An Integrated a-IGZO UHF Energy Harvester for Passive RFID Tags

Abstract

We present an ultrahigh frequency energy harvester based on low temperature processed a-IGZO (amorphous indium-gallium-zinc oxide) semiconductor on a glass substrate. The harvester is composed of a dipole antenna, matching network, and a double half-wave rectifier and is capable of delivering more than 1 Vdc at a distance of 2 m from the transmitter antenna. In the proposed wireless system, this sensitivity corresponds to 2.75-m distance harvesting at 4-W (36 dBm) emitted power from a base station, which is within EPC regulations. The main element of the rectifier is the high-performance a-IGZO Schottky diode on glass, with a rectification ratio of 107 at ±1 V, a low threshold voltage of 0.6 V and a cutoff frequency of 3 GHz at 0 V bias.