This paper presents a fully integrated CMOS analog front end for a passive 900-MHz radio-frequency identification (RFID) transponder. The power supply in this front end is generated from the received RF electromagnetic energy by using an RF-dc voltage rectifier. In order to improve the compatibility with standard CMOS technology, Schottky diodes in conventional RF-dc rectifiers are replaced by diode-connected MOS transistors with zero threshold. Meanwhile, theoretical analyses for the proposed rectifier are provided and verified by both simulation and measurement results. The design considerations of the pulsewidth-modulation (PWM) demodulator and the backscatter modulator in the front end are also discussed for low-power applications. The proposed front end is implemented in a 0.35-mum 2P4M CMOS technology. The whole chip occupies a die area of 490 times 780 mum2 and consumes only 2.1 muW in reading mode under a self-generated 1.5-V supply voltage. The measurement results show that the proposed rectifier can properly operate with a -14.7-dBm input RF power at a power conversion efficiency of 13.0%. In the proposed RFID applications, this sensitivity corresponds to 10.88-m communication distance at 4-W equivalent isotropically radiated power from a reader base station.

A Fully Integrated 900-MHz Passive RFID Transponder Front End With Novel Zero-Threshold RF–DC Rectifier

A battery-less, multi-node wireless body area network (WBAN) system-on-a-chip (SoC) is demonstrated. An efficiency tracking loop is proposed that adjusts the rectifier's threshold voltage to maximize the wireless harvesting operation, resulting in a minimum RF sensitivity better than –20 dBm at 904.5 MHz. Each SoC node is injection-locked and time-synchronized with the broadcasted RF basestation power (up to a sensitivity of –33 dBm) using an injection-locked frequency divider (ILFD). Hence, every sensor node is phase-locked with the basestation and all nodes can wirelessly transmit TDMA sensor data concurrently. Designed in a 65 nm-CMOS process, the fabricated sensor SoC contains the energy harvesting rectifier and bandgap, duty-cycled ADC, digital logic, as well as the multi-node wireless clock synchronization and MICS-band transmitter. For a broadcasted basestation power of 20 dBm (30 dBm), experimental measurements verify correct powering, sensor reading, and wireless data transfer for a distance of 3 m (9 m). The entire biomedical system application is verified by reception of room and abdominal temperature monitoring.

0.56 V, –20 dBm RF-Powered, Multi-Node Wireless Body Area Network System-on-a-Chip With Harvesting-Efficiency Tracking Loop

This paper presents a wirelessly powered implantable electrochemical sensor tag for continuous blood glucose monitoring. The system is remotely powered by a 13.56-MHz inductive link and utilizes an ISO 15693 radio frequency identification (RFID) standard for communication. This paper provides reliable and accurate measurement for changing glucose level. The sensor tag employs a long-term glucose sensor, a winding ferrite antenna, an RFID front-end, a potentiostat, a 10-bit sigma-delta analog to digital converter, an on-chip temperature sensor, and a digital baseband for protocol processing and control. A high-frequency external reader is used to power, command, and configure the sensor tag. The only off-chip support circuitry required is a tuned antenna and a glucose microsensor. The integrated chip fabricated in SMIC 0.13- $\mu$ m CMOS process occupies an area of 1.2 mm $\times$ 2 mm and consumes 50 $\mu$ W. The power sensitivity of the whole system is $-$ 4 dBm. The sensor tag achieves a measured glucose range of 0–30 mM with a sensitivity of 0.75 nA/mM.

An Implantable RFID Sensor Tag toward Continuous Glucose Monitoring

An 8.75 mm3 microsystem targeting temperature sensing achieves zero-net-energy operation using energy harvesting and ultra-low-power circuit techniques. A 200 nW sensor measures temperature with -1.6 °C/+3 °C accuracy at a rate of 10 samples/sec. A 28 pJ/cycle, 0.4 V, 72 kHz ARM Cortex-M3 microcontroller processes temperature data using a 3.3 fW leakage per bit SRAM. Two 1 mm2 solar cells and a thin-film Li battery power the microsystem through an integrated power management unit. The complete microsystem consumes 7.7 μ W when active and enters a 550 pW data-retentive standby mode between temperature measurements. The microsystem can process temperature data hourly for 5 years using only the initial energy stored in the battery. This lifetime is extended indefinitely using energy harvesting to recharge the battery, enabling energy-autonomous operation.

A Millimeter-Scale Energy-Autonomous Sensor System With Stacked Battery and Solar Cells

A passive RFID transponder conforming to the EPC Gen 2 standard is presented, including an RF and analog front-end, EEPROM, and a digital processing core and features a unique RF sampled analog random number generator to support the required anti-collision protocol. Fabricated in 0.13mum CMOS, the 0.55mm2 IC functions at a sensitivity of -14dBm using an 860-to-960MHz carrier at 40-to-160kb/s RX data rates.

A Passive UHF RFID Transponder for EPC Gen 2 with -14dBm Sensitivity in 0.13μm CMOS

This paper describes a voltage regulator system for ultra-low-power RFID tags (also called passive tags) in a 0.15 mum analog CMOS technology. These tags derive their power supply from the incoming RF energy through rectification instead of from a battery. The regulator is functional with just 110 nA current. Owing to the huge variation of the rectified voltage (by as much as tens of volts), voltage limiters and clamps are employed at various points along the regulation path. A limiter at the rectifier output clamps the rectifier voltage to a narrower range of 1.4 V. A fine-regulator, then, regulates the supply voltage close to a bandgap reference value of 1.25 V. The key aspect of this regulator is the dynamic bandwidth boosting that takes place in the regulator by sensing the excess current that is bypassed in the limter (during periods of excess energy) and increasing its bias current and hence bandwidth, accordingly. A higher bandwidth is necessary for quick recovery from line transients due to the burst nature of RF transmission, with a larger energy burst requiring a higher bandwidth to settle quickly without large line transients. The challenge of compensating such a regulator across various load currents and RF energy levels is described in this paper

G.K. Balachandran

Papers

A 110 nA Voltage Regulator System With Dynamic Bandwidth Boosting for RFID Systems