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This article presents a $W$ -band rectenna unit that incorporates a novel CMOS switching rectifier and a print tapered slot antenna. The operation principle of the switching rectifier is analyzed. The proposed rectifier topology shows improved reliability, and it utilizes the body-diode effect (BDE) to improve power conversion efficiency (PCE). Besides, a high-gain $W$ -band antipodal linearly tapered slot antenna is implemented on PCB to improve the overall efficiency. In order to demonstrate the utility of the proposed rectenna unit for large-scale rectenna array, a $1\times 2$ (parallel) and $2\times 2$ (series-parallel) rectenna arrays in 40-nm bulk CMOS technology and PCB process have been implemented. The switching rectifier achieves a peak PCE of 45.8% at 94GHz with improved reliability. Occupying only 0.0756 mm2, the overall PCEs of the rectenna unit and the $2\times 2$ rectenna array are 25% and 23%, delivering 5.6- and 20-mW output dc power, respectively, at 90-mW/cm2 incident power density. The proposed rectifier and rectenna array achieve the highest PCE among recently reported $W$ -band rectifiers and rectenna arrays with different technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes the concept of millimeter-wave (mm-wave) switching rectifiers originated from drain-pumped mixers. The topology and circuit design methodology are distinctly different from other CMOS mm-wave rectifiers which adopt voltage multiplier techniques. Operation principle and RF-to-dc power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the proposed switching rectifiers are analyzed to overcome the fundamental limits on achievable performance of switching rectifiers at mm wave. In order to demonstrate the utility of the proposed concept, two prototypes in 65-nm bulk CMOS technology have been implemented: two fully integrated switching rectifiers operating at Ka-band and W-band. A peak PCE of 36.5% at 35 GHz with a load resistance of $50~\Omega $ at about 15-dBm input power is measured for the Ka-band rectifier. Measurement results for the W-band rectifier also indicate that the PCE peaks at 27% at 91 GHz for a load resistance of $43~\Omega $ at about 16-dBm input power. To the best of our knowledge, the two fully integrated rectifiers which occupy the smallest chip area exhibit a competitive PCE reported among Ka-band and W-band CMOS rectifiers, competing well with GaAs counterparts where the Schottky diode is available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]