RFID reader chips and performance in noisy environments

[Tom]

I'm looking for an RFID reader chipset that will be added to an
existing product and needs to perform well in a fairly noisy environment
(diesel and/or gas powered trucks). The reader is powered from the vehicle,
the antenna should be as small as possible (10 X 10 cm would be great) and the
range should be 70 cm or 150 cm. I know there are several proprietary RFID
systems out there but in order to get a cheap and plentiful supply of tags I'd
like to stick with ISO14443 or ISO15693. However I've read that the range on
ISO14443 is limited to 10cm whereas ISO15693 can do 70cm or 100cm. One article
also mentioned that the usable distance will be roughly equal to the size of
the antenna so in order to get 70cm distance I would need a 70cm antenna!
Hopefully this isn't true.

As for chips, here's what I've found so far:
Texas Instruments - RI-R6C-001A - looks OK and does both ISO standards in
addition to TI's own standard
Philips - SL RC400 - looks OK but says it's limited to 10cm for some reason
Philips - SL RC632 - does both standards plus encryption so it's probably
overkill for this application
ST - CR14 - not compatible with ISO15693
Anadigm - Rangemaster - looks nice but the price is way too high
Inside Contactless - PicoRead - also limited to 10cm even though it does
ISO15693
Are there any others?

Has anybody built a reader with any of these chips? What kind of range can you
get with a small antenna in a noisy environment?

Are there any alternatives to RFID that provide cheap tags and good range?

--Tom.

 

[Mike Harrison]

I'm looking for an RFID reader chipset that will be added to an
existing product and needs to perform well in a fairly noisy environment
(diesel and/or gas powered trucks). The reader is powered from the vehicle,
the antenna should be as small as possible (10 X 10 cm would be great) and the
range should be 70 cm or 150 cm. I know there are several proprietary RFID
systems out there but in order to get a cheap and plentiful supply of tags I'd
like to stick with ISO14443 or ISO15693. However I've read that the range on
ISO14443 is limited to 10cm whereas ISO15693 can do 70cm or 100cm. One article
also mentioned that the usable distance will be roughly equal to the size of
the antenna so in order to get 70cm distance I would need a 70cm antenna!
Hopefully this isn't true.

Sorry, but it is...
If you need that range with a small antenna you're likely to need an active tag (RF or infra-red) ,
or possibly UHF/microwave - not sure what these can do performance wise.

 

[RickB]

Hi Tom

Elektor Electronics magazine this month has a large section on RFID,
their operation, design backgrounds etc., never seen anything of this
scale in any other mag. Plus they publish two RFID reader units you can
build yourself. One with a MFRC522 chip, the other using no more than
an AT micro!
To cap it all a free MiFARE RFID card is supplied with the magazine.

http://www.elektor-electronics.co.uk/Default.aspx?tabid=27&year=2006&month=9


EE's Newsletter says UK shops start selling the magazine tomorrow,
24th August (I'm on subscription hence got my copy a few days ago).

Hope this helps

Richard

 

[Donald]

Hi Tom

Elektor Electronics magazine this month has a large section on RFID,
their operation, design backgrounds etc., never seen anything of this
scale in any other mag. Plus they publish two RFID reader units you can
build yourself. One with a MFRC522 chip, the other using no more than
an AT micro!
To cap it all a free MiFARE RFID card is supplied with the magazine.

http://www.elektor-electronics.co.uk/Default.aspx?tabid=27&year=2006&month=9


EE's Newsletter says UK shops start selling the magazine tomorrow,
24th August (I'm on subscription hence got my copy a few days ago).

Hope this helps

Richard

Does anyone know if this magazine will (with MiFARE RFID card) will be
available in the States ?