Miniaturized Dual-frequency RFID Reader (MDR) w/ NFC Functions for Smartphone
ART/179CP
20140801 - 20160531
10305
Dr Xunqing Daniel Shi
(1) 3D-SiP technology platform, including dual frequency tunable antenna design, integrated passive device (IPD) design, hybrid substrate design, embedded passive & active design, package structure (e.g., Ball Grid Array(BGA) & Flip Chip(FC)) design, 3D integration method development, low power consumption method, and system security protection solution etc., will be established for miniaturized dual-frequency RFID reader (MDR) module development. (2) Substrate fabrication process including embedded passive and active devices, module packaging (e.g., BGA & FC) and system 3D integration related manufacturing process recipes will be developed. Dual band antenna prototype samples (antenna return loss > 15dB for both frequencies) and integrated MDR SiP 1st round prototype samples (dimension – 15×15×1.2 mm3; output power – 27dBm for UHF) will be developed using the to-be-developed process recipes. (3) Report on tunable secure RFID reader system including RFID reader tuning algorithm, embedded security method and reliability testing results of the MDR SiP. (4) Complete the Smartphone integration with SiP module and demonstrate at least one specific user scenario.
Dr James Zhibin LEI
Ms YH KWAN
Dr Jun CHEN
Mr IP, Eric SO
Dr Yan LIU
Mr KW, Ken YEUNG
Ms Fiona WANG
Dr Yang YUE
Mr Haifeng FU
Mr W K LUK
Dr Weiming FU
Mr Simon WONG
Ms Sally XU
Mr Bin XIE
Ms Karina KO
Mr Xiaoyu ZHAO
Chengdu RML Technology Co. LTD [Sponsor]
China Chippacking Technology Co. LTD
China Chippacking Technology Co. LTD (Technology Licensing) [Sponsor]
GE Intelligent Technology Company Limited
Gean Technology Co. Ltd.
Mega Link Technology Limited
WINSUN Technology Development Limited [Sponsor]
WINSUN Technology Development Limited (Technology Licensing) [Sponsor]
Radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology has proved to be very effective in anti-counterfeiting and logistics management. It is widely regarded as one of the most important sensing technologies for Internet of Things (IoT). As IoT becomes the next important revolution for information technology following personal computer and internet, RFID technology is now being applied in more industries. Recently, significant cost reduction of RFID tag has removed the biggest obstacle for RFID technology's wider adoption. Another important trend is that widely available smartphone is now considered as the converged device for IoT applications. The factors above inevitably drive the development of a new product, i.e., a smartphone with RFID reader capability or IoT smartphone. Now IoT smartphone is gradually used for smart transportation, smart logistics, asset management, anti-counterfeiting and mobile payment. Some design houses also start to promote their IoT smartphones in the market. The rise of IoT smartphone is calling for miniature multi-frequency RFID reader module with high performance. Current market available High Frequency (HF) and Ultra High Frequency (UHF) RFID reader modules are big in size, and their RF performance is easily affected in different environments. Also, smartphone design houses have to optimize the antenna design on their own, and there is no present solution to achieve the data protection for RFID readers. This not only makes the actual development becoming difficult and time-consuming, but also limits the possible applications of IoT smartphone. Therefore, our project aims to develop a miniaturized dual-frequency RFID reader System-in-Package (SiP) with Near Field Communication (NFC) functions for smartphone. Based on the developed methodology and algorithm in the seed project, we will implement tunable RF matching system and proprietary power saving solution in the to-be-developed SiP. Most importantly, to further reduce the form factor and improve the performance for smartphone integration, three major technical challenges will be resolved in this full project as below: (1) To achieve ultra-small form factor of SiP and also obtain good signal integrity, a novel sandwiched 3D SiP with core partitioned hybrid substrate will be developed. (2) To consume space as small as possible and also meet performance criteria, a tunable dual-frequency antenna (NFC coil antenna plus UHF loop antenna) fabricated on the flexible substrate will be developed. (3) To protect RFID reader system against unauthorized access such as malicious smartphone apps, an embedded data security mechanism will be developed.