Inline testing of RFID inlays
AssigneeCheckpoint Systems, Inc.
InventorThomas Craig Weakley
Life of this patent
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Abstract
This disclosure relates to inline testing of RFID inlays. A test system includes a test interface without moving parts and a marking device. The test interface an array of antennas, a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader to interrogate RFID inlays to be tested; and a circuit configured to selectively connect the RFID reader to the antenna in the array of antenna. The test interface performs a primary scan of all of the RFID inlays to be tested and, when not all of the RFID inlays respond, a secondary scan to determine which of the RFID inlays failed to respond. The marking devices mark any of the identified RFID inlays that failed to respond.
Claims23
A test system comprising:
- a test interface without moving parts, the test interface comprising:
- an array of antennas,
- a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader to interrogate an array of RFID inlays to be tested;
- and
- a circuit configured to selectively connect the RFID reader to the antenna in the array of antennas;
- wherein the test interface performs a testing sequence comprising a primary scan of all of the RFID inlays in the array of RFID inlays to be tested and, when not all of the RFID inlays in the array of RFID inlays respond, a secondary scan to interrogate a subset of the RFID inlays in the array of RFID inlays to determine which of the RFID inlays failed to respond;
- and
- a marking device to mark any of the identified RFID inlays that failed to respond.
A method to test radio frequency identification (RFID) inlays, the method comprising:
- moving an array of RFID inlays to be tested into a test interface including an array of antennas;
- performing, by the test interface, a primary scan of all of the RFID inlays in the array of RFID inlays to be tested without moving any of the antennas and without associating any response from the RFID inlays to any of the antennas;
- in response to receiving responses from all of the RFID inlays in the array of RFID inlays to be tested, determining that all of the RFID inlays to be tested are functional;
- in response to receiving responses from less than all of the RFID inlays in the array of RFID inlays to be tested;
- performing a secondary scan of a subset of RFID inlays in the array of RFID inlays to determine which of the RFID inlays are defective;
- and
- marking the RFID inlays that are defective.
A method comprising:
- moving radio frequency identification (RFID) labels to be tested into a test interface that includes a two-dimensional array of antennas;
- performing, by the test interface, a query of all of the RFID labels to be tested without moving any of the antennas and without associating any response from the RFID labels to any of the antennas;
- in response to receiving responses from all of the RFID labels to be tested, determining that all of the RFID labels to be tested are not defective;
- in response to receiving responses from less than all of the RFID labels to be tested:
- interrogating multiple subsets of the RFID labels to be tested to determine which of the RFID labels are defective, each of the subsets including multiple of the RFID labels to be tested;
- for each of the subsets for which the test interface does not receive responses from all of the RFID labels in the subset, recording all of the RFID labels in the subset as having a failure;
- after all of the subsets are tested, comparing a number of times the RFID label has been recorded as having a failure to a failure threshold, and determining that the RFID label is defective when the number of times the RFID label has been recorded as having a failure meets or exceeds the failure threshold;
- and
- marking the RFID labels that are defective.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.