Self-Powered Rectifier for Energy Harvesting Applications

In this paper, a self-powered rectifier is proposed with an intended application in energy harvesting systems and wireless sensor networks. Key points in the design of the rectifier are discussed as well as practical limitations of the circuit. The proposed self-powered rectifier was designed and fabricated in a standard 0.5-mu m complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor process using standard components and poly-poly capacitors. Measurement results are presented for single and four-stage rectifiers with resistive loads from 10 k Omega to 10 M Omega and sinusoidal input amplitudes from 100-1000 mV(pk). For the specified input and loading conditions, the maximum measured output voltages for the proposed single stage and four-stage rectifiers were 0.8 and 3.5 V, respectively.