Digital Modulator and Demodulator IC for RFID Tag Employing DSSS and Barker Code

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is lagging behind because of vendor specific solutions and expensiveimplementation cost. In particular, the reader is the most expensive part. A WiFi compatible tag was proposed to usethe WNIC as an RFID reader. However, no specific modulator or demodulator was suggested. This paper analyzesthe various IEEE 802.11 standards and their modulation and coding techniques keeping the desired properties of anRFID system in consideration. After the analysis, a digital modulator and demodulator for RFID tag in IEEE 802.11protocol employing Direct Sequence Spread-Spectrum (DSSS) and coding is proposed. A MOD-11 synchronouscounter is designed for the 11-bit encoder which generates the desired Barker code. Data are multiplied with thisBarker code to modulate the data, and the received data are multiplied with the Barker code to demodulate them. Theproposed modulator and demodulator are implemented in 0.18μm CMOS technology. The simulation results showthat 1 bit is spread to 11 bits by the modulator and 11-bit received data are demodulated to 1 bit correctly. Theproposed design is simple, resistant to multipath fading and interference and offers the highest distance with thelowest BER for an RFID tag.