This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II research project is to develop a prototype and proof of concept for the tag and reader that uses an innovative low power Clock-on-Demand (CoD) and baseband/ media access controller (MAC) calibration algorithm to be used with ultra wideband communication systems. The new CoD and algorithm are motivated by application of ultra wideband to the RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) market. In this prototype, the CoD and the baseband/MAC layer algorithm are implemented in standard CMOS for tag and the UWB receiver and narrowband receiver with discrete components for reader. The low power requirement is achieved by the CoD and by dividing the time into epochs and epochs into slots. The CoD only runs until the tag transmits its impulse in the relevant slot, and the reader decodes the ID representations of all tags by the slot number. Therefore, if an epoch is divided into 210 slots, an impulse by tag represents 10 bits of the information. The robustness is achieved by having an UWB impulse transmitter in the tag and by repeating the impulse in different epochs.
RFID is an exponentially growing market. However, the technology that supports its expansion is not able to provide robust communication and signaling between a tag and a reader. Furthermore, today?s technology only supports a low tag density (10s of tags/sec), while the applications that will fuel the exponential expansion of the RFID market, like point-of-sale, inventory management, shelf management, etc., require 100s and 1000s of tags/sec.
TagArray’s technology focus is on designing the lowest power transceivers at the lowest cost while maintaining a very high performance level. Our hardware is a transceiver powered by any mixture of continuous electromagnetic/acoustic waves or batteries and that communicates with UWB Impulses. Our proprietary UWB protocol enables thousands of transmitters to simultaneously communicate at sub-microwatt peak power levels! At such power levels, the radio is capable of outputting up to 10dBm strong signals. Thousands of transceivers can simultaneously communicate with a master asynchronously and simultaneously. Figure shows an application of our technology to radio frequency identification and Real Time Locating System where the passive tags are attached to assets/items that can be identified, precisely located and tracked en masse, in thousands. The tag, containing a single chip the size of a grain of salt, is powered by an incident continuous RF wave that may also be modulated with the appropriate message/command to the chip. The chip transmits long range (300ft.) UWB impulses at rates of up to 100 kbps. The sharp ultrawide band UWB pulses makes it possible for a constellation of receivers to precisely locate and track every tag that is transmitting in their field of operation. In addition to the hardware, TagArray have also developed a set of unique protocols, collectively named Epoch Position Multiple Access (EPMA) methods that allow for an extremely low power and dense, but collision-invariant channel. Currently, we have engineering samples of the tag chip and substrate, the Digital Antenna chip and PCB, antennas, the location and tracking software, as well as all interface boards for a complete evaluation of our system. The most natural market for a locatable radio is of course location-based applications, but we do not only make a locatable radio; our radio is also the lowest power, lowest cost and smallest radio transceiver. We are a technology provider to our partners focused on specific vertical markets: Retail, Healthcare asset tracking and patient/caretaker management, manufacturing flow management, theft prevention, merchandizing, automotive, sensor network management, etc.
