KR101343138B1 - Appratus for testing reliability of wireless tag reader using it - Google Patents

Abstract

An apparatus for testing reliability of a wireless tag reader according to an embodiment of the present invention, the apparatus for testing reliability of a wireless tag reader includes: a thermo-hygrostat for embedding the wireless tag reader; A control cable for connecting the wireless tag reader to a control device external to the thermo-hygrostat if the wireless tag reader is built-in; And a wireless tag emulator positioned inside the thermo-hygrostat and connected with the wireless tag reader when the wireless tag reader is embedded to communicate with the wireless tag reader.

Description

Reliability Test Device for Wireless Tag Readers {APPRATUS FOR TESTING RELIABILITY OF WIRELESS TAG READER USING IT}

The present invention relates to an apparatus for testing a reliability of a wireless tag reader. More particularly, the wireless tag emulator capable of improving space efficiency using a wireless tag emulator and enabling a high performance reliability test at low cost, and reliability of the wireless tag reader using the same. A reliability test system for a test device and a wireless tag reader.

In general, a wireless tag receives a radio frequency signal transmitted from a wireless tag reader and sends a response to the wireless tag reader. By using this, it is possible to track and manage the unique identification information of the tag.

In particular, a typical RFID technology using a wireless tag uses a radio frequency to read or record information from a tag having unique identification information in a non-contact manner, such as a tagged object, an animal, a person, or the like. Technology that enables you to recognize, track, and manage your business.

In other words, RFID technology refers to a technology that uses RFID to recognize information from a long distance. RFID tags and RFID readers are needed to implement RFID technology. The above-mentioned RFID tag is composed of an antenna and an integrated circuit, which records information in an integrated circuit and transmits information to the reader through an antenna.

This information is used to identify the tagged object, and is simply a function similar to a bar code. RFID differs from bar code system in that it uses electric waves instead of reading light. Thus, it does not work at short distances like a barcode reader, it can read tags from a long distance, or even receive information through objects between objects and objects.

As mentioned above, RFID technology is used in a wide variety of fields. It is widely used to record personal information by attaching a tag to a passport or identification card from the track record of athletes or the trace of production history of a product.

The above RFID system using RFID technology has unique identification information, and is composed of a plurality of tags (electronic tags or transponders) attached to objects or animals, and an RFID reader (reader or interrogator) for reading or writing tag information The configuration is as described above.

On the other hand, such a wireless tag reader, for example, RFID reader can be verified the performance through the reliability test, such as high temperature startup, humidity test.

1 is a diagram illustrating a general test system for a reliability test of such a wireless tag reader.

Referring to FIG. 1, the reliability test system of a general wireless tag reader includes an antenna 31 connected to a wireless tag reader 11 of a constant temperature and humidity device 10 including a wireless tag reader 11 and a constant temperature and humidity device 10. And a computer 20 connected to the electromagnetic wave anechoic chamber 30 including a plurality of wireless tags 32 and a wireless tag reader 11 of the thermo-hygrostat device 10.

As shown in FIG. 1, in order to test the reliability of the wireless tag reader 11 through a general system, an actual wireless tag should be placed in an electromagnetic chamber 30.

In practice, however, the electromagnetic wave anechoic chamber 30 occupies a large space and is expensive. In addition, even when the number of wireless tags increases or a slight environmental change occurs in the electromagnetic wave anechoic chamber 30, a probability of measurement error occurring increases, resulting in a lower reliability of the reliability test.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a wireless tag emulator, a wireless tag reader reliability test apparatus, and a wireless tag reader reliability test system capable of accurately testing a wireless tag reader without an electromagnetic anechoic chamber.

In addition, the present invention provides a wireless tag emulator, a wireless tag reader reliability test apparatus, and a wireless tag reader reliability test system capable of reducing measurement errors.

The present invention also provides a wireless tag emulator, a wireless tag reader reliability test apparatus, and a wireless tag reader reliability test system capable of accurately verifying the reliability of a wireless tag reader even when a plurality of tags are connected.

Reliability test apparatus for a wireless tag reader according to an embodiment of the present invention for achieving the above object, In the reliability test apparatus of the wireless tag reader, a thermo-hygrostat for embedding the wireless tag reader; A control cable for connecting the wireless tag reader to a control device external to the thermo-hygrostat if the wireless tag reader is built-in; And a wireless tag emulator positioned inside the thermo-hygrostat and connected with the wireless tag reader when the wireless tag reader is embedded to communicate with the wireless tag reader.

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According to an embodiment of the present invention, by using the wireless tag emulator, it is possible to test the reliability of the wireless tag reader without using an electromagnetic anechoic chamber.

In particular, the use of the radio tag emulator eliminates the use of an electromagnetic anechoic chamber, which occupies a large volume at a high cost, resulting in low cost and space efficiency in the reliability test of the radio tag reader.

