Radio frequency identification interrogator and method of operating the same

• US 20100194536A1
• Filed: 02/01/2010
• Published: 08/05/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/02/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Koo, Ji Hun
• Granted Patent: US 8,344,855 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/10.1
• 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: H04Q 2209/47 using RFID associated with sensors
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/75 by polling or interrogating the sub-stations
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/00 Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom

Abstract

A radio frequency identification (RFID) interrogator for determining a bandwidth of a backscattering signal to be backscattered by an RFID tag and a method of operating the same are provided. The RFID interrogator senses a predetermined frequency band to determine whether the predetermined frequency band has been occupied and determines a sensing result. The RFID interrogator further controls the bandwidth of the backscattering signal in response to the sensing result.

Claims

1. A radio frequency identification (RFID) interrogator for determining a bandwidth of a backscattering signal to be backscattered by an RFID tag, the RFID interrogator sensing a predetermined frequency band to determine whether the predetermined frequency band is occupied and determining a sensing result, and the RFID interrogator controlling the bandwidth of the backscattering signal in response to the sensing result.

2. The RFID interrogator of claim 1, wherein when the RFID interrogator determines that the predetermined frequency band is occupied, the RFID interrogator controls the bandwidth of the backscattering signal to preclude the predetermined frequency band.

3. The RFID interrogator of claim 1, wherein the RFID interrogator controls the bandwidth of the backscattering signal by changing at least one bandwidth factor of the backscattering signal.

4. The RFID interrogator of claim 3, wherein the bandwidth factor comprises at least one between a backscattering link frequency (BLF) and a Miller subcarrier index.

5. The RFID interrogator of claim 4, wherein when the RFID interrogator determines that the predetermined frequency band is not occupied, the RFID interrogator senses a backscattering signal candidate band based on a predetermined value of the BLF and a predetermined value of the Miller subcarrier index, and wherein when the RFID interrogator determines that the backscattering signal candidate band is occupied based on the sensing result, the RFID interrogator changes the value of the BLF until the backscattering signal candidate band is not occupied.

6. The RFID interrogator of claim 5, wherein when the RFID interrogator determines that the predetermined frequency band is occupied, the RFID interrogator senses the backscattering signal candidate band based on the predetermined value of the BLF and the predetermined value of the Miller subcarrier index, and wherein when the RFID interrogator determines that the backscattering signal candidate band is occupied based on the sensing result, the RFID interrogator increases or decreases at least one between the value of the BLF and the value of the Miller subcarrier index until the backscattering signal candidate band is not occupied.

7. The RFID interrogator of claim 6, wherein the RFID interrogator corrects one of the value of the BLF and the value of the Miller subcarrier index and changes the other one of the value of the BLF and the value of the Miller subcarrier index and senses a backscattering signal candidate band based on the changed value to determine whether it has been occupied, and wherein when all backscattering signal candidate bands corresponding to all available changed values have been occupied, the RFID interrogator adjusts the fixed value.

8. The RFID interrogator of claim 1, wherein the RFID interrogator receives a signal in the predetermined frequency band and determines that the predetermined frequency band has been occupied when the received signal has an amplitude greater than a predetermined value.

9. A radio frequency identification (RFID) interrogator for determining a bandwidth of a backscattering signal to be backscattered by an RFID tag, the RFID interrogator sensing a predetermined frequency band to determine whether the predetermined frequency band is occupied, the RFID interrogator controlling the bandwidth of the backscattering signal to include at least part of the predetermined frequency band or to preclude the predetermined frequency band based on a sensing result.

10. The RFID interrogator of claim 9, wherein the RFID interrogator controls the bandwidth of the backscattering signal by changing at least one bandwidth factor of the backscattering signal.

11. The RFID interrogator of claim 10, wherein the bandwidth factor comprises at least one of a backscattering link frequency (BLF) and a Miller subcarrier index.

12. A radio frequency identification (RFID) interrogator for determining a bandwidth of a backscattering signal to be backscattered by an RFID tag, the RFID interrogator sensing a bandwidth adjacent a current bandwidth of the backscattering signal to determine whether the adjacent bandwidth has been occupied based on information about the current bandwidth of the backscattering signal, and the RFID interrogator maintaining or changing the current bandwidth of the backscattering signal based on a sensing result.

13. The RFID interrogator of claim 12, wherein the RFID interrogator periodically senses the adjacent bandwidth to determine whether the adjacent bandwidth is occupied.

14-22. -22. (canceled)