System level power optimizations for EPC RFID tags to improve sensitivity using load power shaping and operation scheduling

Conventional design methodologies for EPC RFID tags focused on minimizing the power consumption of each building block to obtain the maximum achievable communication distance. In this work, we analyze different operation states of the RFID tag and their corresponding power consumption characteristics to identify the limiting factor that dictates the communication distance. Based on the analysis, we propose two approaches to extend the communication distance: (1) shaping the load power to track the unbalanced input power to the tag; (2) scheduling the load to average out the large burst power consumption. Simulation results show that the sensitivity can be improved by 1.8dB.