A low power low cost fully integrated UHF RFID reader with 17.6dBm output P1dB in 0.18 µm CMOS process

Abstract

A low power low cost fully integrated single-chip UHF radio frequency identification (RFID) reader for short distance handheld applications is presented in this paper. The IC integrates all building blocks—including an RF transceiver, a PLL frequency synthesizer, a digital baseband and a MCU—in a 0.18 µm CMOS process. A high-linearity RX front-end and a low-phase-noise synthesizer are designed to handle the large self-interferer. A class-E power amplifier with high power efficiency is also integrated to fulfill the function of a UHF passive RFID reader. The measured output P1dB power of the transmitter is 17.6dBm and the measured receiver sensitivity is −60dBm. The digital baseband including MCU core consumes 3.9mW with a clock of 10MHz and the analog part including power amplifier consumes 281.5mW. The chip has a die area of 5.1mm*3.8mm including pads.