An 860 to 960MHz RFID Reader IC in CMOS

Abstract

A UHF RFID Reader IC in 0.18μm CMOS covering the entire 860MHz to 960MHz RFID band is presented in this paper. The IC meets the EPC Class-1 Generation-2 and ISO-18000 standards. The transmitter output is +10dBm and the receiver sensitivity is -96dBm in listen-before-talk mode (LBT) and -85dBm in talk-mode (TM). The IC contains 10-bit DACs, pulse-shaping filters, IQ modulator and power amplifier in transmit chain and receive front-end with IQ down converter, channel-select filters with variable-gain amplifiers and 10-bit ADCs. The frequency resolution of 50kHz is achieved with the on-chip dual-loop synthesizer with phase noise of -101dBc/Hz at 100kHz offset. The chip incorporates ASK demodulators. The chip has a die area of 6mm X 6mm and draws 300mA current from 1.8V supply and operates over a temperature range from -25°C to +75°C.