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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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13 years ago

design of an RFID system reconfigurable on FPGA

Hi, all

I currently have a project that asked me to develop an architecture of an RFID system including the various aspects encoding / decoding, modulation / demodulation,anti-collision, security, etc ... The objectives of this project is the design of a reconfigurable RFID system for UHF band and implementation on FPGA.

so the question is which kit can i use for this project?

thanks very much....

20 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    --- Quote Start ---

    1) i graduated last year ( june 2011) '' engineer in electronics" my project was: design of a 8 bits microprocessor in vhdl, it was very difficult because i took long time reading about vhdl. i used Quartus II in simulation, when i was reading Quartus's tutorial i found implementation level so i tried to implement the simple µp in FPGA (our lab contains Altera DE2 board).

    so now i decided to go deeper in FPGA

    --- Quote End ---

    You did not answer the question though; are you now a graduate student, or are you doing this because you want to learn more about FPGAs?

    --- Quote Start ---

    3)about FPGA i don't know alot about it frankly, RF electronics: what are its contents, ADC and DAC i know them a bit because we have already studied them.

    DSP: i don't have any idea about this one really.

    --- Quote End ---

    Then an RFID reader interface might not be the best option for you.

    --- Quote Start ---

    4) normaly the project started in february 2012 and it should be finished before feb 2015. thank you for this concern.

    --- Quote End ---

    And is that the schedule you need to meet?

    What is it you want to learn about FPGAs? They are just processing blocks, so what is it that you find interesting about them? What application do you have that needs to use an FPGA (rather than a processor or microcontroller)?

    The project you select should reflect what you want to learn.

    Cheers,

    Dave
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    You did not answer the question though; are you now a graduate student, or are you doing this because you want to learn more about FPGAs?

    I am graduated and i am completing my research in this topic.

    Then an RFID reader interface might not be the best option for you.

    Why do you think that?

    What is it you want to learn about FPGAs? They just processing blocks, so what is it that you find interesting about them? What application do you have that needs to use an FPGA (rather than a processor or microcontroller)?

    i have found a lot of projects that will be implemented in fpga, so that i think that it is interesting, but you are right, all of them are processors.

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    --- Quote Start ---

    Then an RFID reader interface might not be the best option for you.

    Why do you think that?

    --- Quote End ---

    Because you indicated that you do not have the required background experience, and you have not indicated that those topics are of interest to you.

    Implementing an RFID reader requires you to interface to the real-world using ADCs, and DACs. In the digital domain of the FPGA, you need to understand digital filtering, modulation, etc. Given that you have no experience in these topics, and you do not have a supervisor willing to help you learn them, you would have trouble completing the project.

    --- Quote Start ---

    What is it you want to learn about FPGAs? They just processing blocks, so what is it that you find interesting about them? What application do you have that needs to use an FPGA (rather than a processor or microcontroller)?

    i have found a lot of projects that will be implemented in fpga, so that i think that it is interesting, but you are right, all of them are processors.

    --- Quote End ---

    So how much do you know about processors and programming?

    Perhaps you should try to think of a project that requires a processor in an FPGA. That way you could learn a little of both.

    You could still implement an RFID reader project, however, rather than building the reader logic in an FPGA, you could try and find a reader IC, and interface that to an FPGA, and then program it using a NIOS processor.

    Cheers,

    Dave
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    As a first point, I must confess that I'm not very familiar with UHF RFID protocols, but I did some work related to 13.56 MHz RFID, also involving FPGA.

    In my view, at least the broad idea of a reconfigurable UHF RFID system makes sense, presuming that existing ICs most likely don't cover all existing protocols or don't allow all possible parameter variations. You can also assume that RFID chip vendors are using FPGAs to prototype the digital part of their ASIC designs.

    A broad idea however isn't a project objective. It seems to me, that the project details are still under discussion. In this case it seems meaningful to get a wider knowledge of existing RFID protocols, applications and design of industry standard systems. Also the general concepts of digital signal processing and particularly software defined radio are essential as project background theory.

    Regards,

    Frank
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    Thank you mister DAVE and mister FvM for your concern, after talking with you, i saw that i must know exactly what i should settle on.

    Greeting,

    Kopd
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    --- Quote Start ---

    Thank you mister DAVE and mister FvM for your concern, after talking with you, i saw that i must know exactly what i should settle on.

    --- Quote End ---

    You need to select a project that is within your capabilities that you can complete within the time-frame alloted for the project.

    Don't try to pick a project that is too ambitious, eg., select a project that will require you to learn about new technologies (at least new to you), so that the project is challenging and interesting to you, however, make sure you do not have to learn too many new things, otherwise you will not complete the project.

    Cheers,

    Dave
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    sir i want to implement rfid through fpga that will sort out the parcels of particular countries the rfid tags were pasted on the parcels.

    can you please help me in that project ??
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    --- Quote Start ---

    sir i want to implement rfid through fpga that will sort out the parcels of particular countries the rfid tags were pasted on the parcels.

    can you please help me in that project ??

    --- Quote End ---

    I have no experience with RFIDs. However, I will provide advice on your project.

    First, get the part numbers of the RFID tags and reader. Second, determine whether you need to use an FPGA.

    I doubt that you will require an FPGA. RFID tags are supposed to be cheap, and although the readers will be more expensive than the tags, the readers also need to be cheap. A microcontroller would likely be more appropriate for a commercial application such as parcel sorting.

    However, if you do want to implement a system using FPGAs, the users of this forum will help provide direction.

    Cheers,

    Dave
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    I see at least two possible motivations to implement a RFID reader on a FPGA.

    - to implement specific features that are not available with commercial RFID reader chips. This is often the case for test systems, that need to vary protocol parameters arbitrarily or measure signals that aren't usually accessible.

    Multistandard capability can be a possible motivation, but you shouldn't underrate how versatile commercial reader chips are.

    - to implement the functionality of existing RFID readers on a FPGA for educational purposes. You shouldn't mind to reinvent the wheel in this case.

    A suitable RF frontend has to be added. Besides digital FPGA design basics, profound knowledge of DSP methods will be required for the project.

    Regards,

    Frank