2004 11-Radio Tags.

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RADIO TAGS & TRANSPONDERS

Principle of Operation
• Transponders were originally electronic circuits that were attached to
some item whose position or presence was to be determined.
• The transponder operated by responding to an interrogation request
received from an interrogator, either by returning some data from the
transponder such as an identity code, or returning the original properties of
the signal received from the interrogator with a minimum time delay.
• Because the interrogator signal was generally much stronger than the
returned signal, the former would swamp the latter unless some
characteristic of the response was changed. This was generally the
frequency, but it could be polarisation.

History and Applications

• Transponders were developed for aircraft in WWII for identification friend
or foe (IFF) application. Both commercial and military aircraft still use this
technology. Most air traffic control centres rely on the range and altitude
information returned by commercial aircraft rather than raw radar
information.
• Since the Gulf War during which unacceptably large numbers of personnel
were killed by their own side, transponder technology called Battlefield
Identification System (BIS) has been developed for ground vehicles. It
relies on interrogator – transponder technology operating at 38GHz.
• Another important application of the transponder has been in the
measurement of distance. Here, the interrogator sends a signal to the
transponder which immediately responds on another frequency. By using
the time of flight, the range can be determined with great accuracy. This
technique is more accurate than using the skin echo as the ultimate signal
to noise ratio remains very high.
• A system called the Tellurometer (which will be dealt with in another
lecture) used this technique with improvements to measure ranges of
hundreds of kilometres to an accuracy of a few cm.
• The GSM network is being used increasingly as a form of transponder
system, where the position of each phone can be determined with great
accuracy from field strength readings at various base stations. An
application of this technology includes monitoring traffic flow conditions on
major roads by tracking phone positions with time.
• Transponder systems have become major players in the field of electronic
identification. Within this application, it is necessary to make the
transponder as cheap as possible and to build the sophistication into the
interrogator (reader).
• Because it is not feasible to perform low cost frequency translation, these
transponders (or tags) have given up the ability to supply range, and time
slice the interrogation and response cycle to avoid swamping the
response.

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Figure 1: Transponder Tracked Air Traffic over North America

RFID Systems

• Radio Frequency ID systems covers a wide range of technologies from

reading railway containers to applications in retail.
• The principle involved relies on the ability of EM radiation to penetrate
certain goods and to read a tag that is not visible.
• The response can be in the form of an identity code or just a presence
called Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS).
• Commonly available tags operate at frequencies in the range from 60kHz
to 5.8GHz.
• There are three main implementations of this technology
• EAS based
• Magnetic based
• Electric field based

ƒ Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS)

• EAS systems are used to electronically detect goods that have not been
authorised when they are removed from the retailer.
• Systems comprise a tag attached to the goods and a sensor mechanism.
• Tags can only be neutralised by the retailer when he wishes to authorise
the removal of the goods.

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• In effect these are single bit RFID systems. They convey presence but not
identity.
• There are four major technologies used for EAS systems
• Microwave
• Magnetic
• Acousto-Magnetic
• Radio Frequency
• Market penetration is estimated at 6billion tags per annum at $0.12 each.
• Magnetic and radio frequency tags are very cheap and are generally
attached permanently to the goods or packaging, while microwave tags
are expensive and are removed from the merchandise using a special tool.
Radio Frequency Tags
• Comprise a tuned LC circuit that resonates at radio frequencies that
absorbs energy from a field at the resonant frequency
• These can be deactivated by applying a high power RF pulse that
burns out a fuse in the circuitry.
Magnetic Tags
• A strip of soft magnetic material that interacts with a ferromagnetic
element made of a hard material which can be magnetised or
demagnetised.
• The soft magnetic strip resonates and generates harmonics when in
the presence of a magnetic field having a certain frequency, and so
identifying it.
• Magnetising or demagnetising the ferromagnetic element activates or
deactivates the marker.
• This technology is widespread for book protection in libraries.
Acousto-Magnetic Tags
• This marker consists of a strip of magnetostrictive material and a strip
of magnetic material of high coercivity.
• The magnetostrictive material resonates mechanically in the presence
of a magnetic field of a particular frequency. This resonance can be
detected by a receiver sensitive to the changing field created by the
flexing magnetostrictive material.
• The marker is deactivated by modifying the magnetic bias on the strip
of magnetic material
Microwave Tags
• Modern microwave tags operate at 2.45GHz using the interrogator
transponder technique with an active low power transponder offering a
battery life of 10years
• Operational range typically 4m through dirt, glass, wood etc.

