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EP-4742091-A1 - DUAL COMMUNICATION FREQUENCY RFID CIRCUIT

EP4742091A1EP 4742091 A1EP4742091 A1EP 4742091A1EP-4742091-A1

Abstract

The present invention concerns a dual communication frequency RFID circuit (10) comprising: - a first logic unit (13) for processing data signals received or transmitted by a first frequency by a first antenna (11), - a second logic unit (14) for processing data signals received or transmitted by a second frequency by a second antenna (12), - a shared memory unit (15) connected to the first logic unit (13) and connected to the second logic unit (14) and comprising a shared password storage section (20) accessible by the first logic unit (13) and by the second logic unit (14).

Inventors

  • MULLER, PIERRE

Assignees

  • EM Microelectronic-Marin SA

Dates

Publication Date
20260513
Application Date
20241106

Claims (15)

  1. A dual communication frequency RFID circuit (10) comprising: - a first logic unit (13) for processing data signals received or transmitted by a first frequency by a first antenna (11), - a second logic unit (14) for processing data signals received or transmitted by a second frequency by a second antenna (12), - a shared memory unit (15) connected to the first logic unit (13) and connected to the second logic unit (14) and comprising a shared password storage section (20) accessible by the first logic unit (13) and by the second logic unit (14).
  2. The RFID circuit (10) according to claim 1, wherein the shared password storage section (20) comprises a first memory block (21) to store at least one of an access password (23) and a login password (23').
  3. The RFID circuit (10) according to claim 2, wherein the first memory block (21) is accessible by the first logic unit (13) and by the second logic unit (14).
  4. The RFID circuit (10) according to claim 3, wherein a first predefined memory area (17) of the shared memory unit (15) gets accessible for the first logic unit (13) upon processing data from first memory block (21) of the password storage section (20).
  5. The RFID circuit (10) according to claim 3 or 4, wherein a second predefined memory area (18) of the shared memory unit (15) gets accessible for the second logic unit (14) upon processing data from first memory block (21) of the password storage section (20).
  6. The RFID circuit (10) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the shared password storage section (20) comprises a second memory block (22) to store at least one of a kill password (24) and a destroy password (24').
  7. The RFID circuit (10) according to claim 6, wherein the second memory block (22) is accessible by the first logic unit (13) and by the second logic unit (14).
  8. The RFID circuit (10) according to any one of the preceding claims 6 or 7, wherein when processing data from the second memory block (22), the first logic unit (13) becomes non-responsive to any subsequent data signal.
  9. The RFID circuit (10) according to any one of the preceding claims 6 to 8, wherein when processing data from the second memory block (22), the second logic unit (14) becomes non-responsive to any subsequent data signal.
  10. The RFID circuit (10) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the first logic unit (13) is a UHF logic unit and wherein the first antenna (11) is a UHF antenna.
  11. The RFID circuit (10) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the second logic unit (14) is a NFC logic unit and wherein the second antenna (12) is a NFC antenna.
  12. The RFID circuit (10) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the first logic unit (13), the second logic unit (14) and the shared memory (15) are integrated in a common integrated circuit.
  13. A dual frequency RFID tag (5) comprising: - a first antenna (11) to receive and/or to transmit data signals at a first frequency, - a second antenna (12) to receive and/or to transmit data signals at a second frequency, and - a RFID circuit (10) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the first logic unit (13) of the RFID circuit (10) is connected to the first antenna (11) and wherein the second logic unit (14) of the RFID circuit (10) is connected to the second antenna (12).
  14. A method of operating a RFID circuit (10) according to any one of the preceding claims, 1 to 12, comprising the steps of: - reading of at least one of an access password (23) and a login password (23') from the password storage section (20) of the shared memory unit (15) by one of the first logic unit (13) and the second logic unit (14), - processing of at least one of the access password (23) and the logon password (23') and - accessing a predefined storage area (17, 18) in response to the processing of at least one of the access password (23) and the login password (23').
  15. The method according to claim 14, further comprising the steps of: - reading of at least one of a kill password (24) and a destroy password (24') from the password storage section (20) of the shared memory unit (15) by one of the first logic unit (13) and the second logic unit (14), - processing of at least one of the kill password (24) and the destroy password (24') and - switching at least one of the first logic unit (13) and the second logic unit (14) into an inactive or non-responsive state in response to the processing of at least one of the kill password (24) and the destroy password (24').

