RFID: OPPORTUNITIES and CHALLENGES Yize Chen

History In 1969, Mario Cardullo presented a RFID business plan to investors. The application areas include: -Transportation: automotive vehicle identification, automatic toll system, electronic license plate, … -Banking: electronic check book, electronic credit card -Security: personnel identification, automatic gates -Medical: identification, patient history

History In 1971, Mario Cardullo built a first passive device and demonstrated it to potential users. In 1973, Mario Cardullo invented the first true modern RFID system with his U.S patent 3,713,148

History In 1973, Steven Depp, Alfred Koelle and Robert Freyman demonstrated early RFID tags at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. -The portable systems, both passive and semi- passive, detected the modulated reflect power and operated at 915 MHz. -This technique is used by majority of today’s RFID tags.

Operating Mechanism A RFID system is composed of readers and tags. -Readers send out signals that provid power for a passive tag. -A tag captures the signals from a reader to generate its own power, and send back an unique digital ID

Operating Mechanism There are two fundamentally different RFID design approaches: Near-field RFID: based on magnetic induction -working distance is inversely proportional to the frequency(d = c/2πf). -Works well at low frequency.

Figure 1. Near-field power/communication mechanism for RFID tags operating at less that 100 MHz. [1] Operating Mechanism

Far-field RFID: based on electromagnetic wave capture -Worked on higher frequency greater than 100 MHz. -Higher data transfer rate.

Figure 2. Far-field power/communication mechanism for RFID tags operating at greater that 100 MHz. [1] Operating Mechanism

Current Users Passports -In 1998, the first RFID passports were issued by Malaysia. -- personal information. -- travel history: time, date, and place. -In 2006, RFID tags were included in new US passports. -- the same information as on the passport. -- digital picture of the owner.

Current Users Transportation Payments -In 1999, the SmarTrip card was introduced for urban mass-transit system in the Washington D.C. -In 1995, The RFID passes were used for public transport systems throughout Europe. -In 1997, the Octopus Card was used for mass transit payment in Hong Kong -The EZ-Link cards are used for bus’ and train’s toll system in Singapore.

Current Users Libraries -Singapore was one of the first to introduce RFID in libraries. -Rockefeller University in New York is the first academic library in the United States to utilize this technology. -Farmington Community Library in Michigan is the first public institution.

Opportunity Barcode -There are five billion bar codes being scanned every day. -It becomes an essential part of modern life.

Opportunity RFID’s advantages over the barcode -Combines ID recognition with supply chain management applications. - Unique code.

Challenges Orientation - The alignment between reader’s and tag’s antenna is critical for an effective communication. Solution -multiple readers in different angles -one reader with many antennas (cost effective)

Challenge Reader Coordination -more than one reader operates in a close range, signal “collision” could happen that generate noisy data. Solution - Define a protocol to allow these systems to share the available bandwidth. -Enhanced signal processing to intelligently filter out noise.

Challenges Multiple Standards - Several frequencies and standards have been used for current RFID. Solution - the RFID reader can be built for multiple standards

Challenges Manufacturing Costs - Current tag’s manufacturing costs are still too high Solution - Technological innovations and new process development will reduce the manufacturing cost.

Challenges Privacy and Consumer Concerns -Leaking personal information -Tracking the consumer’s activities. Solution -Kill function: disable the tag after purchases. -Smart tags: rewritable memory in the tag circuit.

Conclusion The technical issues mentioned above will be resolved as more R&D is spent in this field. The next major barrier is software system. Powerful software system is needed to do sophisticated real-time data processing. With advances in all these fields, RFID will one day significantly change our modern life.