IC tag, IC tag controlling method, and IC tag system

• US 20070024426A1
• Filed: 07/27/2006
• Published: 02/01/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: NEC Electronics Corporation (Renesas Electronics Corporation)
• Original Assignee: NEC Electronics Corporation (Renesas Electronics Corporation)
• Inventors: Akiyama, Kazuhiro, Igarashi, Hatsuhide, Satou, Koutarou
• Application Number:
  US11/493,916
• Publication Number:
  US 20070024426A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/10.500
• 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

Abstract

By canceling the invalidation, there is provided an IC tag that can be reused after the IC tag'"'"'s function was invalidated. An IC tag according to an embodiment operates in accordance with a standard protocol and a non-standard protocol and includes a control circuit for switching an operational mode, when receiving a KILL command during an operation based on the standard protocol, to an invalidated state based on the non-standard protocol, and when receiving a KILL cancel command during an operation based on the non-standard protocol, to a normal state based on the standard protocol.

Claims

1. An IC tag, comprising:

a receiving unit receiving a command of a first communication protocol and a command of a second communication protocol; and

a control circuit switching a first operational mode to a second operational mode when the IC tag receives a specific command of the first communication protocol and switching the second operational mode to the first operational mode when the IC tag receives a specific command of the second communication protocol,

wherein the IC tag operates based on the first communication protocol in the first operational mode and the IC tag operates based on the second communication protocol in the second operational mode.

2. The IC tag according to claim 1, further comprising a storage circuit that stores predetermined data,

wherein the control circuit switches the second operational mode to the first operational mode, when receiving a specific command during the second operational mode and deletes the predetermined data stored in the storage circuit.

3. The IC tag according to claim 2, wherein the predetermined data to be deleted includes a tag ID written to a system area in the storage circuit.

4. The IC tag according to claim 2, wherein the predetermined data to be deleted includes user data written to a user area in the storage circuit.

5. The IC tag according to claim 1, wherein the first communication protocol and the second communication protocol are different in a communication frame to be transmitted/received.

6. The IC tag according to claim 5, wherein the specific command in the first communication protocol and the specific command in the second communication protocol are different in bit length of command identification information in the communication frame.

7. The IC tag according to claim 5, wherein the bit of the communication frame to be transmitted/received is inverted between the first communication protocol and the second communication protocol.

8. The IC tag according to claim 5, wherein the first communication protocol and the second communication protocol are different in a method of coding the bit of the communication frame to be transmitted/received.

9. The IC tag according to claim 6, further comprising a flag storing unit storing flag information that represents the first operational mode or the second operational mode,

wherein the control circuit includes:

a command analyzing unit analyzing a received command based on the flag information; and

a flag information setting unit setting the flag information based on the result of analyzing a specific command by the command analyzing unit.

10. The IC tag according to claim 9, wherein the command analyzing unit includes:

a first decoder decoding a command of a first bit length based on the flag information; and

a second decoder decoding a command of a second bit length based on the flag information, and

the flag information setting unit sets the flag information based on the decoding result of the first or second decoder.

11. The IC tag according to claim 9, wherein the command analyzing unit includes:

a bit addition unit adding a bit to a command of a first bit length up to a second bit length; and

a decoder decoding the first command added with the bit or a command of the second bit length based on the flag information.

12. The IC tag according to claim 1, wherein the control circuit switches the operational mode if receiving the specific commands of the first communication protocol or the second communication protocol two or more times.

13. The IC tag according to claim 1, wherein the control circuit receives encoded data in addition to the specific command of the first communication protocol or the second communication protocol, and switches the operational mode only when the encoded data can be decoded.

14. A method of controlling an IC tag that receives a command of a first communication protocol and a command of a second communication protocol, comprising:

switching a first operational mode to a second operational mode when the IC tag receives a specific command of the first communication protocol and switching the second operational mode to the first operational mode when the IC tag receives a specific command of the second communication protocol,

wherein the IC tag operates based on the first communication protocol in the first operational mode and the IC tag operates based on the second communication protocol in the second operational mode.

15. The method of controlling an IC tag according to claim 14, wherein switching the second operational mode to the first operational mode, when receiving a specific command during the second operational mode and deleting the predetermined data stored in the storage circuit.

16. The method of controlling an IC tag according to claim 14, wherein the first communication protocol and the second communication protocol are different in communication frame to be transmitted/received.

17. An IC tag system, comprising:

an IC tag that operates in accordance with a first communication protocol and a second communication protocol; and

a reader/writer communicating with the IC tag,

the IC tag comprising;

a receiving unit receiving a command of a first communication protocol and a command of a second communication protocol; and

a control circuit switching a first operational mode to a second operational mode when the IC tag receives a specific command of the first communication protocol and switching the second operational mode to the first operational mode when the IC tag receives a specific command of the second operational protocol,

wherein the IC tag operates based on the first communication protocol in the first operational mode and the IC tag operates based on the second communication protocol in the second operational mode.