I-Corps: Improving Performance in Passive RFID Networks

该项目的重点是提高无电池、无源射频识别（RFID）系统通信性能的新技术的商业化。这种无源通信由于其小尺寸、无线通信能力、设备的无线供电、缺乏电池和相关维护、易于部署、环境友好（无电池污染）等优点而已经用于许多行业和应用中。然而，这种良好的特性伴随着缺点：当在小区域中部署大量设备时，距离短和干扰。这阻碍了RFID在需要读取大量标签的应用中的应用，也使RFID系统在物联网（IoT）中的未来使用产生了犹豫。但市场潜力巨大。目前（2015年），全球无源RFID市场超过80亿美元，从零售业和跟踪对象到医疗保健和物联网（IoT）。具体而言，UHF RFID领域预计到2018年将拥有超过95亿美元的市场。这个市场渴望提高读取速率，扩展范围，材料兼容标签和安全性。该解决方案将解决RFID市场中的低读取速率问题和安全问题，同时扩展通信范围并为高级智能应用提供更多功率。所提出的技术可用于UHF RFID标签以提高仓库中的读取速率（例如，Walmart）并扩展无线传感器网络中的范围（例如，NASA）。考虑到这些产品的个别规格，预计RFID制造商和消费者将欢迎这些产品推向市场。建议的工作包括发现潜在客户及其对RFID技术的需求。与现有的工作，往往侧重于纯粹的技术进步，拟议的努力旨在完善所提出的解决方案，以提高性能的RFID，使客户的需求得到解决。所提出的解决方案旨在结合四种新颖的方法来开发更有效的RFID标签，包括： (1)新颖的RFID标签天线设计，使反向散射信号最大化，比现有设计提高200%; (2)用于加载RFID标签天线的柔性阻抗匹配网络，其允许天线特性的动态调谐以补偿互耦合和来自环境的干扰; (3)协作方案，其中相邻RFID标签通过使用天线和阻抗调谐电路两者来最小化它们的相消干扰和耦合来改善通信性能;以及 (4)- 以网络方式为RFID标签引入新的操作状态，其中标签可以从环境接收信号，但是它们对环境产生最小的散射（干扰）。客户发现将确保最终的解决方案在商业上是可行的。此外，该团队将开发原型和概念验证演示，以满足客户需求并展示价值主张。

The project focuses on commercialization of new techniques that improve communication performance of battery-less, passive radio frequency identification (RFID)-based systems. Such passive communication is already used in many industries and application due to its benefits of small size, wireless communication capabilities, wireless powering of the device, lack of battery and related maintenance, easy deployment, environment friendly (no battery pollution), etc. However, this good characteristic comes with a drawback: short range and interference when a large number of devices is deployed in a small area. This prevented employment of RFID in applications where large number of tags is to be read and also produces hesitations in future usage of RFID systems in Internet of Things (IoT). Yet there is large market potential. The current (in 2015), passive RFID market is over $8 billion worldwide ranging from retail industry and tracking object to health care and Internet of Things (IoT). Specifically, UHF RFID field is expecting to have over $ 9.5 billion market by 2018. This market craves for increasing read rates, extending range, material compatible tags and security. The proposed solution will remedy a low read rate problem and security concerns in RFID market while extending the communication range and providing more power for advanced, smart applications. The proposed technique can be used for UHF RFID tags to increase read rates in warehouses (e.g., Walmart) and extend the range in wireless sensor networks (e.g., NASA). Considering the individual specification of these products it is expected that RFID manufactures and consumers will welcome the introduction of these products to the market. The proposed work includes discovery of potential customers and their needs with respect to RFID technology. In contrast to existing work that often focuses on purely technical advancements, the proposed effort aims at refining the proposed solution for improving the performance RFID such that the customers needs are addressed. The proposed solutions aim at combining four novel approaches to developing a more efficient RFID tag including: (1) novel RFID tag antenna design that maximizes backscatter signal by 200% over existing designs; (2) flexible impedance matching network for loading the RFID tag antenna that allows dynamic tuning of antenna properties to compensate for mutual coupling and interference from environment; (3) collaborative scheme where adjacent RFID tags improve communication performance by using both the antenna and impedance tuning circuitry to minimize their destructive interference and coupling; and (4) introducing a new operation state for RFID tags in a network fashion in that tags can receive signal from the environment but they produce minimum scattering (interference) to the environment. The customer discovery will ensure that the resulting solution will be commercially viable. Furthermore, the team will develop a prototype and proof-of-concept demonstration that will target the customer needs and show the value proposition.