Methods and systems of a multiple radio frequency network node RFID tag

• US 8,269,630 B2
• Filed: 10/28/2007
• Issued: 09/18/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/09/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TEGO LLC
• Original Assignee: TEGO LLC
• Inventors: Butler, Timothy P., Berrios, Javier, Beckhardt, Steve, Hamlin, Robert W., Moore, Larry, Puleston, David, Mats, Leonid
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong, Albert
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mahase, Pameshanand
• Application Number:
  US11/926,036
• Publication Number:
  US 20120206243A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,787 Days
• Field of Search: 340/10.1
• US Class Current: 340/572.1
• 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: G06K 19/0724 the arrangement being a circuit for communicating at a plurality of frequencies, e.g. for managing time multiplexed communication over at least two antennas of different types
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07749 the record carrier being capable of non-contact communication, e.g. constructional details of the antenna of a non-contact smart card
• 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: H01Q 1/2225 used in active tags, i.e. provided with its own power source or in passive tags, i.e. deriving power from RF signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/77 for interrogation
• 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 Radio Frequency ID (RFID) tag that contains multiple Radio Frequency (RF) network nodes that may include memory storage for the RFID tag, the memory storage may include one time programmable (OTP) memory and many time programmable (MTP) memory and the storage of the information may be within the OTP and MTP memory.

Claims

1. A method of emulating multiple-time programmable memory utilizing one-time programmable memory on an RFID tag, comprising:

providing a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag, the RFID tag having an RF network node;

providing memory in data communication with the RF network node, the memory comprising a plurality of one time programmable (OTP) memory locations for storing information, the plurality of OTP memory locations configured to operate as a single emulated many time programmable (eMTP) memory location, wherein the plurality of OTP memory locations operating as an eMTP memory location are associated with one address, the one address readable and writable; and

communicating the information stored in the plurality of OTP memory locations operating as an eMTP memory location in response to an interrogation.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

writing new information to be stored in the plurality of OTP memory locations operating as an eMPT memory location through a protocol, wherein successive write operations write to a new OTP memory location respectively.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a set of the OTP memory locations grouped into a virtual segment, the virtual segment comprising a plurality of memory words associated to it for storing written information more than once.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein information written to the virtual segment is actually written to the physical location of the set of the OTP memory locations grouped into a virtual segment.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein plurality of memory words is a fixed number, and wherein can be written to the segment up to many times as fixed number.