Microwave Engineering Europe - October 2007 - (Page 18)

18 COVER FEATURE — UHF RFID DATA PROTECTION New data protection concept for UHF RFID tags By Alexander Kurz, Marketing Manager, RFID UHF, Atmel he use of the UHF frequency band for passive RFID technology was considered technically impossible ten years ago; however, recent technical advancements in UHF RFID, has enabled reading ranges that until now have been unreachable in passive RFID. These increased reading ranges allow the realization of RFID applications, that were previously only possible with cumbersome, expensive, battery-powered active RFID solutions. This technological advancement has been recognized by companies with global retail supply chains, and as a result, the EPCGlobal™ community was founded to lead “ the development of industry-driven standards for the Electronic Product Code to support the use of Radio Frequency Identiﬁcation (RFID) in today’s fastmoving, information rich, trading networks.” 1 A standard, Speciﬁcation for RFID Air Interface for Class 1 Generation 2, known as EPC Gen2 2, was approved in December 2004 by EPCGlobal. This standard was integrated by the International Standard Organization in 2006 into the ISO IEC 18000-6c standard. This paved the way for the worldwide adoption of UHF RFID technology. Resellers such as Wall-Mart, METRO AG, Johnson&Johnson 3 etc., have adopted and standardized the EPC technology to manage their goods. RFID systems can not only facilitate supply chain efﬁciency, but also provide the means to quickly obtain an overview of the global goods distribution. Industries such as aerospace and defense, consumer electronics, packaging companies, and automobile, have become aware of the activities of the EPCGlobal and have recognized the potential advantages of inexpensive and widely dispersed standardized identiﬁcation equipment. Applications in these industries, however, often have far more elaborate and security-oriented requirements than speciﬁed in the pure EPC code. In some cases these industries have closed systems, i.e., completely internal goods ﬂow, where the use of the standardized EPC number is not required. In other cases, these industries require not only the storage of the EPC code on the tag, but also 1 2 T require the ability to store and modify additional information on the tags such as process sets, sub-supplier details, and maintenance histories. The security of the information stored on the tag in these industries is of paramount importance. This is particularly evident in the RFID tags used for aircraft parts, re-tunable containers as found in the automobile industry, RFID tags used in tires, life-time tags, and automotive vehicle identiﬁcation (AVI) used for toll-collection systems. This paper describes the application of UHF RFID in the automobile, aircraft, and AVI industries, highlighting each industry’s particular information storage and security requirements. Secure UHF RFID — in automobile assembly In automobile assembly production, the trend is moving toward modularized assembly. In the search for market advantages, automobile companies provide customers the opportunity to “design” their own automobile – to add optional features and packages to their automobile ranging from trim selection to high-pressure headlight washers and transmission types. Naturally, this customer-oriented design trend leads to ever more complex assembly processes. With this complexity in the internal ﬂow of materials, the clear identiﬁcation of individual automobiles and transport containers is vital. The logistical challenge in such an assembly process is to ensure that the correct part is delivered to the correct assembly station at the correct time. In contrast to barcode systems, RFID technology offers distinct advantages. RFID tags can be read without direct line of sight, both in close proximity and up to a couple of meters away from a reader. In addition, information can also be written to the tag, albeit at distances slightly smaller than the read distance. In practical terms, a forklift driver carrying RFID-tagged automobile parts can be guided and controlled through the assembly production. Readers built into gates can issue warning signals if a part is delivered to an incorrect assembly station, thus preventing the installation of parts in an automobile for which they were not destined, for example, LHD steering column in a RHD automobile, or a small fuel tank in a high-performance engine. With such automated identiﬁcation systems, quality problems and expensive re-work delays can be avoided. In addition to this modularization trend, production experts predict the decentralization of information i.e., the storage of relevant information on the part itself to ensure quick access to data at all production locations. The storage of information on the tag reduces the requirement for connection to a centralized server, and thus reduces the risk of disruption to the production line. More accessible memory on the tag, enables not only the storage of a simple number, but also storage of information pertaining to the processing chain. For automobile parts comprised of various subsupplier modules, an extended tag memory, can also facilitate the storage and protection of sub-supplier-relevant information. With decentralization and modularization trends, the security of the information on the tag becomes ever more important. Secure UHF RFID — in the aircraft industry Last year over 2000 passenger and transport aircraft were produced. Large aircraft are made up of over ﬁve million individual parts, each part with its own maintenance and replacement schedule. The data structure of tags used to label aircraft parts is detailed in the Aircraft Transport Association Speciﬁcation 2000 (ATA2000). The basis of this is the EPC C1Gen2/ISO-18000-6C air interface. The “decentralization” trend seen in the automobile assembly industry is also found in the aircraft industry. Information pertaining to the aircraft part such as date of manufacturing, manufacturer, weight, electrostatic sensitivity, storage number is stored on an RFID label. All modiﬁcations and maintenance made to the aircraft part during its lifetime can be similarly stored on the tag. The aircraft industry, with its stringent regulations, can use RFID tags to prevent the use of counterfeit aircraft parts. A number of different methods can be used to guarantee the authenticity of aircraft parts; these include, using non-changeable serial numbers with several security levels, indirect addressable memory, and brute force preventions methods. Specialized RFID tags, are required due to the 3 http://www.epcglobalinc.org/home EPC™ Radio-Frequency Identity Protocols Class-1 Generation-2 UHF RFID Protocol for Communications at 860 MHz – 960 MHz http://www.epcglobalinc.org/about/governance Microwave Engineering Europe ● October 2007 ● www.mwee.com 018-019-020_MWEE.indd 18 19/09/07 12:03:30 http://www.epcglobalinc.org/home http://www.epcglobalinc.org/about/governance http://www.mwee.com

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Microwave Engineering Europe - October 2007 Contents Comment News CMOS RF: Si-On-Sapphire Goes Mainstream Cover Feature: New Data Protection Concept for UHF RFID Tags CMOS RF: RF Design Team Touts CMOS Spin for 3G PAs Wireless HID – Are You Following the Standard to Another “Average” Product Development? Phase Optimisation of the RF Front-End Direct Synthesis of UWB-WiMedia Signal Generation 4G Chips to Target 700 MHz Applications Femtocells Mobilize to Fight Wi-Fi in the Home Products Product Feature: AXIEM Pioneers the Future of EM Technology Calendar

Microwave Engineering Europe - October 2007

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