Method of flagging partial write in RF tags

• US 5,966,082 A
• Filed: 05/23/1997
• Issued: 10/12/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 05/23/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Intermec IP Corporation (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Intermec IP Corporation (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Inventors: Goldman, Kenneth Alan, Friedman, Daniel Joseph, Heinrich, Harley Kent, Cofino, Thomas Anthony
• Primary Examiner(s): Horabik, Michael
• Assistant Examiner(s): Asongwed, Anthony A.
• Application Number:
  US08/862,912
• Time in Patent Office: 872 Days
• Field of Search: 340/825.54, 340/571, 340/572, 340/573, 342/51, 342/42
• US Class Current: 340/10.51
• 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 method, system, and apparatus for sending data from a base station to an RF tag, whereby the RF tag comprises an "intention to write to memory" field, and the "intention to write to memory" field is written before writing the data and cleared after the data is successfully written. If the data transmission is interrupted and partial data is written to the tag, the "intention to write to memory" field will not have been cleared when the tag is checked at a later time through interrogation by a base station.

Claims

1. A method of sending data from a base station to a radio frequency (RF) transponder (RF tag), the RF tag having a tag non-volatile memory, the tag non-volatile memory, comprising first memory and a second memory, the second memory comprising an "intention to write to memory" field, comprising;

a) writing information in the second memory;

then

b) writing the data to the first memory;

then

c) checking whether the data was successfully written to the first memory; and

then

d) clearing the information from the second memory after successful writing the data to the first memory.

2. The method of claim 1, where the information written in the second memory is a single bit.

3. The method of claim 1, where the information written in the second memory is a description of the data to be written in the first memory.

4. The method of claim 1, where the information written in the second memory is an address of data to be written in the first memory.

5. The method of claim 1, where the information written in the second memory is a name of a field to be written in the first memory.

6. A method of sending data from a base station to an RF tag having a tag non-volatile memory and

writing the data to an address in a first part of the tag non-volatile memory, comprising;

a) reserving a second part of the tag non volatile memory as an "intention to write to memory" field;

b) encoding the address in the "intention to write to memory" field;

c) writing the data to the address in the first part of the tag non-volatile memory;

d) checking whether the data is successfully written to the address in the first part of the tag non-volatile memory; and

e) clearing the "intention to write to memory" field after successfully writing the data to the address in the first part of the tag non-volatile memory.

7. An RF tag, the RF Tag having a tag non-volatile memory, comprising;

a first tag memory, the first tag memory being a first part of the tag non-volatile memory for holding data written to the tag;

a second tag memory, the second tag memory being a second part of the tag non-volatile memory comprising an "intention to write to memory field", where the "intention to write to memory field" is written before the data is written to the first tag memory, and where the "intention to write to memory field" is cleared after successfully writing the data to the first tag memory.

8. The RF tag of claim 7, where the second tag memory is a single bit.

9. The RF tag of claim 7, where a description of the data to be written in the first tag memory is written in the second tag memory before the data is written in the first tag memory.

10. The RF tag of claim 9, where the description of the data to be written in the second tag memory is an address of the data to be written in the first tag memory.

11. The RF tag of claim 9, where the description of the data to be written in the second tag memory is a name of a field to be written in the second tag memory.

12. A system, comprising;

a base station;

an RF tag, comprising a tag non-volatile memory, the tag non-volatile memory comprising a first memory, the first memory for holding data written to the tag non-volatile memory, the tag non-volatile memory further comprising a second memory, the second memory comprising an "intention to write to memory field", where the "intention to write to memory field" is written before the data is written to the first memory, and where the "intention to write to memory field" is cleared after successfully writing the data to the first memory.

13. The system of claim 12, where the second memory is a single bit.

14. The system of claim 12, where the information written in the second tag memory is a description of the data to be written in the first memory.

15. The system of claim 12, where the information written in the second memory is an address of data to be written in the first memory.