Exploration of disruptive technologies for low cost RFID manufacturing

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, 2004.Includes bibliographical references (p. 81-83).Significant developments have taken place in defining technology standards and identifying avenues for technological innovations to reduce the cost of manufacturing RFID tags below the $0.05 price point. The Auto-ID center at MIT has been the central coordinating body with participation from 5 universities and over 100 industry partners. The primary focus of these efforts has been in developing a standard which minimizes the logic capability of on chip circuitry and using radical innovations to reduce the cost of assembly of the RFID tags. Various disruptive innovations are underway to explore lithographic techniques which can reduce the cost of fabrication in the sub 100 nm regime wherein photolithography faces significant challenges. This research analyzes the value chain in the RFID industry and reviews potential technology strategies using the double-helix model of business dynamics and Porter's five forces framework. It also explores the current state of the art in RFID tag manufacturing and proposes the application of disruptive technologies in conjunction with innovations in assembly and packaging to enable a low cost RFID system design. Five key emerging technologies which are examined in detail are Nanoimprint Lithography, Step and Flash Imprint Lithography, Inkjet Printing, Soft lithography and Spherical Integrated Circuit Processing. These are analyzed in terms of application to RFID tag manufacturing. Current innovations in high speed and low cost assembly and packaging techniques are also examined. Fluidic Self Assembly, Vibratory Assembly, Chip on Paper techniques are reviewed in terms of application to RFID manufacturing. A systems thinking approach is also pursued to explore the drivers for wider acceptance of RFID-based(cont.) applications in addition to just depending on cost reduction for crossing the chasm from early adopters to a wider market penetration.Badarinath Kommandur.S.M

Printable Spacecraft: Flexible Electronic Platforms for NASA Missions

Why printed electronics? Why should NASA use printed electronics to make a spacecraft? Three words provide the answer: universal, impactful, progressive. The technology is universal because the applications it can affect are broad and diverse from simple sensors to fully functional spacecraft. The impact of flexible, printed electronics range from straightforward mass, volume and cost savings all the way to enabling new mission concepts. The benefits of the technology will become progressively larger from what is achievable today so that investments will pay dividends tomorrow, next year and next decade. We started off three years ago asking the question can you build an entire spacecraft out of printed electronics? In other words, can you design and fabricate a fully integrated, electronic system that performs the same end-to-end functions of a spacecraft - take scientific measurements, perform data processing, provide data storage, transmit the data, powers itself, orients and propels itself - all out of thin flexible sheets of printed electronics? This "Printable Spacecraft" pushes the limits of printed flexible electronics performance. So the answer is yes, more or less. In our studies for the NIAC (NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts) program, we have explored this question further, to explain more completely what "more or less" means and to outline what is needed to make the answer a definitive "yes". Despite its appealing "Flat Stanley"-like (a book series by Jeff Brown) qualities, making a Printable Spacecraft is not as easy as flattening the Cassini spacecraft with a bulletin board, as was Stanley Lamchop's fate. But, if NASA invests in the design challenges, the materials challenges, the performance challenges of printed electronics, it might find itself with a spacecraft that can enable as many adventures and advantages as Flat Stanley including putting it in an envelope and mailing it to the planet of your choice. You just have to let your imagination take over. In this report we document the work of the Phase 2 Printable Spacecraft task conducted under the guidance and leadership of the NIAC program. In Phase One of the NIAC task entitled "Printable Spacecraft", we investigated the viability of printed electronics technologies for creating multi-functional spacecraft platforms. Mission concepts and architectures that could be enhanced or enabled with this technology were explored. In Phase 2 we tried to answer the more practical questions such as can you really build a multi-functional printed electronic spacecraft system? If you do, can it survive the space environment? Even if it can, what benefit does a printable system provide over a traditional implementation of a spacecraft

Implementation of Fosstrak EPCIS RFID system

Projecte realitzat en el marc d'un programa de mobilitat amb la Czech Technical University[ANGLÈS] How to adapt a RFID system with Fosstrak open-source software to follow the EPCglobal standards.[CASTELLÀ] Cómo adaptar el software de código libre Fosstrak a un sistema RFID para seguir los estándares de EPCglobal.[CATALÀ] Com adaptar el software de codi obert Fosstrak a un sistema RFID per seguir els estàndards d'EPCglobal