In addition, by wirelessly connecting the wireless tag emulator and the wireless tag reader to RF communication, external noise can be reduced and measurement errors can be reduced.

In addition, according to an embodiment of the present invention, since a plurality of tags can be wired to connect, there is an effect of accurately performing a reliability test when the wireless tag reader recognizes a plurality of tags.

1 is a diagram illustrating a reliability test system of a general wireless tag reader.
2 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a wireless tag reader reliability test system including a wireless tag emulator according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the wireless tag emulator shown in FIG. 2.
4 is a block diagram illustrating in detail the configuration of a wireless tag unit of the wireless tag emulator shown in FIG. 3.
5 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a wireless tag emulator for a test for recognizing a plurality of wireless tags according to another embodiment of the present invention.

The following merely illustrates the principles of the invention. Thus, those skilled in the art will be able to devise various apparatuses which, although not explicitly described or shown herein, embody the principles of the invention and are included in the concept and scope of the invention. Furthermore, all of the conditional terms and embodiments listed herein are, in principle, intended only for the purpose of enabling understanding of the concepts of the present invention, and are not intended to be limiting in any way to the specifically listed embodiments and conditions .

It is also to be understood that the detailed description, as well as the principles, aspects and embodiments of the invention, as well as specific embodiments thereof, are intended to cover structural and functional equivalents thereof. It is also to be understood that such equivalents include all elements contemplated to perform the same function irrespective of the currently known equivalents as well as the equivalents to be developed in the future, i.e., the structure.

Thus, for example, it should be understood that the block diagrams herein represent conceptual views of exemplary circuits embodying the principles of the invention. Similarly, all flowcharts, state transition diagrams, pseudo code, and the like are representative of various processes that may be substantially represented on a computer-readable medium and executed by a computer or processor, whether or not the computer or processor is explicitly shown .

The functions of the various elements shown in the figures, including the functional blocks depicted in the processor or similar concept, may be provided by use of dedicated hardware as well as hardware capable of executing software in connection with appropriate software. When provided by a processor, the functions may be provided by a single dedicated processor, a single shared processor, or a plurality of individual processors, some of which may be shared.

Also, the explicit use of terms such as processor, control, or similar concepts should not be interpreted exclusively as hardware capable of running software, and may be used without limitation as a digital signal processor (DSP) (ROM), random access memory (RAM), and non-volatile memory. Other hardware may also be included.

In the claims hereof, the elements represented as means for performing the functions described in the detailed description include all types of software including, for example, a combination of circuit elements performing the function or firmware / microcode etc. , And is coupled with appropriate circuitry to execute the software to perform the function. It is to be understood that the invention defined by the appended claims is not to be construed as encompassing any means capable of providing such functionality, as the functions provided by the various listed means are combined and combined with the manner in which the claims require .

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: There will be. In the following description, well-known functions or constructions are not described in detail since they would obscure the invention in unnecessary detail.

Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

2 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a reliability test system of a wireless tag reader including a wireless tag emulator 200 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, a system for testing reliability of a wireless tag reader according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a thermo-hygrostat 100 having a constant temperature / humidity function, a wireless tag reader 110 operating in a constant temperature / humidifier 100, It is configured to include a control device 300 for controlling the wireless tag reader 110 and a wireless tag emulator 200 which is wired to the wireless tag reader 110 to perform RF communication, which is located outside the thermo-hygrostat 100. do.

The thermo-hygrostat 100 is a device capable of maintaining a constant temperature and humidity in the interior irrespective of changes in temperature and humidity of the outside, and at a high temperature startup, a low temperature startup, a high humidity startup, or a low humidity startup of a wireless tag reader located therein. It is responsible for keeping temperature and humidity within a certain range to test the reliability of the city.

Therefore, the thermo-hygrostat 100 is a temperature detection sensor (not shown), humidity detection sensor (not shown), temperature control unit (not shown), humidity control unit (not shown), compressor ( At least one of a condenser (not shown), an evaporator (not shown), a humidifier (not shown), a blowing fan (not shown), or a heater (not shown) may be provided.

Thermo-hygrostat 100 It is possible to control the temperature and humidity using a variety of devices, such as by transmitting the current temperature and humidity to the control device 300, the control device 300 measures the reliability of the wireless tag reader 110. Data can be provided to In addition, the thermo-hygrostat 100 may receive a temperature or humidity control signal from the control device 300 to change the internal temperature or humidity according to the control of the control device 300.

In addition, the control device 300 displays the internal environment of the thermo-hygrostat 100 in which the wireless tag reader 110 is currently located in the form of a GUI based on the temperature or humidity data received from the thermo-hygrostat 100, or the user intuitively. In order to determine the temperature and humidity inside the thermo-hygrostat 100 may be generated in the form of a graph and provided through a display.

