An 860 to 960MHz RFID Reader IC in CMOS

A UHF RFID reader IC in 0.18 mum CMOS covering the entire 860 MHz to 960 MHz RFID band is presented in this paper. The IC meets the EPC Class-1 Generation-2 and ISO-18000 standards. The transmitter output is +10 dBm and the receiver sensitivity is -96 dBm in listen-before-talk mode (LBT) and -85 dBm 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 50 kHz is achieved with the on-chip dual-loop synthesizer with phase noise of -101 dBc/Hz at 100 kHz offset. The chip incorporates ASK demodulators. The chip has a die area of 6 mm times 6 mm and draws 300 mA current from 1.8 V supply and operates over a temperature range from -25degC to +75degC.