Non-Linearities in Passive RFID Systems

Gianfranco Andía is a Doctor in Radio Frequency from Grenoble Institute of Technology, France, and an RF engineer in the RFID industry.Yvan Duroc is Full Professor at the University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, France.Smail Tedjini is a URSI Fellow and IEEE Senior Member. He has been Professor at Grenoble Institute of Technology since 1996.

• Acknowledgments ixIntroduction xiChapter 1 History of Radio-frequency Identification: From Birth to Advanced Applications 11.1 Early facts about the genesis of RFID 11.2 Birth of RFID 21.3 Early modern RFID 41.4 The 1970s: The infancy age of RFID 71.5 The 1980s and 1990s: Implementation of RFID 81.6 RFID chip age 101.7 Maturation of RFID 111.8 Internet of Things: The next RFID frontier 151.9 Summary 19Chapter 2 RFID Technology: Main Principles and Non-linear Behavior of Tags 212.1 RFID: A multilayer vision 212.2 Focus on passive UHF RFID technology 232.2.1 Working principle 232.2.2 Reader 242.2.3 Tag 252.3 Non-linear RF networks and harmonic generation 292.3.1 Effects of a non-linear device 292.3.2 Theory on the effects of a non-linear device 292.4 Non-linear behavior and associated applications in the RFID field 322.4.1 Measurement of backscattered harmonics 322.4.2 Wireless sensor tags 332.5 Summary 37Chapter 3 Characterization Platforms for Passive RFID Chips and Tags 393.1 Introduction 393.2 Measuring the backscattered tag response 413.2.1 Harmonic backscattering 413.2.2 Measurement techniques 413.2.3 RFID air interface 423.2.4 Configuration of the physical layer in the UHF RFID system 433.3 Characterization of RFID tags – radiated measurements 453.3.1 Tags under test 463.3.2 Measurement system 463.3.3 Power budget 473.3.4 Power tag sensitivity 483.3.5 Radar cross-section and physical surface of a tag 493.3.6 Optimized PSD analysis of the RFID communication 523.3.7 Dependency analysis of harmonic scattering 583.3.8 Limitations of tag characterization by radiated measurements 653.4 Characterization of RFID chips–conducted measurements 663.4.1 Non-linear characterization platform 683.4.2 System operation description 683.4.3 Activation threshold and impedance measurement 723.4.4 Harmonic characterization 753.4.5 Result exploitation 793.5 Summary 80Chapter 4 Modeling the Harmonic Signals Produced by RFID Chips 814.1 Introduction 814.2 Analysis of harmonic currents in RFID chips 824.2.1 Review of Dickson analysis 824.2.2 Calculation of the harmonic currents 844.3 Third harmonic in traditional RFID tags 884.3.1 Impedance matching network for f0 884.3.2 Influence of Q in the backscattered signal at 3f0 894.4 How to profit from the third harmonic signal 934.4.1 Dual-band impedance matching network 934.4.2 Backscattered signal at 3f0 by the HT 954.5 Summary 96Chapter 5 Applications: Augmented RFID Tags 995.1 Introduction 995.2 Harmonic communication in passive UHF RFID 1015.2.1 A review of the regulations 1025.2.2 Harmonic reader considerations 1045.2.3 Harmonic tag design 1045.2.4 Metrics to evaluate the harmonic RFID tags 1065.2.5 Application case and experimental results: Harmonic tag design example 1085.2.6 Summary: Harmonic tag 1285.3 Harmonic harvesting: Empowering the RFID tag 1295.3.1 Harmonic generation in diode-based circuits 1295.3.2 Techniques to empower the RFID chip and rectifier circuits in general 1305.3.3 Third harmonic exploitation in passive RFID 1325.3.4 Application case and experimental results 1415.3.5 Summary: Harmonic harvesting 1475.4 Conclusion 148Conclusion 151Bibliography 155Index 171