RFID TAGS WITH ORTHOGONAL COMMUNICATION CAPABILITIES, AND ASSOCIATED SYSTEMS

• US 20100271179A1
• Filed: 04/10/2007
• Published: 10/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/01/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intermec IP Corporation (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Intermec IP Corporation (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Inventors: Maltseff, Paul A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,587,406 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/10.100
• 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 7/0008 General problems related to the reading of electronic memory record carriers, independent of its reading method, e.g. power transfer

Abstract

An apparatus for use in an RFID data collection system includes an antenna portion for wirelessly exchanging signals and a memory portion for storing RFID data. A signal processing portion is coupled among the antenna portion and the memory portion. The signal processing portion is configured to receive RFID data and to at least encode or decode the received RFID data via at least two orthogonal modulation signals. Other configurations are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A radio frequency identification (RFID) tag, comprising:

a tag substrate;

at least one antenna formed on the substrate;

a memory, received by the substrate, for storing RFID data;

processing and modulation circuitry received by the substrate and coupled among the antenna and the memory, wherein the processing and modulation circuitry is configured to;

receive at least some of the stored RFID data, and

encode the received data using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) to modulate the received data onto two or more orthogonal subcarriers; and

wherein the at least one antenna transmits the OFDM encoded signal.

2. The RFID tag of claim 1 wherein the RFID tag comprises first and second antennas for transmitting the OFDM encoded signal.

3. The RFID tag of claim 1 wherein the RFID tag is an active tag.

4. The RFID tag of claim 1 wherein the processing and modulation circuitry is further configured to receive and process OFDM encoded signals.

5. A radio frequency identification (RFID) reader, comprising:

antenna means for wirelessly exchanging signals;

a memory means for storing data; and

processing and circuitry means, coupled among the antenna means and the memory means, for receiving RFID data stored in RFID tags, wherein the received RFID tag data is encoded using orthogonal modulation signals, and

wherein the processing and circuitry means further comprises means for decoding the received RFID tag data encoded using the orthogonal modulation signals.

6. The RFID reader of claim 5 wherein the antenna means comprises at least two antennas, and wherein the processing and circuitry means includes means for transmitting data using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) encoding.

7. The RFID reader of claim 5 wherein the processing and circuitry means comprises means for communicating with RFID tags to indicate that orthogonal communications are possible before entering an orthogonal communications mode.

8. A semiconductor device for use in a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag, the device comprising:

encoder circuitry that receives incoming data stored by the RFID tag and converts the stored RFID data into at least one transmitting signal that employs two or more orthogonal modulation signals; and

,

an output portion for outputting the RFID tag data, as the least one transmitting signal that employs the two or more orthogonal modulation signals, to be transmitted by the RFID tag.

9. The semiconductor device for use with an RFID tag of claim 8 wherein the encoder circuitry employs orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM).

10. The semiconductor device for use with an RFID tag of claim 8 wherein the encoder circuitry employs two or more orthogonal trigonometric functions as the two or more orthogonal modulation signals.

11. The semiconductor device for use with an RFID tag of claim 8 wherein the encoder circuitry employs two orthogonal modulation signals.

12. The semiconductor device for use with an RFID tag of claim 8 wherein the RFID tag includes at least two spatially separated transmitting antennas, and wherein the encoder circuitry employs two orthogonal modulation signals, each associated with one of the two antennas.

13. The semiconductor device for use with an RFID tag of claim 8, further comprising memory, coupled to the encoder circuitry, for storing the RFID tag data and data associated with two or more subcarriers for permitting the encoder circuitry to produce the two or more orthogonal modulation signals.

14. An apparatus for use in a radio frequency identification (RFID) data collection system, the apparatus comprising:

an antenna portion for wirelessly exchanging signals;

a memory portion for storing RFID data; and

a signal processing portion coupled among the antenna portion and the memory portion, wherein the signal processing portion is configured to receive RFID data and to at least encode or decode the received RFID data via at least two orthogonal modulation signals that are mutually orthogonal to each other with respect to the RFID data collection system.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the apparatus is an RFID tag, wherein the antenna portion includes at least one antenna, and wherein the signal processing portion is configured to encode the received RFID data via the least two orthogonal modulation signals.

16. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the apparatus is an RFID tag reader, wherein the antenna portion includes at least one antenna, and wherein the signal processing portion is configured to decode the received RFID data via the least two orthogonal modulation signals.

17. A computer-readable medium whose contents cause at least one device to perform a method for decoding data received from a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag, the method comprising:

receiving RFID data from the RFID tag, wherein the received RFID tag data is encoded using mutually orthogonal signal encoding;

decoding the mutually orthogonal encoded RFID tag data; and

,

outputting the decoded mutually orthogonal encoded RFID tag data for data storage or automated data processing.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17 wherein the method further comprises initially communicating with the RFID tag to determine whether the RFID tag can provide mutually orthogonal encoded RFID tag data.

19. A wireless data collection system comprising:

a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag having at least one antenna;

an RFID reader module having at least one antenna and configured to exchange wireless signals with the RFID tag; and

,

wherein at least the RFID tag or the RFID reader is configured to transmit the RFID data over a range of frequencies, and wherein the RFID data is spread over the range of frequencies via at least two orthogonal modulation signals.

20. The wireless data collection system of claim 19 wherein the both the RFID tag and the RFID reader module have N number of antennas, where N is greater than or equal to three.

21. The wireless data collection system of claim 19 wherein the RFID data is tag data stored in the RFID tag, and wherein the RFID tag includes an interleaver for interleaving the tag data.

22. The wireless data collection system of claim 19 wherein the RFID reader module includes OFDM encoder circuitry.

23. The wireless data collection system of claim 19 wherein the RFID reader module includes a correlator to correlate a received RFID signal received from the RFID tag with signals representing the least two orthogonal modulation signals.

24. The wireless data collection system of claim 19 wherein the RFID tag is configured to perform inverse Fourier transform functions, and wherein the RFID reader module is configured to perform Fourier transform functions.