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Figure 2: Microwave Tag Application

ƒ Multibit EAS Tags

• These are generally of the LC tuned circuit design, and have a series of
capacitors that can be selectively shorted (mechanically or electrically) to
alter the resonant frequency.

ƒ Magnetic Coupled RFID Transponder Systems

• These are the most common transponders available today
• Generally operate at frequencies in the order of 125kHz
• Antenna systems comprising multi turn coil designed to collect energy
from the readers magnetic field.
• Because of the magnetic coupling, the range is limited to a couple of cm.

Figure 3: Printed Magnetic Coupled Tags

Operational Principles
• Using the 125kHz energising field, the transponder sends data back to
the reader using one of the following techniques:
1. Transmits a signal back at half the frequency while the transmitter
operates in CW mode.
2. Transmit back at the transmitter frequency after the transmitter has
switched off, during the decay period of the LC circuit (called
flyback)
3. Let the tag load the transmitter field with a fluctuating load being
sensed by the transmitter circuitry.

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• A new generation of tags that operate at high frequency (up to 29MHz)

with read/write capabilities have been available since 1998.
• These tags allegedly have some anti-collision properties which allow
many tags to be in the reader field simultaneously.
• Reading and writing distance is generally limited to 20cm, but some
manufacturers claim operational distances up to 1m

ƒ Electric Coupled RFID Transponder Systems

• Rather than using magnetic lines of force to couple the interrogator and
transponder, this technology relies on EM propagation
• It offers much longer range that magnetic coupling technology
• Antennas are typically half-wave dipoles, and so to make the transponders
small, the operational frequency must be high.
• Higher frequency components cost more
• Energy transfer proportional to 1/f2 so high frequency devices cannot
transfer much energy.
• The field coupling is proportional to 1/R2 so the energy transfer becomes
even more difficult.
• The power density at a range R from the transmitter is determined using
the following formula:

Pt Gt
E= W/m2
4πR 2

where E – Power density (W/m2)

Pt – Transmitted power (W)
Gt – Transmitter gain (wrt isotropic radiator)
R – Operating range (m)

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• The received power is the product of the power density (E) and the
receiver antenna effective aperture (Ae).

Pr = EAe
• The effective aperture of a half wave dipole is a function of the receiver
gain (Gr) and the square of the frequency.

Gr λ2 Gr c 2
Ae = =
4π 4πf 2
• Assuming that antenna gains and matching remain constant for all
frequencies, then the minimum received power (Pmin) determines the
maximum operational range (Rmax).

Pt Gt Gr λ2
Pr = = Pmin
(4πR) 2

Rmax =
( Pt Gt Gr ) λ
1/ 2

4πPmin
1/ 2

• The maximum allowable power of the interrogator is determined by health

and safety regulations. In general a safety factor of 10 is applied to this
data.

Figure 4: Allowable Radiated Power

• Passive transponders operating at 400MHz can operate to a maximum

range of 10m, down to less than 1m at 2.5GHz.

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Figure 5: Detection Range

• Using the backscatter modulation principle developed at Lawrence
Livermore Laboratories has meant that electric field tags can be
manufactured for 10c (US).