Developing preclinical devices for neuroscience research in the fields of animal tracking, fMRI acquisition, and 3D histology cutting

[ES] La neurociencia es un campo que abarca muchas especialidades. El objetivo de esta tesis es subsanar algunas carencias tecnológicas que existen en los métodos actuales de experimentación animal en neurociencia. En esta tesis, se presentan seis proyectos, que tendrán como objetivo mejorar el "Principio de las tres R", el cual fue enunciado por los biólogos ingleses W. M. S. Russell y R. L. Burch, durante la experimentación animal. El comportamiento es uno de los aspectos más importantes de la vida animal. Depende de los vínculos entre los animales, sus sistemas nerviosos y sus entornos. Para estudiar el comportamiento de los animales de laboratorio, se necesitan varias herramientas, pero una herramienta de seguimiento es esencial para llevar a cabo un estudio de comportamiento exhaustivo. Varias herramientas de seguimiento visual están actualmente disponibles. Sin embargo, todas tienen algunos inconvenientes. Por ejemplo, en una situación en la que un animal está dentro de una madriguera o cerca de otros animales, las cámaras de rastreo (tracking) no siempre pueden detectar la ubicación precisa o el movimiento del animal. Por esta razón, los entornos enriquecidos para intentar recrear el hábitat natural de los animales en experimentación no pueden utilizarse, ya que los datos recopilados son insuficientes/inexactos. Con la finalidad de mejorar los experimentos de tracking RFID Assisted Tracking Tile (RATT) es presentado en esta tesis. RATT es un sistema de seguimiento basado en tecnología de identificación pasiva de radiofrecuencia (RFID) y está compuesto por baldosas electrónicas con las que se puede construir una gran superficie, sobre la cual los animales pueden moverse libremente. Esto permite la identificación más precisa de los animales, así como el seguimiento de sus movimientos. Este sistema, que también se puede combinar con un sistema de seguimiento con cámaras, allana el camino para estudios completos de comportamiento en entornos enriquecidos. Dada la capacidad de rastrear animales y, por lo tanto, realizar experimentos de comportamiento exhaustivos, es posible observar cómo se comportan los sujetos desde un punto de vista externo. Sin embargo, si queremos comprender lo que sucede en el cerebro de estos sujetos, es necesario aplicar otras técnicas de análisis, por ejemplo, el estudio de señales dependientes del nivel de oxígeno en la sangre (BOLD, por sus siglas en inglés). Las señales BOLD se basan en las respuestas vasculares a la activación neuronal y se utilizan ampliamente en estudios de investigación clínicos y preclínicos. En entornos preclínicos, los animales suelen ser anestesiados. Sin embargo, los anestésicos causan cambios en la fisiología de los animales, p. Ej. hipotermia, y esto tiene el potencial de alterar las señales funcionales de MRI (fMRI). Para evitar la hipotermia en roedores anestesiados, se presenta TherMouseDuino. Este es un sistema de control automático de temperatura de código abierto, que reduce las fluctuaciones de la temperatura, lo que proporciona condiciones sólidas para realizar experimentos de resonancia magnética funcional. En los cursos de biología y neurociencia, la anatomía del cerebro se enseña generalmente utilizando imágenes de resonancia magnética (IRM) o secciones histológicas de diferentes planos. Estos muestran las áreas macroscópicas más importantes en el cerebro de un animal. Sin embargo, este método no es dinámico ni intuitivo. En esta tesis se presenta un cerebro de rata impreso en 3D con fines educativos. La manipulación manual de la estructura, facilitada por la ampliación de sus dimensiones, junto con la capacidad de desmontar el "cerebro" en algunas de sus partes principales, facilita la comprensión de la organización 3D del sistema nervioso. Este es un método alternativo y mejorado para enseñar a los estudiantes en general y a los biólogos, en particular, la anatomía del cerebro de rata.