RFID technology, How it works and its PROS and CONS

1. RFID: Technology and Applications
By: Sweta Dargad
Assistant Professor
ITM Universe
The Wave of the Future

2. Outline
• History of RFID
• Types & Systems
• Current Uses
• Future Applications
• Controversies

3. What is RFID?
• A technology that employs a microchip with
an antenna that broadcasts its unique
identifier and location to receivers.
• Employs a microchip called a smart tag,
broadcasts unique 96-bit identifier to receiver.
• Receiver relays the data to a computer.
Ethernet
RFID
Reader
RFID Tag RF Antenna Network Workstation

4. RFID vs. Bar Codes
• Does not require human to manually pass
item
over scanner.
• More accurate inventory count.
• Can be incorporated into product, person,
animal.
• Can track each individual item.

5. History of RFID
• 1939
– IFF Transponder: Identification, friend or foe
(IFF) is an identification system designed for
command and control. It enables military and
national (civilian air traffic control)
interrogation systems to identify aircraft,
vehicles or forces as friendly and to determine
their bearing and range from the interrogator
– Used by allies in WWII
• 1945
– Leon Theremin made “The Thing”, also known
as listening device
– Espionage tool for Soviet Union

6. History cont.
• 1973
– Claims U.S. patent was first true ancestor
• 1980
– Retail
– Use of RFID in tracking and access applications
appeared
– Price, color, date of purchase

7. RFID Tags
• Contains two main parts:
– Silicon chips
– Antennas
• Components enable tags to receive and
respond to radio frequencies queries from
RFID transceivers.
• Three types:
– Passive
– Semi-Passive
– Active

8. RFID Tags cont.
• Passive
– Have no internal power supply
– Electrical current inducted in antenna by the incoming signal
proves power for integrated circuit in tag to power up and
transmit response
– Very Small, Limited Range, Unlimited Life
• Semi Passive
– Similar to passive tags, with the addition of a small battery
– Battery powers the integrated circuit
– Bigger, Longer Range, Limited Life
• Active
– Have their own internal power source
– Many operate at fixed intervals
– Also called beacons (broadcast own signal)
– Large ( coin), Much larger memories, Longer range

9. Tag block diagram
Antenna
Power Supply
Tx Modulator
Rx Demodulator
Control Logic
(Finite State
machine)
Memory
Cells
Tag Integrated Circuit (IC)

10. RFID readers
• Reader functions:
– Remotely power tags
– Establish a bidirectional data link
– Inventory tags, filter results
– Communicate with networked server(s)
– Can read 100-300 tags per second
• Readers (interrogators) can be at a fixed point such as
– Entrance/exit
– Point of sale
• Readers can also be mobile/hand-held

13. RFID System
 Objects equipped with RFID tag
 Tag contains transponder
with digital memory chip.
 Interrogator: an antenna
packaged with transceiver and
decoder.
 emits signal activating tag.
 Reader detects activation
signal, decodes the data on the
tag’s silicon chip.
 Data passed to host computer.

14. Growing Technology
• “Line of Sight” Technology
• RFID superior over Barcode
– Elements and accidents can disturb or damage
barcodes
• Best Buy, Wal-Mart, And Target began
implementation
– Efficient in ability to track & respond accordingly

15. Product Marketing – 75 years ago
You can have any
color,
as long as its black !

16. Product Marketing - Today
5
Add consumer
flexibility,
courtesy of
robotics,
computers …
Customer
window into
final stage of
manufacturing

17. Need to ensure error-free, custom assembly
Need inventory of components for the various customization
options
Critical Issues
Assembly process control
Inventory management
Supply chain integration
Customer insight
Effect on manufacturing

18. Applications of RFID
 Manufacturing and Processing
 Inventory and production process monitoring
 Warehouse order fulfillment
 Supply Chain Management
 Inventory tracking systems
 Logistics management
 Retail
 Inventory control and customer insight
 Auto checkout with reverse logistics
 Security
 Access control
 Counterfeiting and Theft control/prevention
 Location Tracking
 Traffic movement control and parking management
 Wildlife/Livestock monitoring and tracking

19. Current Uses
• Wal-Mart now requires its
suppliers to use RFID tags
on shipping crates and
pallets to improve
inventory management in
the supply chain.
• Fed Ex bought RFID-
enabled aircraft from
Airbus to reduce
maintenance time and
costs.
• Cattle and farm animals
are being tagged to

20. Smart groceries enhanced
Track products through their
entire lifetime.

21. Issues in Defense solved
• U.S. Department of Defense – to better track
goods along supply chain (logistics and
inventory).
• Electronic payment – credit card companies
moving to RFID-enabled cards to increase
efficiency and reduce time at point-of-sale for
customer, merchant, and card issuer.

