Combination radio frequency identification transponder (RFID Tag) and magnetic electronic article surveillance (EAS) tag
A combination of a radio frequency identification transponder (RFID Tag) and to a magnetic electronic article surveillance (EAS) device is disclosed. The present invention relates generally to radio frequency identification (RFID) systems, and more specifically to RFID transponders for use in RFID systems and the method for their assembly.
The present application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 10/985,665 filed Nov. 10, 2004, which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 10/772,221 filed Feb. 4, 2004, which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 09/181,505 filed Oct. 28, 1998, now abandoned, which is a continuation in part of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/071,413 filed May 1, 1998, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,939,984 issued Aug. 17, 1999. Said application Ser. No. 09/071,413 in turn claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/070,136 filed Dec. 31, 1997. Said application Ser. No. 09/181,505 claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/102,476 filed Sep. 30, 1998, and also claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/093,088 filed Jul. 16, 1998. The present application is also a continuation in part of application Ser. No. 10/391,515 filed Mar. 18, 2003, which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 09/136,157 filed Aug. 18, 1998, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,535,108 issued Mar. 18, 2003, which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 08/569,375 filed Dec. 8, 1995, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,812,065 issued Sep. 22, 1998, which is a continuation in part of application Ser. No. 08/514,705 filed Aug. 14, 1995, now abandoned. Said U.S. Pat. No. 5,812,065, and said application Ser. Nos. 09/071,413, 60/093,088 and 60/102,476 are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety.
INCORPORATION BY REFERENCEThe following US Patents and Patent Applications are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entirety:
U.S. Patents
The following further documents are also incorporated herein by reference in their entirety:
IBM Technical Disclosure BulletinIBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Vol. 38, No. 08, August 1995, page 17, “Multifunction Credit Card Package,” by Brady, Moskowitz, and Murphy.
Literature ReferenceD. Friedman, H. Heinrich, D. Duan, “A low-power CMOS integrated circuit for field-powered radio frequency identification (RFID) tags,” 1997 Digest of Technical Papers of the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC), San Francisco, Calif., February 1997.
PCT Published International Applications
The present invention relates to an identification tag and more particularly to an identification tag having a large number of bits of information, where the identification tag has an electronic article surveillance function which is difficult to defeat.
DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ARTRadio frequency identification transponders (RFID Tags) have been developed in the last years to take advantage of the fall in semiconductor logic and memory prices. Such tags are available having a single silicon chip attached to a wire or patch antenna. Such tags, however, may be shielded from the high frequency RF used to communicate with the tags. The anti-theft properties of the RFID tags are suspect.
Magnetic electronic article surveillance (EAS) tags are much less easily shielded from the low frequency magnetic detection fields. Such EAS tags as described below, however, have possibilities of storing only a few bits of information.
Some conventional magnetic EAS tags have employed the Barkhausen jump effect. Generally, the Barkhausen effect is characterized by a tendency for magnetization induced in a magnetic material to change in discrete steps as an external magnetic field is increased or decreased. (The material is said to be a non-linear magnetic material if the magnetisation of the material is not proportional to the external magnetic field.) A large temporal flux change, df/dt, occurs when such a step takes place, and a sizable voltage may be induced in a sensing or pickup coil.
For example. U.S. Pat. No. 5,181,020 describes a thin-film magnetic tag having a magnetic thin film formed on a polymer substrate and a method for producing the same. The thin film exhibits a large Barkhausen discontinuity without intentional application of external torsional or tensile stress on use. A particular disclosed use is as a marker or tag for use in an article surveillance system wherein articles may be identified by interrogating the tagged article in a cyclic magnetic field of a predetermined frequency in a surveillance area and detecting a harmonic wave of the magnetic field generated by the tag in the surveillance area. This conventional system is only a single bit element using a single Barkhausen layer with no ability to develop a code to distinguish items.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,313,192 describes another single bit tag which relies on the Barkhausen effect. The tag of this invention is selected to include a first component comprised of a soft magnetic material which constitutes the bulk of the tag. A second component comprised of a semi-hard or hard magnetic material is integral with the first component. The tag is conditioned such that the second component has activating and deactivating states for placing the tag in active and deactivated states, respectively. Such conditioning includes subjecting the composite tag to predetermined magnetic fields during thermal processing stages. By switching the second component between its activating and deactivating states the tag can be switched between its active and deactived states. A reusable tag with desired step changes in flux which is capable of deactivation and reactivation is thereby realized.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,980,670 describes a one bit magnetic tag formed from a magnetic material having domains with a pinned wall configuration. The resulting hysteresis characteristic for that material is such that upon subjecting the material to an applied alternating magnetic field, the magnetic flux of the material undergoes a regenerative step change in flux (Barkhausen jump) at a threshold value when the field increases to the threshold value from substantially zero and undergoes a gradual change in flux when the field decreases from the threshold value to substantially zero. For increasing values of applied field below the threshold, there is substantially no change in the magnetic flux of the material. The tag may be deactivated by preventing the domain walls from returning to their pinned condition by, for example, application of a field of sufficiently high frequency and/or amplitude.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,940,966 describes the use of a plurality of magnetic elements in predetermined associations (e.g. with predetermined numbers of magnetic elements and with predetermined spacings between said elements), for identifying or locating preselected categories of articles. When the articles are caused to move relative to a predetermined interrogating magnetic field, each particular association of magnetic elements gives rise to a magnetic signature whereby the article or category of article carrying each of the predetermined associations can be recognized and/or located.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,660,025 describes a marker for use in an electronic surveillance system. The marker which can be in the form of a wire or strip of magnetic amorphous metal is characterized by having retained stress and a magnetic hysteresis loop with a large Barkhausen discontinuity. When the marker is exposed to an external magnetic field whose field strength, in the direction opposing the instantaneous magnetic polarization of the marker, exceeds a predetermined threshold value a regenerative reversal of the magnetic polarization of the marker occurs and results in the generation of a harmonically rich pulse that is readily detected and easily distinguished.
