High-Efficiency Rectifier With Wide Input Power Range Based on Power Recycling

Abstract

In this brief, a novel rectifier with power recycling based on a branch-line coupler is proposed to operate within a wide input power range. In the proposed topology, two output ports of the coupler are connected with two subrectifiers dealing with higher power level (main branches), while the isolation port is connected with the subrectifier dealing with lower power level (power recycling branch). By using the branch-line coupler, the power reflected from the two main branches can be efficiently transmitted to the power recycling branch. Consequently, the power can be reused and thus the RF-dc conversion efficiency can be improved. In this way, the rectifier can maintain high efficiency in a wide input power range. Theoretical analysis and performance comparison are carried out, which show that the proposed topology features recycling ability within a wide input power range. For validation, a rectifier working at 2.45 GHz is implemented and compared to other designs. The measured efficiency remains over 50% from 8.5 to 32.5 dBm, indicating that high efficiency can be obtained within wide input power range.