A low-power two-stage active rectifier for energy harvesting applications

Abstract

This paper presents a new architecture of a two-stage active rectifier suitable for energy harvesting applications. The two-stage structure can be separated firstly into a passive stage, including one negative voltage converter, and secondly, an active stage that consists of a NOT gate used to drive the active diode switch. The rectifier is fully designed and simulated using 0.13 mu m CMOS technology. The circuit rectifies input AC signals from 0.6V to 4.5V, reaching a maximum output voltage of 3.45V. The power conversion efficiency is 40.4%, with a low power consumption of 17.7 mu W.