U.S. Pat. No.5,175,419 describes a method for interrogating an identification tag comprised of a plurality of magnetic thin wires or thin bands which have highly rectangular hysteresis curves and different coercive forces. The wires or bands are preferably of amorphous material, but means for obtaining the highly rectangular hysteresis curves and different coercive forces are not taught; nor is the concept taught of using a time varying magnetic field superimposed on a ramp field for interrogation.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,729,201 describes an inexpensive multibit magnetic tag is described which uses an array of amorphous wires in conjunction with a magnetic bias field. The tag is interrogated by the use of a ramped field or an ac field or a combination of the two. The magnetic bias is supplied either by coating each wire with a hard magnetic material which is magnetized or by using magnetized hard magnetic wires or foil strips in proximity to the amorphous wires. Each wire switches at a different value of the external interrogation field due to the differences in the magnetic bias field acting on each wire.
The above identified U.S. Patents and the following related U.S. Patents assigned to the assignee of the present invention are hereby incorporated by reference: U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,528,222; 5,550,547; 5,552,778; 5,554,974; 5,538,803; 5,563,583; 5,565,847; 5,606,323; 5,521,601; 5,635,693; 5,673,037; 5,682,143: 5,680,106; 5,729,201; and 5,729,607. U.S. Patent applications assigned to the assignee of the present invention include: Ser. No. 08/303,965 filed Sep. 9, 1994 entitled RF Group Select Protocol, by Cesar et al.; Ser. No. 08/621,784, filed on Mar. 25, 1996 entitled “Thin Radio Frequency Transponder with Lead Frame” by Brady et al. (pending); Ser. No. 08/626,820, Filed: Apr. 3, 1996, entitled “Method of Transporting RF Power to Energize Radio Frequency Transponders” by Heinrich et al.; application submitted Aug. 9, 1996 entitled RFID System with Broadcast Capability by Cesar et al.; application submitted Jul. 29, 1996 entitled RFID transponder with Electronic Circuitry Enabling and Disabling Capability, by Heinrich et al.; Ser. No. 08/592,250; Ser. No. 08/496,838; Ser. No. 08/496,838; Ser. No. 08/909,719; Ser. No. 08/621,784,660,249; Ser. No. 08/660,261; Ser. No. 08/790,640; Ser. No. 08/790.639; and Ser. No. 08/681,742. The above identified U.S. Patents and U.S. Patent applications are hereby incorporated by reference.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONAn RFID tag is combined with a magnetic EAS tag. The conducting elements of the RFID tag such as the antenna or the parasitic elements used to tune the antenna characteristics may be wholly or partially made from a non-linear magnetic material which produces a large signal in a magnetic EAS detection field. The non-linear magnetic material may be coated or electroplated or electrolessly plated with a good electrical conductor to enhance the antenna characteristics of the RFID tag. The non-linear magnetic material may be advantageously connected to dielectric material used to support and/or encapsulate the antenna and electronic components of the RFID tag.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Claims
1. A system for anti-theft protection and article identification, comprising
- a transponder having an anti-theft portion for signaling the status of the article; and
- an article identification portion for providing coded article information.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein the article identification portion is associated with an article, and communicates with a database to provide information concerning the identity of the article.
3. The system of claim 1, wherein the anti-theft portion communicates information indicating whether or not a given article has been paid for.
4. The system of claim 1, further comprising an interrogator for interrogating the transponder to obtain status and article identification information
5. The method of monitoring the movement of items, which comprises
- associating a transponder with each of the items which transponder is operative to supply status and identity information for the associated item in response to interrogation thereof; and
- interrogating the transponder to obtain both status and identity information therefrom for the associated item.
6. The method of claim 5, wherein the status information indicates whether or not a given item has been paid for, so that the identity information is available to identify the frequency of attempted theft for a given item.
7. The method of claim 5, wherein the interrogating step comprises applying a radio frequency field to the transponder.
8. The method of claim 7, wherein the transponder has a circuit which is generally resonant at the frequency of the radio frequency field.
9. The method of claim 7, further comprising applying an auxiliary field to the transponder.
10. The method of claim 9, wherein the auxiliary field is a magnetic field.
11. The method of claim 9, wherein the auxiliary field is an electromagnetic field.
12. A transponder comprising:
- an anti-theft portion: and
- an article identification portion.
13. The transponder of claim 12, wherein the article identification portion is associated with an article, and communicates with a database to provide information concerning the identity of the article.
14. The transponder of claim 12, wherein the anti-theft portion supplies status information in response to an interrogating field.
15. The transponder of claim 12, wherein the transponder is subjected to a radio frequency field.
16. The transponder of claim 15, wherein the transponder has a circuit which is generally resonant at the frequency of the radio frequency field.
17. The transponder of claim 15, wherein the transponder is further subjected to an auxiliary field.
18. The transponder of claim 15, wherein the transponder is further subjected to a magnetic field.
19. The transponder of claim 15, wherein the transponder is further subjected to an electromagnetic field.
20. The transponder of claim 15, wherein the transponder is further subjected to an acoustic energy field.
Type: Application
Filed: Jun 18, 2005
Publication Date: Dec 8, 2005
Inventors: Michael Brady (Brewster, NY), Thomas Cofino (Rye, NY), Richard Gambino (Stony Brook, NY), Paul Moskowitz (Yorktown Heights, NY), Alejandro Schrott (New York, NY), Robert Von Gutfeld (New York, NY)
Application Number: 11/155,334