PASSIVE TAG INCLUDING VOLATILE MEMORY

• US 20080136596A1
• Filed: 10/31/2007
• Published: 06/12/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: SCHUHA, Andreas, YEO, Junho, BAE, Ji-Hoon, CHAE, Jong-Suk, Preishuber-Pfluegl, Josef, CHOI, Gil-Young, JANEK, Alex, SON, Hae-Won, PYO, Cheol-Sig, JUNG, Jae-Young, MO, Hee-Sook
• Granted Patent: US 8,102,263 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/10.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/0705 the battery being connected to a power saving arrangement
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/0717 the sensor being capable of sensing environmental conditions such as temperature history or pressure
• 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

A passive tag including a volatile memory is provided. The passive tag includes: a sensing unit which senses or measures information about environmental surroundings of the tag; a volatile memory; a non-volatile memory; and a control unit which firstly stores resultant data sensed or measured by the sensing unit in the volatile memory and then moves the data stored in the volatile memory to the non-volatile memory according to pre-set conditions. Therefore, the life of the tag is prolonged and stability of important data can be secured.

Claims

1. A passive tag which communicates with a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) reader, the passive tag comprising:

a sensing unit which senses or measures information about environmental surroundings of the tag;

a volatile memory;

a non-volatile memory; and

a control unit which firstly stores resultant data sensed or measured by the sensing unit in the volatile memory and then moves the data stored in the volatile memory to the non-volatile memory according to pre-set conditions.

2. The passive tag of claim 1, further comprising:

a power supply unit which supplies the power required to operate the tag according to a predetermined control strategy;

a power receiving unit which receives an RF signal including the operating power of the tag from the RFID reader; and

a power management unit which measures a strength of the RF signal received from the power receiving unit and supplies the power of the power supply unit or the RF power received from the RFID reader to the tag according to the strength of the RF signal.

3. The passive tag of claim 1, wherein the pre-set conditions are based on a data move command received from the RFID reader.

4. The passive tag of claim 1, wherein the pre-set conditions comprise the case where an exceeded amount of the power remains after the power is supplied to each element of the tag by using the RF power received from the RFID reader.

5. The passive tag of claim 1, wherein the pre-set conditions comprise the case where the RF power received from the RFID reader is not sufficient to operate the tag.

6. The passive tag of claim 2, wherein the pre-set conditions comprise the case where the remaining power in the power supply unit is not sufficient to operate the tag.

7. The passive tag of claim 2, wherein the power supply unit comprises a battery and a capacity device.