A High-Efficiency Self-Synchronous RF–DC Rectifier Based on Time-Reversal Duality for Wireless Power Transfer Applications

Abstract

An RF–DC rectifier is an important part in a wireless power transfer system. Diode-based rectifiers are widely used in low-power harvesting scenarios, and for high power, a transistor based on the time-reversal duality was proposed. This paper presents a high-efficiency self-synchronous RF–DC rectifier based on a waveform-guided design method and an improved rectification model of a commercial GaN device. The main contributions of this paper are that (1) an improved transistor model with correct reverse bias is built for accurate rectifier simulation, and (2) a new design method of self-synchronous RF–DC rectifier is proposed: as soon as the operating mode of the rectifier, input power, and DC load are set, matching and coupling network can be calculated directly based on waveform-guided method, thus design and adjustment process of a conventional power amplifier (PA) due to the duality between a PA and a rectifier would no longer be required. A 5.8 GHz self-synchronous RF–DC rectifier is designed for validation, and the optimum RF–DC conversion efficiency is 68% with 12 W input power as well as 19.9 V output DC potential with 50 Ω load resistance. The proposed rectifier is suitable for high input power rectification applications of wireless power transfer.