Can a Single RFID Scanner Pulse in Multiple Directions?

Published: April 28, 2009

Can I use a single RFID scanner to pulse in different locations to find a specific tag? The use I have in mind involves a grid system that can separately pulse the scanner to each cube, in order to determine which cube contains the tag.

—Name withheld

———


A single RFID interrogator can control more than one reader antenna, so you could have a single reader control four antennas focused on four separate areas. However, I’m not entirely sure what you mean by cube. How far apart are these cubes? If they are far away from one another, the antennas will lose power over the coax cable. What’s more, if the cubes are not enclosed or are very large, it might be difficult to ensure that any given tag within a cube is interrogated.

—Mark Roberti, Editor, RFID Journal