Description

Field of the invention The present invention relates to the field of dual communication frequency RFID circuits and in particular to the memory management of such dual communication frequency RFID circuit. In further aspects, the present invention relates to an RFID Tag and to a method of operating and electronic RFID circuit. Background of the invention RFID tags are widely used and may be attached to various items or goods in order to identify such items uniquely and enable to automatize business processes handling of such items, for instance in the fields of shipping and receiving goods or in the field of performing inventory of goods in shops or warehouses. A RFID tag is typically made of an integrated circuit (IC) and an antenna (typically copper or aluminum) that are connected via a conductive glue and associated to a substrate (typically PET or paper). Some additional information might be programmed in the tag, like expiration date for the product, manufacturing information or any relevant information to the product or tags manufacturing or usage. This information is stored in the IC memory. Access to the IC memory might be protected by password to prevent illegitimate access. Different types of tags are existing, supporting different standard and business requirements. Two types of existing tags are UHF RFID tags, also known as RAIN RFID, and supporting ISO18000-63 protocol and HF tags, also known as NFC tags and supporting either ISO14443 or ISO15693 protocols. All of these protocols specify options for the tags to implement access passwords to protect memory content access as describes above. UHF tags are typically used for process automation like logistic and supply chain management applications, while HF and NFC tags typically used for customer interaction, like for instance ticketing, access control, payment and customer engagement. The existing communication standards also specify some additional password to support "killing" or "destroying" the tag, which results in the tag becoming being non-responsive to any further commands and becoming effectively non usable. Due to the different business targets of the two types of communication interfaces, some applications benefit from combining both to enable process automation as well as consumer interaction. This results in having two unique identifiers associated to a single product. Both types, namely HF type and UHF type interfaces may be already provided in a common IC. One of the key characteristics of this product family is to share the IC memory between both interfaces. This enables new or simplified business use cases by enabling for instance a unique ID for the product whether access from the UHF or the HF interface. However, the correctly management of passwords is at best a difficult thing to do. Passwords might be required to be accessible in different location and IT systems and associated to the actual product. Password diversification, which is a best practice in security, further increases the difficulty to associate password and the real product as each individual product item is having a specific password. In practice, this leads to complex IT systems which need to maintain the consistency of password to product association, provide password access to the legitimate product users while denying access to anybody else. Consistency on product programming must be maintained over both communication interfaces, while the tags might be encoded at different stages of the manufacturing process and with different equipment. Having a product that implements two types of communication interfaces increases the complexity of maintaining this association to four different items: the unique ID of each IC (UHF and HF) and the two access passwords. The problem further increases with the inclusion of the kill password. It is therefore desirable to provide improvements to the password management of dual communication frequency RFID circuit by way of which access and processing of such passwords as well as management of such passwords can be simplified while simultaneously providing the generic functions associated to such passwords. Summary of the invention In one aspect the present invention relates to a dual communication frequency RFID circuit. The RFID circuit comprises a first logic unit for processing data signals received or transmitted by a first frequency and by a first antenna. The RFID circuit further comprises a second logic unit for processing data signals received or transmitted by a second frequency and hence by a second antenna. The first frequency and the second frequency distinguish from each other. Accordingly, the first antenna and the second antenna for transmission of data signals at different, nonoverlapping frequencies or frequency ranges. The antennas are particularly configured for transceiving data signals at different carrier frequencies. The dual communication frequency RFID circuit further comprises a shared memory unit,