Method and apparatus for improving radio frequency identification coverage
AssigneeSymbol Technologies, Inc.
InventorMICHAEL J. KOCH
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and apparatus are disclosed for improving RFID coverage using an antenna array having an adaptive antenna beam. The apparatus includes an RFID reader including an antenna array having a plurality of antenna elements. Subsets of the plurality of antenna elements are selectively activating in order to direct an antenna beam to communicate with at least one RFID tag. The method includes transmitting an interrogation signal from an antenna array by activating one or more subsets of a plurality of antenna elements forming the antenna array. In this way, the interrogation signal is directed thereby improving antenna coverage.
Claims20
A radio frequency identification (RFID) reader, comprising:
- an antenna array including a plurality of antenna elements;
- one or more transmit/receive modules coupled to the plurality of antenna elements;
- and
- a beam forming processor coupled to the one or more transmit/receive modules for selectively activating one or more subsets of the plurality of antenna elements,
- wherein the selectively activated subsets of the plurality of antenna elements direct a transmission beam capable of interrogating at least one RFID tag.
A radio frequency identification (RFID) reader, comprising:
- an antenna array including a plurality of antenna elements;
- one or more transmit/receive module coupled to the plurality of antenna elements;
- and
- a beam forming processor coupled to the one or more transmit/receive modules for selectively activating one or more subsets of the plurality of antenna elements,
- wherein the selectively activated subsets of the plurality of antenna elements direct an antenna beam to receive a signal from at least one RFID tag.
A method, comprising:
- activating one or more subsets of a plurality of antenna elements forming an antenna array to direct an antenna beam for transmitting a radio frequency identification (RFID) interrogation signal from the antenna array,
- whereby, the RFID interrogation signal is directed by varying parameters of the transmission beam via subset selection of the one or more subsets of the plurality of antenna elements.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.