Ultra low power RFID tag development

• Main Author: Ong, Xiao Wei
• Other Authors: Law Choi Look
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/68504
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Positioning technology has indeed become indispensable in today's world. The use of this technology is prominent in many areas which includes daily navigation, position tracking and even in modern warfare. The Global Positioning System (GPS), is a satellite-based positioning system, is one such example. However, GPS is not practical in obstructed environments due to signal attenuation which causes significant power loss and hence, unreliable results. As such, a special system is needed for indoor localization to overcome the challenges faced by GPS. This report describes the project development of an Ultra-Low Power Active RFID Tag for a Localization System to be used in an indoor environment. A powerful single micro-chip, CC430F5137 Integrated Circuit (IC) chip, which incorporates both the MSP430 architecture as well as the transceiver, CC1101, was proposed. With the new chip in place, the current Printed Circuit Board (PCB) has to be re-designed. The work involves the PCB development in Altium Designer, a software which provides PC-based electronics design. The key ideas into designing the new PCB revolves around power consumption, PCB size, and the integration of the tag. Power consumption can be reduced by using advanced micro-chips and for this case, the CC430F5137 was initiated. The ideal required PCB size is approximately 4cm × 4cm, which is a size of a watch. This can be archived by reducing the components used, and finding more compact sized components. The integration of the tag to a surface mount antenna and a UWB antenna requires extra care as the positioning of the antennas are very sensitive and could render it not able to work within the required frequencies.