A 920-MHz Dual-Mode Receiver with Energy Harvesting for UHF RFID Tag and IoT

Abstract

A low-power dual-mode receiver is presented for ultra-high-frequency (UHF) radio frequency identification (RFID) systems. The reconfigurable architecture of the tag is proposed to be compatible with low-power and high-sensitivity operating modes. The read range of RFID system and the lifetime of the tag are increased by photovoltaic, thermoelectric and RF energy-harvesting topology. The receiver is implemented in a 0.18-μm standard CMOS process and occupies an active area of 0.65 mm × 0.7 mm. For low-power mode, the tag is powered by the rectifier and the sensitivity is −18 dBm. For high-sensitivity mode, the maximum PCE of the fully on-chip energy harvester is 46.5% with over 1-μW output power and the sensitivity is −40 dBm with 880 nW power consumption under the supply voltage of 0.8 V.