Philadelphia University Engineering Faculty Communications and Electronics Department

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)

Mahmoud Hisham Arnaout Jamal Jalal Hamidah

200910562 200610672

Dr.Wagah Farman Mohamad

Tuseday, May 24, 2011

ABSTRACT The project study and implement the design of Class Room Supervision system using the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. Radio frequency identification easier to monitor the presence and absence of students because of its advantages compared with the barcode system or footprint systems. Its intended to use one chip and design it to handle multiple frequencies. The method will save the time of lectures, free of cheating and committing to the time of the start of the lecture. The system is composed of passive tag which it sends the data, interrogator (reader) and antenna.

Contents Introduction: .............................................................................................1 RFID System: ............................................................................................2 Active and Passive RFID Tags: ...............................................................4 Study Room Supervision:.........................................................................5 Transmitter ............................................................................................5 Receiver...................................................................................................5 Demodulation .........................................................................................6 Peak Detector .........................................................................................9 Comparator ..........................................................................................11 Modulation ...........................................................................................12 Microcontroller ....................................................................................12 INPUTS AND OUTPUTS ...................................................................13 CONSTRAINTS ..................................................................................13 SYSTEM OPTIONS ............................................................................14 Conclusion: ..............................................................................................15 References ................................................................................................16

Table of Figures Figure 1 Simple RFID system ..................................................................2 Figure 2 RFID Block Diagram ................................................................6 Figure 3 FSK Signal ..................................................................................7 Figure 4 Low Pass Filter for FSK to ASK Conversion .........................7 Figure 5 Cutoff frequency placed after the data frequencies ...............8 Figure 6 Steepness increase of filter ........................................................9
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Figure 7 Half-wave peak detector ...........................................................9 Figure 8 Input and output waveforms of peak detector .....................10 Figure 9 Peak detector output. Red=peak voltage output; blue=input ASK signal ...............................................................................................11 Figure 10 Comparator basic circuits ....................................................11

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Introduction:
Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a generic term that is used to describe a system that transmits the identity (in the form of a unique serial number) of an object or person wirelessly, using radio waves. It's grouped under the broad category of automatic identification

technologies. RFID is increasingly used with biometric technologies for security. Unlike ubiquitous UPC bar-code technology, RFID technology does not require contact or line of sight for communication. RFID data can be read through the human body, clothing and non-metallic materials. The term RFID Tags is often used as a general term to describe not only RFID Tags but RFID Labels and RFID Cards. It is important to know which frequency your RFID solution operates at and what type of product the tag be affixed to before searching for a RFID tag. RFID offers greater flexibility, higher data storage capacities, increased data collection throughput, and greater immediacy and accuracy of data collection. An increasing number of companies in a variety of markets worldwide are embracing RFID technology to increase quality and quantity of data collection in an expeditious manner, a feat not always possible with barcoding systems. The technologys enhanced accuracy and security makes it an ideal data collection platform for a variety of markets and applications, including healthcare, pharmaceutical, manufacturing,

warehousing, logistics, transportation and retail.

RFID System:

Figure 1 Simple RFID system

RFID consists of three basic component such as transponder (tag), interrogator (reader) and antenna. In a typical communication sequence, RFID system performs a number of functionalities between reader and tag. RFID reader emits a continuous RF carrier sine wave. When a tag enters the RF field of the reader, the tag receives energy from the field. Further, receiving sufficient energy, it begins to modulate the carrier signal to the data storage on the tag. The modulating carrier signal is resonated from the tag to the reader. The reader detects the modulating signal from the tag, and decodes signal in order to retrieve the data from the tag. However, the information relays to the host computer where more manipulation data will be stored and finally will be displayed to the user. RFID is basically based on wireless communication making use of radio waves, which is a part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Moreover, RFID follows the standard frequency ranges, which are low frequency (120-135 KHz), high frequency (10-15 MHz), ultra high frequency (UHF) (850-950 MHz), and microwave frequency (2.45 GHz). RFID is a wireless communication device; it follows a number of
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standards. There are several standard bodies involved in the development and definition of RFID technologies including: International Organization of Standardization (ISO); EPCglobal Incorporation; (ETSI); European Federal

