system heavily depends on RF-dc conversion efficiency of the corresponding to high efficiency can be extended. Moreover,
microwave rectifier. Therefore, the optimal design of a high- a GaAs pHEMT is adopted to keep the voltage on diode
efficiency microwave rectifier is crucial. constant when it reaches the diode breakdown voltage, which
Several types of topologies are employed to realize recti- can extend operating power range [16]. Besides, a rectifier
fiers, for instance, diodes in series, diodes in parallel, diodes using maximum power point tracking method can maintain
in bridge, diodes in voltage doubler, and so on. Moreover, in high efficiency for a wide load range [17]. Several broadband
order to improve the RF-dc conversion efficiency, different and multiband rectifiers are also designed by constructing
kinds of topologies [1]–[6] and analytical models [7]–[8] wideband matching network [18]–[21]. For example, a broad-
band rectifier is designed by maximizing the quality factor
Manuscript received July 1, 2016; revised September 12, 2016; accepted of the matching network [19]. However, these works focus
September 26, 2016. Date of publication October 31, 2016; date of current on extending the RF input power range [9]–[16], dc load
version February 23, 2017. This work was supported in part by the Natural
Science Foundation of China under Grants 61422106 and 61327005, and in range [17] or operating frequency bandwidth [18]–[20]. None
part by the Top-Notch Young Talents Program of China. This paper was of them can simultaneously extend the ranges of input power,
recommended by Associate Editor A. Fayed. output load and operating frequency.
X. Y. Zhang and Z.-X. Du are with the Guangdong Provincial
Key Laboratory of Short-Range Wireless Detection and Communication In this paper, a novel rectifier based on a branch-line
(Grant No 2014B030301010), the School of Electronic and Information coupler is proposed to operate within wide ranges of input
Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, power, operating frequency and output load. The proposed
China (e-mail: zhangxiuyin@hotmail.com).
Q. Xue is with the State Key Laboratory of millimeter Waves, Department rectifier consists of two sub-rectifying circuits and a branch-
of Electronic Engineering, and CityU Shenzhen Research Institute, City line coupler with grounded isolation port. With the change
University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. of the input power and output load as well as operating
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. frequency, the input impedance of the sub-rectifiers varies,
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TCSI.2016.2614331 leading to impedance mismatch. The reflected waves from the
1549-8328 © 2016 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
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732 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS–I: REGULAR PAPERS, VOL. 64, NO. 3, MARCH 2017
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ZHANG et al.: HIGH-EFFICIENCY BROADBAND RECTIFIER WITH WIDE RANGES OF INPUT POWER AND OUTPUT LOAD 733
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734 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS–I: REGULAR PAPERS, VOL. 64, NO. 3, MARCH 2017
Fig. 4. Layout of the circuits in the proposed design. (a) Single rectifier;
(b) first-order coupler with grounded isolation port; (c) second-order coupler
with grounded isolation port.
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ZHANG et al.: HIGH-EFFICIENCY BROADBAND RECTIFIER WITH WIDE RANGES OF INPUT POWER AND OUTPUT LOAD 735
higher than that of the rectifier without the coupler when the
Fig. 7. Performance comparison among the two proposed rectifiers with the input power varies from 0 dBm to 13 dBm. From 13 dBm to
couplers and the rectifier without the coupler versus output load for an input 18 dBm, the efficiencies of the three rectifiers are almost the
power of 17.5 dBm at 2.45 GHz. same with less than 0.4% difference. This is because the input
impedance of the rectifiers is well matched with the return loss
better than 23 dB and the re-used power P is very small.
As illustrated in Fig. 7, the two proposed rectifiers exhibits
higher efficiency than the one without the coupler when the
output load varies from 50 to 320 . Similarly, within the
output load range of 320 to 390 , the rectifier without
the coupler is still well matched. Thus the efficiencies of the
three ones are almost the same with difference less than 0.3%.
