FACTA UNIVERSITATIS Series: Electronics and Energetics Vol. 28, N o 2, June 2015, pp. 297 - 307 DOI: 10.2298/FUEE1502297U SYSTEM DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS OF UNIVERSAL UHF RFID READER TRANSCEIVER ICS Nikolay Usachev 1 , Vadim Elesin 1 , Alexander Nikiforov 1 , George Chukov 1 , Galina Nazarova 1 , Denis Sotskov 1 , Nikolay Shelepin 2 , Vladislav Dmitriev 2 1 National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute), Moscow, Russian Federation, 2 «Mikron» JSC, Moscow, Russian Federation Abstract. This paper describes the architecture, system analysis and implementation of world-wide regulation compliant UHF RFID reader transceiver for ISO 18000-6 multi-class tags in the ISM band 860 MHz-960 MHz. The presented considerations are based on a system analysis providing evaluation of the transceiver’s building blocks parameters in accordance with the required characteristics of a complete RFID reader system, read range, data transmission rate, reading speed and power consumption. The Phase Noise, Noise Figure, Sensitivity, P1dB, Dynamic Range are estimated for the design of a custom ‘system-in-package’ transceiver, implemented in LTCC-module. Based on the direct-conversion architecture, the reader transceiver integrates RF- blocks, frequency synthesizer, modulation and demodulation functions, low frequency analog baseband. The receiver sensitivity is down to -85 dBm, the transmitter produces output power of +17 dBm. Key words: RFID, UHF, LTCC, ‘system-in-package’ , SiGe BiCMOS 1. INTRODUCTION Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) UHF band supporting the EPC global Class 1 Generation 2 and ISO 18000-6A/B/C standards have become indispensable in today‟s distribution industries, purchasing, manufacturing, energy and healthcare services [1]. A UHF RFID system consists of reader(s), tags, and host computer. A UHF reader is a system with an integrated transceiver module as a core. As shown in Fig.1, RFID reader transceiver consists of a UHF receiver and transmitter front-ends, frequency synthesizer, low frequency analog baseband, analog-to-digital (ADC) and digital-to-analog (DAC) converters, and digital baseband for data processing and control [2], [3]. The UHF front-end of a RFID reader transceiver contains a low noise amplifier (LNA), power amplifier (PA) (required for improving sensitivity of receiver path and output power level in forward link), quadrature RF modulator and demodulator. The low frequency analog baseband of a RFID reader transceiver contains an active bandpass Received September 20, 2014; received in revised form December 11, 2014 Corresponding author: Nikolay Usachev National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (NRNU MEPhI), Moscow, Russian Federation (e-mail: nausachev@mephi.ru)