Meanwhile, the control device 300 is connected to the wireless tag reader 110 located in the thermo-hygrostat 100 to control the operation of the wireless tag reader 110.

The control device 300 may be, for example, a device for controlling the operation of the wireless tag reader 110 and receiving a response from the wireless tag reader 110 to output a reliability test result of the wireless tag reader 110. have. Therefore, the control device 300 may be any one of a computer, a smartphone, a tablet, and a server device capable of controlling the wireless tag reader 110.

In addition, the control device 300 may be connected by a cable for the control of the wireless tag reader 110 to perform communication, the connection cable may be a cable for transmitting and receiving control signals, for example, Ethernet cable, USB cable, It may be either an optical cable or an RF cable.

In addition, the wireless tag reader 110 is located inside the thermo-hygrostat 100 to perform RF communication with the wireless tag emulator 200 under the control of the control device 300, and transmits the result of the communication to the control device 300. Output

Herein, the wireless tag reader 110 operates at a temperature and humidity controlled by the user through the thermo-hygrostat 100, and the control device 300 controls the performance of the wireless tag reader 110 according to the current temperature and humidity. Record and measure its reliability.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the wireless tag reader 110 may be the RFID tag reader as described above, and the description will focus on the RFID tag reader. However, the wireless tag reader 110 is capable of wireless connection as well as an RFID tag reader. It may be an NFC tag reader or a Wi-Fi tag reader.

On the other hand, the wireless tag emulator 200 is located inside the thermo-hygrostat 100 together with the wireless tag reader 110 and is wired to the wireless tag reader 110 to perform RF communication.

Here, the wireless tag emulator 200 may be connected to the wireless tag reader 110 through an RF cable, and may perform RF communication with the wireless tag reader 110. The wireless tag emulator 200 may perform the same operation as the actual wireless tag, and the wireless tag reader 110 may perform the same operation as the communication with the actual wireless tag through the communication with the wireless tag emulator 200. .

Therefore, even without the electromagnetic wave anechoic chamber in the conventional wireless tag reader reliability test system, the wireless tag emulator 200 performs the operation of the actual wireless tag, and transmits the response as a RF signal through the cable, the wireless tag reader 110 To allow normal operation.

In addition, the control device 300 controls the wireless tag reader 110 to communicate with the wireless tag emulator 200, and enables the reliability test of the operation of the wireless tag reader 110 by measuring the result.

Meanwhile, in an embodiment of the present invention, the wireless tag emulator 200 will be described mainly as an RFID tag. However, it is obvious that the wireless tag emulator 200 may be applied to various wireless tags capable of proximity communication such as NFC or Wi-Fi tags as well as RFID.

3 is a block diagram illustrating in more detail the wireless tag emulator 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 3, the wireless tag emulator 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an RF connection unit 210 and a wireless tag unit 220 for RF-wired connection with the wireless tag reader 110. do.

The RF connection unit 210 is connected to the wireless tag reader 110 in a wired manner and transmits and receives an RF signal from the wireless tag reader 110.

The RF connector 210 may include an RF connector for transmitting and receiving a frequency signal, and the RF connector may be, for example, a minitype, an N type, a Bayonet Neil-Concelman connector (BNC) type, or a threaded neill-TNC (TNC). Various types of RF connectors, such as a concelman connector (SMA) type and a subminiature coaxial connector (SMA) type, may be used.

The wireless tag unit 220 performs a wireless tag operation according to the RF signal received from the RF connector 210, and transmits the response to the wireless tag reader 110 through the RF connector 210. The wireless tag unit 220 may generate, for example, unique identification information according to an RFID signal received from an RFID reader which is a reliability test target, and transmit the unique identification information to the RFID reader through an SMA connector.

4 is a block diagram illustrating in detail the configuration of the wireless tag unit 220 of the wireless tag emulator 200.

Referring to FIG. 4, the wireless tag unit 220 of the wireless tag emulator 200 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure may have an impedance matching unit 221 matching an impedance of an RF signal received through the RF connection unit 210. And a wireless tag chip 222.

The impedance matching unit 221 adjusts the impedance of the RF signal received through the RF connection unit 210 to match 50 Ω. In general, the impedance is an amount representing the difficulty of current flow, and the coaxial cable is produced with a fixed impedance of 50 Ω, but the antenna impedance is often not 50 Ω, so that the impedance matching unit 221 transmits or receives a signal current or voltage. The impedance of is adjusted to be close to 50Ω, enabling efficient transmission and reception of RF signals.

For example, the impedance matching unit 230 may include a pie-type matching circuit consisting of passive elements using at least one inductor and at least one capacitor or an active matching circuit using active elements.

