An active-diode-based CMOS rectifier for biomedical power harvesting applications

A fully integrated and near lossless CMOS rectifier, intended for inductively powered electronic medical devices, is presented. By making use of high-performance active diodes fulfilling almost ideal switching (zero forward voltage drop) and circuit to be provided with negative resistance, the proposed design is able to achieve a maximum conversion efficiency of more than 90% when designed in a 0.18-mu m standard CMOS process, without any special device requiring additional manufacturing procedures. As a result, the proposed design dramatically reduces the production cost. Estimations in all aspects regarding the performance of the rectifier are given in this paper. Experimental results from the fabricated chip are also included in this paper. Copyright (C) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.