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ƒ Social Issues
• Privacy advocates suggest that the identification of specific items linked by
their RFID, to a credit card would give marketing companies
unprecedented access to an individuals purchasing profiles which would
allow consumers to be targeted with specifically tailored sales pitches (with
a resulting increase in credit card dept that society can ill afford)
• Audit trails of commercial transactions would allow the police to trace the
movement of individuals through logs maintained by the RFID tracking
infrastructure. This would be in breach of an individuals right to privacy,
and laws are being formulated as regards access to these logs.
• Job losses due to the further automation of many processes will lead to
labour unrest in certain circumstances
• A number of large scale RFID trials, particularly those by Benetton, Wal-
Mart and Gillette have been curtailed after pressure from privacy groups
who were against the insertion of tags into individual items.
• Even placing the tags into packaging has been criticised as it would allow
a criminal element to determine (from your rubbish) that you have just
purchased an expensive item.
• It has been proposed that children be tagged at birth which would allow
parents, police, and even school administration an unprecedented and
invasive knowledge of an individuals whereabouts – from the cradle to the
grave

Technical Challenges
• RFID tags and readers are orientation dependent. Tags must be
positioned properly relative to the readers so that antennas can exchange
signals. This can be overcome by using arrays of readers orientated
appropriately.
• RFID signals are easily blocked. Over short range they can be attenuated
by packaging, particularly that made from metal foils or metallised plastic.
Over longer ranges, because the signal levels are so low, they can be
blocked by many common objects, even the human body. Again this can
be solved by having arrays of readers
• At an average cost of 20 to 30 cents (American), tags are still to costly for
inclusion into individual items. For this reason, mass market consumer
retail business that operates on low margin, high turnover has yet to
embrace the technology
• Competing technical standards and protocols prevent their universal
adoption, though the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO)
is working to overcome this problem
• The proposed 96 bit standard ID would allow each of the six billion human
beings alive to acquire 1.3x1019 individually tagged items during their
lifetime. This should be sufficient!

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Battlefield Combat ID System (BCIS)

• Millimetre wave (38GHz) interrogator transponder system for ground
vehicles.
• Capable of identifying friendly combat ground vehicles at ranges between
150 and 5500m ground to ground and 150 to 8000m air to ground.
• The BCIS interrogation is activated automatically on activation of the
shooter platforms laser range finder or interrogation button.
• It sends an encrypted directional query to the targeted vehicle, which, if
fitted with BCIS will reply with an encrypted omnidirectional friend
message.
• A light and voice confirmation informs the gunner that the target is
“friendly” or if no response is received, that the target is “unknown”.
• The whole interrogation and response process takes less than one second

Figure 6: 38GHz Battlefield IFF

ƒ Combat Identification: The Future

• The long range vision for combat identification is to enable the military
forces to identify all targets in the battle space for all combat mission
areas.
• The fighting forces must be able to: rapidly and positively identify enemies,
friends and neutrals with the primary purpose of lowering combat attrition,
increase enemy losses and minimise the risk of fratricide.
• The aspects of this vision that are purely transponder based are the
following
• BCIS Battlefield combat identification system
• BCIS(-) Lightweight handheld BCIS interrogator for use by dismounted
soldiers
• (A-G) BCIS Air to ground BCIS

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• CIDDS Combat Id Dismounted Soldier.(laser/RF based combat ID

system for soldiers)
• SINCGARS GPS coordinate based “don’t shoot me” net
• (A-G) SBCI The air to ground portion of the SINCGARS net

Figure 7: Battlefield IFF in the Future

References
[1] Current trends in transponder systems, http://www.rapidttp.com/transponder/trends.html, 23/02/2000.
[2] Range vs Power and frequency for passive electric coupled tags,
http://www.rapidttp.com/transponder/freqpwr.html, 23/02/2000.
[3] Sentech tags and Labels, http://sentecheas.com/taglabel.html, 22/02/2000.
[4] Microwave ID pays off in the distribution chain, http://www.rapidttp.com/transponder/confiden.html,
28/02/2001
[5] Battlefield combat ID system, http://www.sarda.army.mil/sard-zs/hti/hti_programs/bcis.html, 28/02/200.
[6] Science and Technology, http://peoiews.monmouth.army.nil/ci/webpg/cid8.html, 28/02/2001.
[7] RFID, A key to Automating Everything, Scientific American, Jan 2004

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