Telecommunications

Standards

Institute

Communications Commission (FCC). RFID systems have a number of limitations for integration, streaming and large volume of data. The accuracy of current RFID is improving, but there is still erroneous readings error, such as duplicate readings or missing readings. RFID data are normally generated swiftly and automatically. It also accumulates the data for tracking and monitoring. The generated data volume can be enormous, but the problem which requires a scalable storage scheme. It is essential to assure the efficient queries and updates. Also, RFID data integrates with existing applications for product tracking and monitoring. This requires an RFID data management system that can be easily configured to be integrated into different applications, with minimum integration cost. Nowadays, fabrication techniques are also improving, so the reliability and the read range of the passive RFID system continues to improve the cost effective way. [1]

Active and Passive RFID Tags:

There are primarily two types of RFID tags. One is active and the other is passive. An active tag is powered using internal battery, where a passive tag gets energized using the power from a tag reader. A passive RFID tag will not have a battery or any kind of power source by itself. It extracts the required energy from a reader. Hence, a passive RFID tag reader must be able to emit stronger electromagnetic signals, and in return, identify very weak signals from the passive RFID tag. [2] The primary differences between a Passive and Active RFID tags shown in table below:
Passive RFID Power Source External (Reader provided) Only within the area covered by the reader, typically up to 3 meters. Active RFID Internal (Battery) Can provide signals over an extended range, typically up to 100 meters.

Tag Readability

Energization

A passive tag is energized only when An active tag is always there is a reader present. Field energized.

Magnetic Strength

High, since the tag draws power from Low, since the tag emits the electromagnetic field provided by signals using internal battery the reader. source.

Shelf Life

Very high, ideally does not expire over Limited to about 5 years, the a life time. life of a battery.

Data storage Cost Size

Limited data storage, typically 128 Can store larger amounts of bytes. Cheap Smaller data. Expensive Slightly battery) bulky (due to

Table 1: The Difference between Active and Passive RFID tag

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Study Room Supervision:

Transmitter This section of the system was not implemented, but will be discussed briefly. A digital signal will be sent from a microcontroller, which will contain data to be programmed to a particular tag within range. The digital bit stream will be sent to a mixer. The mixer is composed of a signal generator, which will be operating at the frequency of the tag, which is 134.2 KHz. Hence, the digital bit stream being sent will be multiplied by the analog 134.2 KHz signal in order to successfully modulate the signal. Now that the signal is modulated, we will need to use a power amplifier in order amplify the signal since the signal may be too weak to drive the load. If signal power is successfully increased, we should be able to program a particular tag successfully.[3] Receiver The antenna will power up the tag in range by the mutual inductance created between both components. Once this occurs, a frequency shift keying signal will be sent out by the tag through the antenna. Once the antenna acquires the signal, the signal will go through a demodulation stage where the analog signal will be converted into a digital bit stream, which will be the actual data being sent by the tag. This digital bit stream will be fed into a microcontroller, which will decode the actual data bits and send a signal back out to the tag or simply output the data sent by the tag. [3]

Demodulation The following is a diagram of the RFID receiver system:

Figure 2 RFID Block Diagram

Objective The reader or receiver section begins with the demodulation process. This process can be followed by considering Figure 2 above. The receiving signal will be acquired by the antenna. Then, the signal will be converted into an amplitude shift keying signal. Now we can acquire the peak values of the signal by using a peak detector. Then, we can convert the analog signal into a digital signal through the use of a comparator. Once this has been successful, we can feed this signal into a microcontroller for data decoding. The following describes each of the components that are used in order to successfully implement the reader section of the system:

