A Simple Technology for Designing Ultrawideband Rectifiers

The key difficulty for designing a wideband rectifier is to match the impedance of rectifying diodes at wide frequency range. In conventional works, the circuit topology and matching network are carefully designed to realize bandwidth extension. However, the operating bandwidth is concurrently limited by the matching network, while the size of the rectifier is usually enlarged. In this work, a novel feature of Schottky diode is found that its impedance is naturally not sensitive to frequency varying. Making full use of this feature, a simple matching network is employed, and the bandwidth can still be ultrawide. Furthermore, the proposed design method is effective to various diode models, thus can be applied to design rectifiers for different applications. For verification, a prototype is implemented. The measured results show that the rectifier can maintain a power conversion efficiency beyond 50% at frequencies ranging from 0.1 to 4 GHz (the relative bandwidth reaches 190%). The total size can be as small as 1 x 1 cm(2) . The peak efficiency reaches up to 74.9%.

Automated summary

The key difficulty in designing a wideband rectifier is impedance matching. Traditional approaches are limited by the matching network and often result in larger rectifier sizes. This study explores the impedance characteristics of Schottky diodes and uses a simple matching network to achieve ultrawide bandwidth. The proposed design method is applicable to various diode models for different applications. Experimental results show a power conversion efficiency of over 50% in a frequency range of 0.1 to 4 GHz, with a relative bandwidth of 190% and a compact size of 1 x 1 cm(2). The peak efficiency reaches up to 74.9%.