UHF RFID mobile reader for passive- and active-tag communication

A prototype UHF RFID reader chip for mobile-phone applications was developed. The reader architecture is designed for passive tags in compliance with the ISO/IEC 18000-6 Type C and the EPCglobal Class-1 Generation-2 protocols for UHF RFID air interface. The reader also supports communication with active tags. Experimentally measured performance shows the reader chip achieves very high sensitivities (namely, −86 dBm and −92 dBm) for passive and active RFID systems, respectively. The reader chip, with 1.8-V power supply, was fabricated in a 0.18-µm CMOS process.