A New Compensated Rectifier for Wireless Energy Harvesting System With Low Start‐Up Voltage and High Sensitivity

ABSTRACT This work presents a compensated rectifier with a compensation state adjudicate (CSA) circuit for wireless power harvesting, which jointly optimizes sensitivity, power conversion efficiency (PCE), start‐up voltage, and settling time. The current mirror‐based threshold compensation enhances the voltage gain and PCE by reducing the threshold voltage loss. However, under low input RF voltage and a heavy load conditions, the threshold compensation may become ineffective. To address this issue, a CSA circuit is introduced to isolate the rectifier load and reduce the load current before the threshold compensation voltage is established. As a result, both the start‐up voltage and the load range of the proposed rectifier are improved. Moreover, the start‐up time is also reduced benefited from CSA. The proposed compensated rectifier with CSA is designed in a commercial 65‐nm CMOS process. Its performance was evaluated through comprehensive simulations of key rectifier parameters, confirming well‐balanced performance optimization. Simulation results demonstrate a peak PCE of 42%, along with a sensitivity of −21.2 dBm and a start‐up voltage of 280 mV for the CSA‐equipped rectifier, representing improvements of more than 0.7 dBm and 40 mV, respectively, compared to the non‐CSA architecture. Furthermore, by isolating the load from the main rectifier before the threshold compensation is established, the settling time is significantly shortened, and the allowable load range is extended down to 20 kΩ.