R&D Firm Developing Passive Ultra-Wideband RFID

"We are still testing Passpulse, so we can not provide the real technical performance at the moment," Muchkaev says. "But we estimate the reading range to be more than 15 meters." Passpulse, he adds, could be used in a range of applications, from electronic payment systems to the tracking of items in transport or supermarket supply chains.

But Martec is also working to ensure the tags can be deployed in a low-power wireless sensor network capable of detecting a tag in real time. A real-time location system (RTLS) would enable Passpulse to be used to monitor and track materials with limited shelf life or specific storage requirements, by constantly monitoring the status of items in transport in real time.

Muchkaev says Passpulse will be tested in three stages, ahead of a potential launch in late 2009. The first stage will be the evaluation and verification of the technology. The second stage will comprise testing the secure communication between the reader and tag for identification and access, while the final stage will involve a prototype RTLS using Passpulse technology.

In a separate development, the company is designing an RFID reader, also planned for a late 2009 release, that it says will increase the reliability and read rate accuracy of traditional ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID systems. The Multiport RFID interrogator utilizes the six-port measurement technique, currently used to improve radio and satellite communications. Muchkaev says traditional UHF passive RFID tags use backscatter and amplitude modulation to transmit data to the reader.

The tag's backscatter signal travels into the reader's antenna connection and is decoupled before being transferred to the interrogator's receiver input. However, any mismatch between the directional coupler and the antenna connection can cause problems with signal reception. The six-port technique allows for precise calculation of the amplitude and phase of the received signal, regardless of antenna mismatching, environmental influences or interference.

"Multiport RFID technology allows a significant improvement in performance, even if the directional coupler has high coupling loss," Muchkaev says. "Any antenna mismatching does not have a tangible effect on the RFID system performance. The reading range, security and data rate are all improved."

The Multiport reader, Muchkaev notes, can be installed on a single chip, making it cheaper to produce, as well as capable of being installed on phones, PDAs, smart cards or other mobile devices. "This would make it ideal for e-commerce, asset control, digital rights management and even gaming," he says.