What’s more, Fig. 8 shows that the proposed rectifier based on
a second-order coupler has the widest frequency bandwidth as
compared with the others. Therefore, the second-order coupler
is selected in this design. It should be noted that this work
focuses on the operating condition that the breakdown voltage
is not reached. Otherwise, the power loss in the breakdown
diodes is greatly increased.
Fig. 8. Performance comparison among the two proposed rectifiers with the Besides, more comprehensive comparison between the pro-
couplers and the rectifier without the coupler versus operating frequency with
RL = 360 at 15.5 dBm. posed rectifier based on a second-order coupler and the
rectifier without the coupler is carried out. Fig. 9 shows the
are taken into account, which are around 0.03 dB and 0.01 dB, efficiency versus operating frequency and input power level
respectively. The proposed topology maintains better per- for a fixed output load (RL = 360 ). One can observe that
formance than the rectifier without the coupler. As shown when the input power and operating frequency vary, the RF-dc
in Fig. 6, the RF-dc conversion efficiency of the two proposed conversion efficiency of the proposed rectifier can be main-
rectifiers versus input power remains almost the same. It is tained over 70% within a larger area than that of the rectifier
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736 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS–I: REGULAR PAPERS, VOL. 64, NO. 3, MARCH 2017
Fig. 10. RF-dc conversion efficiency (%) of (a) the proposed rectifier based Fig. 11. RF-dc conversion efficiency (%) of (a) the proposed rectifier based
on a second-order coupler and (b) the rectifier without the coupler for an input on a second-order coupler and (b) the rectifier without the coupler at 2.45 GHz.
power level of 15.5 dBm.
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ZHANG et al.: HIGH-EFFICIENCY BROADBAND RECTIFIER WITH WIDE RANGES OF INPUT POWER AND OUTPUT LOAD 737
TABLE I
C OMPARISON W ITH S OME P RIOR W ORKS W HICH F OCUSED ON E XTENDING I NPUT P OWER R ANGE OR F REQUENCY BANDWIDTH
Fig. 13. EM simulation and measurement efficiencies of the rectifiers with Fig. 15. EM simulation and measurement efficiencies of the rectifiers with
and without the coupler versus operating frequency for Pin = 15.5 dBm. and without the coupler versus output load for Pin = 17.5 dBm.
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738 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS–I: REGULAR PAPERS, VOL. 64, NO. 3, MARCH 2017
based rectifier in [10]–[12], the rectifier with wide-dynamic- [9] K. Niotaki, A. Georgiadis, A. Collado, and J. S. Vardakas, “Dual-band
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R EFERENCES
[1] P. H. Heieh, C. H. Chou, and T. Chiang, “An RF energy harvester with
44.1% PCE at input available power of −12 dBm,” IEEE Trans. Circuits Xiu Yin Zhang (S’07–M’10–SM’12) was born in
Syst. I, Reg. Papers, vol. 62, no. 6, pp. 1528–1537, Jun. 2015. Hubei, China. He received the B. S. degree from
[2] S. Ladan and K. Wu, “Nonlinear modeling and harmonic recycling of Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommuni-
millimeter-wave rectifier circuit,” IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Techn., cations, China, the M.S. degree in electronic engi-
vol. 63, no. 3, pp. 937–944, Mar. 2015. neering from South China University of Technology,
[3] Y.-J. Ren and K. Chang, “5.8-GHz circularly polarized dual-diode Guangzhou, China, in 2006, and the Ph.D. degree in
rectenna and rectenna array for microwave power transmission,” IEEE electronic engineering from City University of Hong
Trans. Microw. Theory Techn., vol. 54, no. 4, pp. 1495–1502, Jun. 2006. Kong, China, in 2009.
[4] B. Li, X. Shao, N. Shahshahan, N. Goldsman, T. Salter, and From 2001 to 2003, he was with ZTE Corporation,
G. M. Metze, “An antenna co-design dual band RF energy harvester,” Shenzhen, China. He was a Research Assistant from
IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. I, Reg. Papers, vol. 60, no. 12, pp. 3256–3266, July 2006 to June 2007 and a Research Fellow from
Dec. 2013. September 2009 to February 2010 with the City University of Hong Kong.
