ubc Enhanced Passive RF-DC Converter Circuit Efficiency for Low RF Energy Harvesting 2017-05-02 [Electronic ed.] prv Universitätsbibliothek Chemnitz Universitätsbibliothek Chemnitz, Chemnitz Fakultät für Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik Professur für Mess- und Sensortechnik male male female For radio frequency energy transmission, the conversion efficiency of the receiver is decisive not only for reducing sending power, but also for enabling energy transmission over long and variable distances. In this contribution, we present a passive RF-DC converter for energy harvesting at ultra-low input power at 868 MHz. The novel converter consists of a reactive matching circuit and a combined voltage multiplier and rectifier. The stored energy in the input inductor and capacitance, during the negative wave, is conveyed to the output capacitance during the positive one. Although Dickson and Villard topologies have principally comparable efficiency for multi-stage voltage multipliers, the Dickson topology reaches a better efficiency within the novel ultra-low input power converter concept. At the output stage, a low-pass filter is introduced to reduce ripple at high frequencies in order to realize a stable DC signal. The proposed rectifier enables harvesting energy at even a low input power from −40 dBm for a resistive load of 50 kΩ. It realizes a significant improvement in comparison with state of the art solutions 600 Gleichrichter, Elektrische Spannung Gleichrichter, Technische Universität Chemnitz, Publikationsfonds Radio frequency energy transmission, RF-DC Converter, rectifier, power efficiency, voltage multiplier, Villard topology, Dickson topology, Chemnitz University of Technology, Publication funds urn:nbn:de:bsz:ch1-qucosa-224264 10.3390/s17030546 Technische Universität Chemnitz edt Technische Universität Chemnitz, Chemnitz MDPI AG pbl MDPI AG, Schweiz Issam Chaour aut Ahmed Fakhfakh aut Olfa Kanoun aut eng http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s17030546 Link zur Originalpublikation in der Zeitschrift "Sensors" Sensors 2017, 17(3), 546; doi:10.3390/s17030546 1424-8220 born digital blum ute.blumtritt@bibliothek.tu-chemnitz.de article