22. Some more smart devices
• “Smart” appliances:
– Closets that advice on style depending on clothes available.
– Ovens that know recipes to cook pre-packaged food.
• “Smart” products:
– Clothing, appliances, CDs, etc. tagged for store returns.
• “Smart” paper:
– Airline tickets that indicate your location in the airport.
• “Smart” currency:
– Anti-counterfeiting and tracking.
• “Smart” people ??

23. The Future of RFID
 Medical
Drug Counterfeiting
Tracking & Tracing
Medical “Passports”
Foster Care System
Food Chain Precautions
 Shopping
Cashier-less check out
and payment
 Household Technology
Smart keys
Intelligent washing
machines
Monitoring refrigerators
Intelligent
ovens/microwaves

24. Controversy
• Privacy
– Consumer Rights
• Consumers should be informed if their products have
an RFID tag.
– Tracking of consumers (Profiling)
• RFID chips withstand dirt and scratches and can be
scanned from distances upward of 25 feet.
• Personal Information Leakage.
• Drawing the Line – Need for Legislation?
– Who Should Regulate?

25. Controversy cont.
• “Killing” of RFID Tags
– Tracking vs. the washing machine
– Options of killing after purchase
• Medical
– Implants/Personal Information
• Verichip is a tiny implantable chip that holds medical
records
• Bracelets to track infants in medical wards and elderly
in nursing homes.
– Used in animals for tracking.

26. Controversy cont.
• Medical
– Health Risks
• Hard to remove once implanted.
• Long term effects unknown.
• Religious
– Mark of the Beast, etc.
• The implanted RFID chip is certain to inflame Christian
fundamentalists, some of whom believe that such chips
are the Satanic “mark of the Beast” predicted in
Revelations 13:16 “And he causeth all, both small and
great, rich and poor, free and bond to receive a mark in
their right hand, or in their foreheads.”

27. RF effects of common materials

28. Communication protocols

29. ETSI EN 302 208 standard
• Shared operation in band 865.0 – 868.0 MHz at
transmit powers upto 2 W ERP.
– Operation in 10 sub-bands of 200 kHz.
– Power levels of 100 mW, 500 mW and 2 W ERP.
• Mandatory “listen before talk” and “look before leap”.
865.7MHz 867.5MHz
FT
865.1MHz 867.9MHz
100mW
867.7MHz865.5MHz
LT
FT
LT LT
FT
600kHz 600kHz600kHz
2W
FT
LT
500mW
865.0MHz 865.6MHz 867.6MHz 868.0MHz

30. Reader Collision Problem
• Reader-Reader Interference
• Reader-Tag Interference

31. Reader Collision and Hidden Terminal
• The passive tags are not able to take part in the collision
resolution or avoidance, as in other wireless systems
• Consider: RTS-CTS for hidden terminal problem in 802.11
– rfid: T is not able to send a CTS in response to an RTS from R
 In case multiple readers try to read
the same tag, the tag cannot
respond selectively to a particular
reader

32. TDMA based solution
• Assign different time slots and/or frequencies
to nearby readers
– Reduces to graph coloring problem (readers form
vertices)
• Only reader to reader interference
– Assign different operating frequencies
• Only multiple reader to tag interference
– Assign different time slots for operation
• Both types of interference
– First allot different time slots, then frequencies

33. Main Points
• Slowly becoming an industry standard
• Speeds up the supply chain process
• Easier to manage inventory
• Continually evolving
• Controversial technology

34. Questions for you….
• Define RFID technology?
• When was RFID introduced?
• What are two main reasons RFID is
controversial?
• Name the three types of RFID tags?
• How are they currently using RFID tags?
• How is RFID Technology expected to effect
households?

35. Questions?