Frequency Shift Keying to Amplitude Shift Keying Conversion

Figure 3 FSK Signal

The 134.2 KHz tags that we are using are using frequency shift keying modulation scheme in order to transmit data. This means that a frequency of 134.2 KHz represents a bit of 0 while a frequency of 123.2 KHz represents a bit of 1. Figure 3 shows the signal coming from the tag with two separate frequencies where the faster frequency represents a bit of 0 and the slower represents a bit of 1. However, it is easier to detect an amplitude difference in the signal as opposed to a frequency difference. As a result, a conversion of the FSK signal being sent from the tag to amplitude shift keying (ASK) will be convenient. A very simple way to make this conversion is to use a linear scaling method technique with the use of a low pass filter. f1 corresponds to A1 f2 corresponds to A2

Figure 4 Low Pass Filter for FSK to ASK Conversion

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Notice in Figure 4 that f1 represents 123.2 KHz bit of a 1 while f2 represents a frequency of 134.2 KHz bit of a 0. Notice that for the given frequencies, there exist corresponding amplitude; therefore, the low pass filter works efficiently to make the conversion. The goal is to acquire the largest amplitude difference in order to make it easier to differentiate between the 1 and 0 bits. As a result, we need to design the low pass filter in such a way that we can ensure the largest possible amplitude difference. There are two factors we need to consider in order to acquire the largest difference possible: the placement of the cut-off frequency and the low pass filter roll-off.

Figure 5 Cutoff frequency placed after the data frequencies

As shown in Figure 5, if the cutoff frequency is placed after the data frequencies, there will be no amplitude difference between the data frequencies. Hence, the data frequencies must fall after the cutoff frequencies. The steepness of the roll off of the filter must be as steep as possible in order to acquire the largest difference.

Figure 6 Steepness increase of filter

As shown in Figure 6, a steeper roll off of about 40dB per decade results in a larger amplitude difference. In essence, once we have successfully acquired the amplitude shift keying signal, we will be able to send this signal into a peak detector, which will acquire the peak voltage values of the signal. [3]

Peak Detector The peak detector used to acquire the peak voltage values of the ASK signal is a simple half-wave peak detector that includes a diode, a capacitor, and a resistor. The circuit is as shown here:

Figure 7 Half-wave peak detector

Essentially, an analog FSK signal will be sent to the peak detector input. When the signal is positive, the diode will turn on and the capacitor C will begin to charge up until the input voltage to the diode is less than the capacitor voltage. When this occurs, the diode will be cut-off and the capacitor will begin to discharge through the resistor R. The discharge will continue until the input voltage to the diode is equal to the capacitor voltage. The capacitor will then charge again up to the peak value of the input signal and then the whole process will repeat itself and therefore, we will be able to successfully acquire the peak voltage values of the signal.

Figure 8 Input and output waveforms of peak detector

In Figure 8 it is clear that the output is mainly that of the peak voltage value of the input signal. For efficiency, it is best to reduce the ripple voltage Vr as much as possible in order to better differentiate between the one and zero bits, which will be represented by two different amplitudes.

As shown in Equation above, in order to reduce the ripple voltage, one must consider the amplitudes of the input signals Vp, the frequency of the input signals, the loading resistor, RL, and the loading capacitor, C.
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In order to effectively reduce the ripple voltage, we can increase the resistor and capacitor values. We are given the input signal voltage and frequency, and a desired ripple voltage, which is minimal; thus, one can choose the resistor value or the capacitor value and solve for the other. The output of the peak detector will look like the following diagram:

Figure 9 Peak detector output. Red=peak voltage output; blue=input ASK signal

In Figure 9, the output voltage is in red and it is evident that the output is the peak voltage values of the input signal. [3]

Comparator

Figure 10 Comparator basic circuits

The comparator will take in the output from the peak detector and put it as an input. This signal will then be compared to a threshold voltage value that lies between the high and low amplitudes.

