The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 05, 2016
Filed:
Apr. 15, 2015
Hong Kong Applied Science & Technology Research Institute Company Limited, Hong Kong, HK;
Abstract
A RF-to-DC converter charges a battery or powers a circuit from the energy of received radio waves. The RF energy received is very small for far-field applications, so the converter is highly sensitive. Four capacitor arrays are arranged in two banks. Buffered RF signals pump bottom plates of the capacitors. A series of L-switches in each bank connect between the two capacitor arrays in that bank. Each L switch has a pre-charge switch that charges that stage's input capacitor, and a stage-transfer switch that shares charge from the input capacitor to an output capacitor for that stage. Switches in the two banks alternately pre-charge and pump, with the left bank pumping while the right bank pre-charges. Switches are transistors with substrates tied to their sources or actively driven by substrate control signals. One bank may use n-channel transistors with the other bank uses p-channel transistors. Gate voltages may be boosted.