A remote-powered RFID tag with 10Mb/s UWB uplink and −18.5dBm sensitivity UHF downlink in 0.18µm CMOS

In this work, a 10 Mb/s impulse UWB RFID tag in 0.18 mum CMOS is presented. The tag is remotely powered by a UHF signal with a minimum input RF power as low as 14.1 muW. The primary innovation is to employ two different communication links (UWB and UHF) respectively in the uplink and downlink of the tag. This is because the amount of data or instructions from a reader to a tag is small and as a result a conventional UHF-RFID link at 900MHz can be used as the downlink. The UHF signal also provides remote power to the tag. The uplink requires higher data rates and precise positioning capability therefore an l-UWB transmitter is employed.