Hybrid tag for radio frequency identification system

• US 10,255,467 B2
• Filed: 02/26/2018
• Issued: 04/09/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Friedman, Daniel J., Liu, Duixian, Sanduleanu, Mihai A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sandhu, Amritbir K
• Application Number:
  US15/904,756
• Publication Number:
  US 20180189530A1
• Time in Patent Office: 407 Days
• Field of Search: 398115-118, 398128, 398138, 398140, 340 101, 340 102, 340 103, 340 1031, 340 1032, 340 1033, 340 1034, 340 104, 340 1041, 340 1042, 340 105, 340 1051, 340 1052, 3405721, 3405724
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/0723 the record carrier comprising an arrangement for non-contact communication, e.g. wireless communication circuits on transponder cards, non-contact smart cards or RFIDs
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10366 the interrogation device being adapted for miscellaneous applications
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/1097 Optical sensing of electronic memory record carriers, such as interrogation of RFIDs with an additional optical interface

Abstract

RFID (radio frequency identification) systems are provided in which tag and interrogator devices implement a hybrid framework for signaling including an optical transmitter/receiver system and an RF transmitter/receiver system. For instance, an RFID tag device includes: optical receiver circuitry configured to receive an optical signal having an embedded clock signal from an interrogator device, and convert the optical signal into an electrical signal comprising the embedded clock signal; clock extraction circuitry configured to extract the embedded clock signal from the electrical signal, and output the extracted clock signal as a clock signal for controlling clocking functions of the tag device; voltage regulator circuitry configured to generate a regulated supply voltage from the electrical signal, wherein the regulated supply voltage is utilized as a bias voltage for components of the tag device; and data transmitter circuitry configured to wirelessly transmit tag data to the interrogator device.

Claims

1. A method for reading data from a tag device, the method comprising:

capturing an optical clock signal transmitted from an interrogator device to the tag device;

converting the optical clock signal into an electrical clock signal which represents the optical clock signal, wherein a period of the electrical clock signal is equal to a period of the optical clock signal;

utilizing the electrical clock signal to control state machine control circuitry on the tag device; and

generating a regulated supply voltage from the electrical clock signal, wherein the regulated supply voltage is utilized as a bias voltage for powering the state machine control circuitry and other components of the tag device,

wherein the capturing, converting, utilizing, and generating steps are performed by the tag device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the optical clock signal transmitted from the interrogator device comprises a pulsed optical laser signal.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein converting the optical clock signal into the electrical clock signal comprises:

capturing photonic energy of the optical clock signal using one or more photodiodes operating in a photovoltaic mode;

converting the captured photonic energy into a voltage or current signal; and

generating the electrical clock signal from the voltage or current signal.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing a memory access operation to read out tag data that is stored in a memory of the tag device using the electrical clock signal;

generating a serial data bit stream comprising the read out tag data;

transmitting the serial data bit stream to the interrogator device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein transmitting the serial data bit stream to the interrogator device comprises:

utilizing a loop antenna on the tag device to magnetically couple RF power from an unmodulated RF carrier signal applied to an RF antenna of the interrogator device; and

changing an impedance of the loop antenna on the tag device in response to changes in logic levels of data bits of the serial data bit stream, wherein changing the impedance of the loop antenna modulates the RF power on the loop antenna and causes modulated RF power encoded with the serial data bit stream to be reflected back to the RF antenna of the interrogator device.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the loop antenna comprises a multi-loop antenna having a dimension that is smaller than a wavelength of the unmodulated RF carrier signal applied to the RF antenna of the interrogator device.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein changing the impedance of the loop antenna on the tag device in response to changes in the logic levels of the data bits of the serial data bit stream, comprises:

applying the serial data bit stream to switching circuitry, and

operating the switching circuitry to selectively connect and disconnect the loop antenna on the tag device to a ground terminal, based on the logic levels of the data bits in the serial data bit stream applied to the switching circuitry.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a utilizing the electrical clock signal to control state machine control circuitry on the tag device.

9. A tag device, comprising:

a substrate comprising components integrally formed thereon, wherein the components comprise;

state machine control circuitry configured to control functions of the tag device;

a non-volatile memory configured to store tag data;

optical receiver circuitry configured to capture an optical clock signal transmitted from an interrogator device, and convert the optical clock signal into an electrical signal;

clock extraction circuitry configured to generate g clock signal from the electrical signal output from the optical receiver circuitry, wherein the clock signal is utilized for controlling clocking functions of the tag device, and wherein a period of the clock signal is equal to a period of the optical clock signal;

voltage regulator circuitry configured to generate a regulated supply voltage from the electrical signal output from the optical receiver circuitry, wherein the regulated supply voltage is utilized as a bias voltage for the components of the tag device; and

data transmitter circuitry configured to wirelessly transmit the tag data to the interrogator device.

10. The tag device of claim 9, wherein the optical receiver circuitry comprises one or more photodiodes that are configured to operate in a photovoltaic mode to convert photonic energy of the optical clock signal into a current.

11. The tag device of claim 10, wherein the one or more photodiodes are connected in a stacked configuration comprising a plurality of serially connected photodiode stages, wherein at least one photodiode stage comprises a plurality of parallel connected photodiodes.

12. The tag device of claim 9, wherein the clock signal is input to the state machine control circuitry to control a memory access operation of the non-volatile memory, wherein the memory access operation comprises reading out the stored tag data as a serial data bit stream that is serially clocked to the data transmitter circuitry using the clock signal.

13. The tag device of claim 12, wherein the data transmitter circuitry comprises:

a loop antenna; and

switching circuitry that is configured to change an impedance of the loop antenna in response to changes in logic levels of data bits of the serial data bit stream which comprises the tag data that is read out from the non-volatile memory.

14. The tag device of claim 13, wherein the loop antenna comprises a planar multi-loop antenna having a differential feed.

15. The tag device of claim 13, wherein one or more of the components of the tag device are disposed within an inner loop area of the loop antenna.

16. The tag device of claim 9, wherein the substrate comprises a flexible substrate.

17. The tag device of claim 9, wherein each of a length, width, and thickness dimension of the tag device is about 75 microns or less.