Meanwhile, the wireless tag chip 222 is a tag chip formed on a circuit board on which the wireless tag unit 220 is mounted. The wireless tag chip 222 receives an impedance matched RF signal and performs an operation according thereto, and transmits the response signal to the impedance matching unit 221. It is transmitted to the RF connection 210 through).

For example, in the case of an RFID tag, the wireless tag chip 222 may include only a main circuit chip from which an antenna and a bonding are removed from the RFID tag.

In addition, the wireless tag chip 222 may be packaged and fixed to a chip on board (COB) on a PCB circuit board. As described above, the chip-on-board packaged wireless tag chip is hardly affected by the temperature change and the humidity change in the thermo-hygrostat 100, and can guarantee normal operation.

Through the chip-on-board packaging of the wireless tag chip, the wireless tag reader 110 can stably communicate with the wireless tag chip, and the control device 300 is wireless regardless of the environment of the wireless tag. Only the tag reader 110 can measure the reliability.

Accordingly, chip on board packaging of the wireless tag chip enables accurate and stable reliability measurement of the wireless tag reader 110.

5 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a wireless tag emulator 200 according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 5, the wireless tag emulator 200 according to another embodiment of the present invention includes a plurality of wireless tag units 220 and RF connectors 210 connected to the plurality of wireless tag units 220. Can be.

The configuration of the plurality of wireless tag units 220 may include a plurality of impedance matching units 221 and a plurality of wireless tag chips 222 respectively corresponding to the wireless tag unit 220 described above. In addition, each wireless tag chip 222 may operate by chip-on-board packaging on a PCB substrate on which the wireless tag emulator 200 is mounted.

Each of the plurality of wireless tag units 220 is connected to the RF connection unit 210 to enable communication with the wireless tag reader 110.

Using the configuration as shown in FIG. 5, the wireless tag reader 110 is capable of multiple communication with a plurality of wireless tag units 220 wired through the RF connection unit 210. Therefore, the control device 300 can test whether the wireless tag reader 110 can recognize several tags through one antenna connector.

For example, when the antenna connector of the RFID tag reader 110 is connected to the RF connection unit 210 of the wireless tag emulator 200 through an RF cable, the RFID tag chips included in the 20 to 30 RFID tag units 220 are included. The 222 may be electrically connected to the RFID tag reader 110 to transmit and receive an RF signal.

Thus, for example, the control device 300 can test whether the RFID tag reader 110 can normally communicate with 20 to 30 RFID tags according to the temperature and humidity of the thermo-hygrostat 100.

The control device 300 transmits an identification number acquisition command of an RFID tag that can communicate with the RFID tag reader 110, and the RFID tag reader 110 transmits a plurality of wireless tag units (RF) through RF communication with the RFID tag emulator 200. An identification number of each RFID tag chip 222 included in 220 may be obtained and transmitted to the control device 300. The control device 300 may determine the reliability of the RFID tag reader 110 according to whether each identification number matches a preset value.

Reliability test apparatus and system of a wireless tag reader using such a wireless tag emulator, it is possible to accurately measure the reliability test of various tag readers without expensive electromagnetic wave reflection room.

While the above has been shown and described with respect to preferred embodiments of the present invention, the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments described above, it is usually in the technical field to which the invention belongs without departing from the spirit of the invention claimed in the claims. Various modifications can be made by those skilled in the art, and these modifications should not be individually understood from the technical spirit or prospect of the present invention.

100: constant temperature and humidity
110: wireless tag reader
200: wireless tag emulator
210: RF connection
220: wireless tag unit
221: impedance matching unit
222: wireless tag chip
300: Control device

Claims (6)

delete In the reliability test apparatus of the wireless tag reader,
A thermo-hygrostat for embedding the wireless tag reader;
A control cable for connecting the wireless tag reader to a control device external to the thermo-hygrostat if the wireless tag reader is built-in; And
Located inside the thermo-hygrostat, if the wireless tag reader is built-in a wireless tag emulator including a wireless tag emulator for communicating with the wireless tag reader wired to the wireless tag reader. 3. The method of claim 2,
The wireless tag emulator
An RF connection unit wired to the wireless tag reader to transmit and receive an RF signal;
An impedance matching unit for matching an impedance of the transmitted / received RF signal; And
And at least one tag chip electrically connected to the impedance matching unit and configured to communicate with the wireless tag reader based on the impedance matched RF signal. The method of claim 3,
The at least one tag chip is
And a chip on board packaged on a circuit board on which the wireless tag emulator is mounted. The method of claim 3,
The impedance matching unit
At least one impedance matching circuit corresponding to each of the at least one tag chip,
And said at least one impedance matching circuit is electrically connected to said RF connection. The method of claim 3,
The RF connector is a radio tag of any one of a minitype, N type, Bayonet Neil-Concelman connector (BNC) type, Threaded Neill-Concelman connector (TNC) type, and Subminiature Coaxial connector (SMA) type. Reader reliability test device.

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