Composite multiple RFID tag facility

• US 8,242,911 B2
• Filed: 02/26/2009
• Issued: 08/14/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/11/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TEGO LLC
• Original Assignee: TEGO LLC
• Inventors: Moore, Larry, Beckhardt, Steve, Puleston, David, Hamlin, Robert W., Mats, Leonid
• Primary Examiner(s): Wu, Daniel
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mahase, Pameshanand
• Application Number:
  US12/393,863
• Publication Number:
  US 20090289776A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,265 Days
• Field of Search: 340/10.1, 340/10.42
• US Class Current: 340/572.1
• 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: G06Q 20/308 using the Internet of Things
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/321 using wearable devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/352 Contactless payments by cards
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/2216 used in interrogator/reader equipment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks

Abstract

In embodiments of the present invention improved capabilities are described for a composite RFID tag, where the composite RFID tag may include a plurality of individual tags that are arranged to respond to a reader as one tag.

Claims

1. A radio frequency identification (RFID) system comprising:

a composite RFID tag comprising a plurality of individual RFID devices, each of the individual RFID devices having a memory store and a physical memory address range, each of the individual RFID devices connected to an RF antenna, and each of the individual RFID devices being mounted to a common substrate and operable thereon, wherein at least one of the individual RFID devices comprises memory configuration information for the composite RFID tag; and

a memory addressing facility that maps, based on the memory configuration information of the at least one of the individual RFID devices, the physical memory address ranges of each of the individual RFID devices to a single logical addressing space and enables the physical memory address ranges of each of the individual RFID devices to be presented as a single memory for the composite RFID tag, wherein the memory addressing facility is included on a computing facility separate from the composite RFID tag and associated with an RFID interrogator device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the individual RFID devices is a primary RFID device having a primary antenna and the other RFID devices are secondary RFID devices having a secondary antenna, wherein the primary antenna has a larger range than the secondary antenna.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the individual RFID devices includes a primary memory and the other RFID devices each include a secondary memory, wherein the primary memory has a smaller capacity than the secondary memory.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the individual RFID devices is a beacon device, and in which the remaining RFID devices in the plurality are coupled to the beacon device.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the coupling is electromagnetic coupling.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of individual RFID devices has its own respective antenna.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein a subset of the plurality of individual RFID devices has a common antenna.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of individual RFID devices has a common antenna.