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As you can see, we will have two inputs and one output. The two inputs include the output of the peak detector and a threshold voltage. The way this works is as follows: if the input voltage is greater than the threshold voltage, the output will be a bit of 1. If the input is less than the threshold voltage, the output will be a zero. Hence, the output of the comparator will be a digital data bit stream, which is the data being sent from the tag. The data is ready to be processed by a microcontroller. [3] Modulation Objective This part of the circuit will be used to decode the digital bit stream coming from the tag and transmit data back to the tag if required. A microcontroller will be used to transmit and decode data to and from the tag. Once the digital data is sent out, a mixer will be used to modulate the signal and a power amplifier such as the Darlington pair will be used in order to amplify the current. Hence, a stronger signal will reach the tag in range. [3] Microcontroller A microcontroller such as the Basic X24 microcontroller can be used to decode the data being sent by the tag as well as transmit data back to the tag. Some of the specifications for this microcontroller are as follows: BasicX-24p Quick Specs: Speed 83,000 second EEPROM 32K bytes (User program and data storage) Max program length RAM 8000+ lines of Basic code 400 bytes
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Basic

instructions

per

Available I/O pins

21 (16 standard + 2 serial only + 3 accessed outside standard dip pin area)

Analog Inputs (ADCs)

8 (8 of the 16 standard I/O pins can individually function as 10bit

ADCs or standard digital I/Os or a mixture of both) Serial I/O speed Floating point math 1200 - 460.8K Baud 32bit x 32bit floating point math built-in Programming interface Physical Package High speed Serial 24 pin DIP module

Table 2: Basic X24 microcontroller specifications

INPUTS AND OUTPUTS Inputs FSK signal sent to reader coil for demodulation Outputs Unique bit stream out of microcontroller Signal sent back to tag to acknowledge a successful read

CONSTRAINTS Our constraints include the type of RFID tag we will be using. We can either use a Read only, Read-write, or Write-Once-Read-Many-Times tag. If we have a read only tag, we cannot alter the data included in the tag. If we use a Read-write tag, we can write data to the tag and it can be

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modified as needed. Finally, with the WORM tag, we can write once to the tag and then we will be able to read it as needed. However, the tags that we currently have operate at either 134.2 KHz or 13.56MHz. In either case, the modulation scheme is FSK. Furthermore, we have 134.2 KHz tags that are both read only or read/write; hence, we have some flexibility. [3] SYSTEM OPTIONS We have two design options for our demodulation system. We can choose to use a system that uses a rectifier, amplifier, filter, and comparator. On the other hand, we can choose a system that has only an amplifier, filter, and comparator. The first system may be easier to implement because we will be converting frequency shift keying to amplitude shift keying. The reason why it is simpler to use amplitude shift keying is because it will be easier for our system to detect amplitude differences rather than frequency differences in the modulated signal. The trade-off is that we will need to add additional components such as the rectifier. In contrast, if we simply use frequency shift keying, we can simply send the signal directly to the amplifier, then the filter, and finally the comparator. Furthermore, we have three tags to choose from. Because we want each tag to have its own identification code, we will either choose Read-only tags or WORM tags. If we choose Read-Write, we may have some issues with tags having different codes that we are not aware of.

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Conclusion: The purpose of an RFID system is to enable data to be transmitted by a portable device, called a tag, which is read by an RFID reader and processed according to the needs of a our application. The data transmitted by the tag may provide identification information. RFID quickly gained attention because of its ability to track moving objects. A typical RFID tag consists of a microchip attached to a radio antenna mounted on a substrate. The chip can store as much as 2 kilobytes of data.

To retrieve the data stored on an RFID tag, we need a reader. A typical reader is a device that has one or more antennas that emit radio waves and receive signals back from the tag. The reader demodulate received signal from tag then passes the information in digital form to a computer system. We will try to build the demodulation component and modulation component fully integrated and working as a 134.2 KHz RFID reader.

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References [1] Design and Application of Radio Frequency Identification Systems for M.J. Uddin; International Islamic University Malaysia [2] http://www.tutorialsweb.com/rfid/active-and-passive-rfid-tags.htm [3] Keeping Kids Safe by Lam Le, Paul Saechao, and Javier Solorzano; Santa Clara University

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