[5] M. Roberg, T. Reveyrand, I. Ramos, E. A. Falkenstein, and Z. Popovic, He is currently a full Professor with the School of Electronic and Information
“High-efficiency harmonically terminated diode and transistor rectifiers,” Engineering, South China University of Technology. He has authored or
IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Techn., vol. 60, no. 12, pp. 4043–4052, coauthored more than 100 internationally referred journal and conference
Dec. 2012. papers. His research interests include microwave circuits and antennas, LTCC,
[6] S. Ladan, A. B. Guntupalli, and K. Wu, “A high-efficiency 24 GHz wireless power transfer.
rectenna development towards millimeter-wave energy harvesting and Dr. Zhang has served as a Technical Program Committee (TPC) member and
wireless power transmission,” IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. I, Reg. Papers, session organizer/chair for a number of conferences. He has been a regular
vol. 61, no. 12, pp. 3358–3366, Dec. 2014. reviewer of several international journals including 6 IEEE Transactions and
[7] J. Guo, H. Zhang, and X. Zhu, “Theoretical analysis of RF-DC con- 2 IEEE Letters. He was a recipient of the Young Scholar of the Changjiang
version efficiency for class-F rectifiers,” IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Scholars Program of Chinese Ministry of Education, the Top-notch Young
Techn., vol. 62, no. 4, pp. 977–985, Apr. 2014. Professionals of National Program of China, the National Science Foundation
[8] T.-W. Yoo and K. Chang, “Theoretical and experimental development of for Outstanding Young Scholars of China and the Guangdong Natural Science
10 and 35 GHz rectennas,” IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Techn., vol. 40, Fund for Distinguished Young Scholar. He was the supervisor of several
no. 6, pp. 1259–1266, Jun. 1992. conference best paper award winners.
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ZHANG et al.: HIGH-EFFICIENCY BROADBAND RECTIFIER WITH WIDE RANGES OF INPUT POWER AND OUTPUT LOAD 739
Zhi-Xia Du was born in Guangdong, China. Quan Xue (M’02–SM’04–F’11) received the B.S.,
He received the B.S. degree in applied physics from M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electronic engineer-
South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, ing from the University of Electronic Science and
in 2014, where he is currently working toward the Technology of China (UESTC), Chengdu, in 1988,
Ph.D. degree in electronic engineering in the School 1990, and 1993, respectively. In 1993, he joined
of Electronic and Information Engineering. the UESTC as a Lecturer. He became a Professor
His research interests include microwave circuits in 1997. From October 1997 to October 1998, he
and wireless power transfer. was a Research Associate and then a Research
He was awarded the Best Student Paper Prize in Fellow with the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
the 2015 National Conference on Microwave and In 1999, he joined the City University of Hong
Millimeter Wave Technology (NCMMW). Kong where he is currently a Chair Professor of
Microwave Engineering. He also serves the University as the Director of
Information and Communication Technology Center (ICTC center), and the
Deputy Director of State Key Lab of Millimeter Waves (Hong Kong). He was
the Associate Vice President (Innovation Advancement and China Office) from
June 2011 to January 2015.
He has authored or coauthored more than 260 internationally referred journal
papers and more than 100 international conference papers. His research
interests include microwave passive components, active components, antenna,
microwave monolithic integrated circuits (MMIC, and radio frequency inte-
grated circuits (RFIC), etc. Prof. Xue served the IEEE as an AdCom member
of MTT-S from 2011-2013 and an Associate Editor of IEEE T RANSAC -
TIONS ON M ICROWAVE T HEORY AND T ECHNIQUES (2010-2013), and an
Associate Editor of IEEE T RANSACTIONS ON I NDUSTRIAL E LECTRONICS
(2010-present).
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