Radio frequency identification tag

• US 7,388,497 B1
• Filed: 02/01/2006
• Issued: 06/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: United States Secretary of the Navy
• Original Assignee: the united states of america as represented by the secretary of the navy
• Inventors: Woodman, Michael L., Corbett, Blaise L.
• Primary Examiner(s): TRIEU, VAN THANH
• Application Number:
  US11/363,296
• Time in Patent Office: 867 Days
• Field of Search: 340/572.1, 340/572.2, 340/572.4, 340/572.5, 340/539.11, 340/10.1, 340/10.3, 340/10.4, 340/10.41, 340/10.42, 342/42, 342/44, 342/51
• US Class Current: 340/572.4
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/067 Record carriers with conductive marks, printed circuits or semiconductor circuit elements, e.g. credit or identity cards also with resonating or responding marks without active components
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10069 the collision being resolved in the frequency domain, e.g. by hopping from one frequency to the other frequency hopping or spread spectrum techniques H04B7/00

Abstract

Radio frequency identification (RFID) includes far-field systems associated with an RFID interrogator and an RFID tag. The RFID interrogator produces continuous wave (CW) unmodulated signals selected from frequencies comprising a predetermined frequency band. The RFID tag includes reception and transmission antenna circuits, a signal processor, and an oscillator. The reception antenna circuit receives the reception signals from the RFID interrogator. The signal processor determines whether the reception signals correspond to a plurality of tag identification frequencies as a correlation. The signal processor also produces responsive signals in response to the correlation. The oscillator supplies a carrier frequency. The transmission antenna circuit combines the carrier signal with the response signals to produce transmit signals, and then dispatches the transmit signals.

Claims

1. A far-field radio frequency identification (RFID) tag responsive to a plurality of continuous wave (CW) unmodulated reception signals selected from frequencies comprising a predetermined frequency band, the RFID tag comprising:

a reception antenna circuit for receiving the reception signals;

a signal processor for determining whether the reception signals correspond to a plurality of tag identification frequencies as a correlation, and producing responsive signals in response to the correlation;

an oscillator for supplying a carrier signal at a carrier frequency; and

a transmission antenna circuit for combining the carrier signal with the response signals to produce transmit signals, and dispatching the transmit signals.

2. The RFID tag according to claim 1, wherein the signal processor determines whether the reception signals correspond to the tag identification frequencies by dividing the reception signals into constituent frequencies using a Goertzel algorithm.

3. The RFID tag according to claim 1, wherein the signal processor determines whether the reception signals correspond to the tag identification frequencies by dividing the reception signals into constituent frequencies using an optimized Goertzel algorithm.

4. The RFID tag according to claim 1, wherein the signal processor determines whether the reception signals correspond to the tag identification frequencies by dividing the reception signals into constituent frequencies using a Chirp-Z algorithm.

5. The RFID tag according to claim 1, wherein the signal processor includes at least one of a power source, a read-only-memory (ROM), a random-access-memory (RAM) and a direct memory access (DMA).

6. The RFID tag according to claim 1, further comprising:

an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for converting the CW signals to digital signals; and

a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) for converting the digital response signals to analog signals, wherein the signal processor is a digital signal processor (DSP).

7. The RFID tag according to claim 1, wherein the reception antenna circuit operates in the microwave frequency range.

8. The RFID tag according to claim 1, wherein the oscillator and the transmission antenna operate in the UHF range.

9. A far-field radio frequency identification (RFID) tag responsive to a plurality of continuous wave (CW) unmodulated reception signals selected from frequencies comprising a predetermined frequency band, the RFID tag comprising:

a reception antenna circuit for receiving the CW reception signals;

an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for converting the CW reception signals to digital reception signals;

a digital signal processor (DSP) for determining whether the reception signals correspond to a plurality of tag identification frequencies as a correlation, and producing digital responsive signals in response to the correlation;

a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) for converting the digital responsive signals to analog responsive signals;

an oscillator circuit for supplying a carrier signal at a carrier frequency; and

a transmission antenna circuit for combining the carrier signal with the analog responsive signals to produce transmit signals, and dispatching the transmit signals.

10. The RFID tag according to claim 9, wherein:

the transmission antenna circuit comprises a transmission antenna, an impedance matching circuit, and a balancing circuit,

the balancing circuit receives the analog receptive signals to produce balance signals, and

the impedance matching circuit transmits to the transmission antenna the balance signals from the balancing circuit and the carrier signals from the oscillator circuit.

11. The RFID tag according to claim 9, wherein the oscillator circuit comprises an oscillator and a mixer, the mixer separately receives the carrier signal from the oscillator and the responsive analog signals, and the mixer submits the transmit signals to the transmission antenna circuit.

12. The RFID tag according to claim 9, wherein the reception antenna circuit further includes a bandpass filter, a low pass amplifier and a buffer.

13. The RFID tag according to claim 9, wherein the transmission antenna circuit further includes a reconstruction circuit, a buffer, a sample-and-hold circuit, an amplifier and a bandpass filter.

14. The RFID tag according to claim 9, wherein the DSP communicates with a finite impulse response (FIR) filter.

15. The RFID tag according to claim 9, wherein the signal processor determines whether the reception signals correspond to the tag identification frequencies by dividing the reception signals into constituent frequencies using one of a Goertzel algorithm, an optimized Goertzel algorithm and a Chirp-Z algorithm.

16. A method for responding to a plurality of continuous wave (CW) unmodulated reception signals by a far-field radio frequency identification (RFID) tag, the reception signals being selected from frequencies within a predetermined frequency band, the method comprising:

receiving the reception signals by a reception antenna circuit;

determining whether the reception signals correspond to a plurality of tag identification frequencies as a correlation by a signal processor;

producing responsive signals by the signal processor in response to the correlation;

supplying to the responsive signals by an oscillator a carrier signal at a carrier frequency;

combining the carrier signal with the response signals by a transmission antenna circuit to produce transmit signals; and

dispatching the transmit signals by the transmission antenna circuit.

17. The method according to claim 16, further comprising:

converting the CW reception signals to digital reception signals by an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), wherein the reception signals are digital reception signals, and the responsive signals are digital responsive signals; and

converting the digital responsive signals to analog responsive signals by a digital-to-analog converter (DAC).

18. The method according to claim 16, wherein supplying a carrier signal further includes reconstructing the analog responsive signals.

19. The method according to claim 16, wherein determining whether the reception signals correspond further includes dividing the reception signals into constituent frequencies using one of a Goertzel algorithm, an optimized Goertzel algorithm and a Chirp-Z algorithm.