Tagent Improves the World's Only Passive UWB RTLS & Antenna on Chip

Tagent continues to prove the skeptics wrong. I recently had another demonstration of the world’s only passive ultra wide band integrated circuit (IC): the Tagent Talon™ – an engineering accomplishment 12 years in the making. The current version has improved read range and supports "localization" - the ability isolate a single tag in a read field. Unfortunately, Tagent has not been able to find the funding necessary to turn this now proven technology into a product. Despite that they have achieved a remarkable technical breakthrough as described in the rest of this article.

“We call it a no-battery active tag”, declares Paul Lovoi, CEO of Tagent Corporation.  “Just as an active tag stores power in a battery, we harness RF energy and store it in an on-board capacitor directly on the IC.  The IC uses the stored power to transmit data. In this version, we can accurately read a tag on a slide sitting under a microscope.”

RFID IC with On-Chip Antenna for Covert Tracking & Surveillance

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If that’s not amazing enough, the antenna is directly on the chip, a patented design and the first of its kind in a commercially available product.  Lovoi adds, “When you’re done with chip fabrication, the tag is done.  There is no additional packaging process, no external antenna, antenna attachment costs or failures due to damaging the antenna or breaking the antenna connection; no external connections at all.”  There is also no problem with orientation sensitivity.

The IC is currently 2.3 mm square on their current prototype silicon, but will be even smaller in the upcoming production run.  It stores 128 bits of read-only data, ideal for a unique identifier.

A Passive 3-D Real Time Location System

The IC works in conjunction with power nodes and readers.  The inexpensive power nodes provide RF energy to ICs up to 1 m away.  The readers detect tags up to 10 m away with 25 cm of accuracy.  Because of the high transmission data rate, the system performs 10,000 tag acquisition cycles per second which yields approximately 2,500 tag reads per second, making this a viable solution for extremely dense tag environments.

Lovoi adds, “The Tagent system provides all the functionality of an active tag system with the form factor and price point of a passive tag.  The small size and robust nature of the Tagent tags finally makes item level location and tracking possible.”  The tags do have a durable form factor with operating temperatures from -40° to 40° C and storage temperatures from -80° to 85° C.

The system has been tested in environments with other battery-powered UWB solutions, both RTLS and non-RTLS, and coexists well.  Due to the small amounts of data and fast communication rate, no operational interference has been seen. In fact the Tagent reader is capable of reading battery operated pulsed UWB from other manufacturers as well as the no battery tags from Tagent.

Working with a 2.3mm² Tag

The manufacturer attaches the IC to whatever is to be tagged.  Since the tag is self contained with the antenna-on-chip, there is an extremely high tolerance for placement, unlike traditional ICs that must be connected to an antenna or strap, which requires a great deal of precision. The ICs will be available on a variety of label stock; an example is pictured – right.

Real World Applications

Tagent is working with customers on a number of applications, including embedding their IC on a larger IC or circuit board for tracking and work-in-progress management.  “Our small form factor and 10 m read range makes it possible to build asset tracking solutions that were not previously possible”, explains Zawolkow. The tags could be molded right into the plastic chip package or blood vial during the manufacturing process.  This just was not possible with previous technologies.

Their first solution is used to track vials of bloaod.   A Tagent IC is embedded in a standard blood vial label that is simply wrapped around the vial. 

The IC makes it possible to differentiate every vial as well as find any particular vial.  Most importantly for the lab application the tags ensure that the correct vial is being processed.

Pricing

While pricing has not been finalized it is expected that the tags will be priced at about 30¢ each, the power nodes at about $50 each and readers about $2,000 each.

Changing The Future of Integrated Circuit Design

Given their patented antenna-on-chip and charge-pump designs have now been proven, Tagent is in discussions to license the technology for applications in other industries. "We're talking with of number of investors and partners about how this technology can be applied.", continued Lovoi. "An IC can be powered simply by harnessing radio waves - this changes everything."

Availability

While I have seen a demonstration of the tags and read system working in the Tagent laboratory, the actual product is not available as Tagent continues to search for funding to complete the first product. If you wish more information about the product or the funding opportunity, please contact Paul Lovoi at palovoi@tagent.com or visit the Tagent website.