[CA] La neurociència és un camp que abasta moltes especialitats. L'objectiu d'aquesta tesi és esmenar algunes manques tecnològiques que existeixen en els mètodes actuals d'experimentació animal en neurociència. En aquesta tesi, es presenten sis projectes, que tindran com a objectiu millorar el "Principi de les tres R", el qual va ser enunciat pels biòlegs anglesos W. M. S. Russell i R. L. Burch, durant l'experimentació animal. El comportament és un dels aspectes m'és importants de la vida animal. Depèn dels vincles entre els animals, els seus sistemes nerviosos i els seus entorns. Per estudiar el comportament dels animals de laboratori, es necessiten diverses eines, però` una eina de seguiment és essencial per a dur a terme un estudi de comportament exhaustiu. Diverses eines de seguiment visual estan actualment disponibles. No obstant això, totes tenen alguns inconvenients. Per exemple, en una situació en la qual un animal esta` dins d'un cau o prop d'altres animals, les cambres de rastreig (tracking) no sempre poden detectar la ubicació precisa o el moviment de l'animal. Per aquesta raó, els entorns enriquits per a intentar recrear l'hàbitat natural dels animals en experimentació no poden utilitzar-se, ja que les dades recopilades són insuficients/inexactes. Amb la finalitat de millorar els experiments de tracking/seguiment RFID Assisted Tracking Tile (RATT) és presentat en aquesta tesi. RATT es un sistema de seguiment basat en tecnologia d'identificació passiva de radiofreqüència (RFID) i esta` compost per rajoles electròniques amb les quals es pot construir una gran superfície, sobre la qual els animals poden moures lliurement. Això permet la identificació més precisa dels animals, així com el seguiment dels seus moviments. Aquest sistema, que també es pot combinar amb un sistema de seguiment amb cambres, aplana el camí per a estudis complets de comportament en entorns enriquits. Donada la capacitat de rastrejar animals i, per tant, realitzar experiments de comportament exhaustius, és possible observar com es comporten els subjectes des d'un punt de vista extern. No obstant això, si volem comprendre el que succeeix en el cervell d'aquests subjectes, és necessari aplicar altres tècniques d'anàlisis, per exemple, l'estudi de senyals dependents del nivell d'oxigen en la sang (BOLD, per les seues sigles en anglès). Els senyals BOLD es basen en les respostes vasculars a l'activació neuronal i s'utilitzen àmpliament en estudis d'investigació clínics i preclínics. En entorns preclínics, els animals solen ser anestesiats. No obstant això, els anestèsics causen canvis en la fisiologia de els animals, per exemple hipotèrmia, i això te el potencial d'alterar els senyals funcionals de MRI (fMRI). Per a evitar la hipotèrmia en rosegadors anestesiats, es presenta TherMouseDuino. Aquest és un sistema de control automàtic de temperatura de codi obert, que redueix les fluctuacions de la temperatura, la qual cosa proporciona condicions solides per a realitzar experiments de ressonància magnètica funcional. En els cursos de biologia i neurociència, l'anatomia del cervell s'ensenya generalment utilitzant imatges de ressonància magnètica (IRM) o seccions histològiques de diferents plans. Aquests mostren les àrees macroscòpiques més importants en el cervell de un animal. No obstant això, aquest mètode no és dinàmic ni intuïtiu. En aquesta tesi es presenta un cervell de rata imprès en 3D amb finalitats educatius. La manipulació manual de l'estructura, facilitada per l'ampliació de les seues dimensions, juntament amb la capacitat de desmuntar el "cervell" en algunes de les seues parts principals, facilita la comprensió de l'organització 3D del sistema nerviós. Aquest és un mètode alternatiu i millorat per a ensenyar a els estudiants en general i als biòlegs, en particular, l'anatomia del cervell de rata.[EN] Neuroscience is a field that covers many specialties. The objective of this thesis is to correct some technological deficiencies that exist in current methods of animal experimentation in neuroscience. In this thesis, six projects are presented, which will aim to improve the "Principle of the three Rs" in animal experimentation enunciated by the English biologists W. M. S. Russell and R. L. Burch. In the present era of impressive progress in neuroscience, it is still not arguable that a complete understanding of the brain cannot be possible without a comparable understanding of animal behavior. In order to study the behavior of laboratory animals, various tools are needed, being a reliable tracking system one of the most important to follow large populations of individual subjects that interact in complex manners. Several visual tracking tools are currently available. However, they all have some drawbacks. For example, in a situation where an animal is inside a cave, or is in close proximity to other animals, tracking cameras cannot always detect the precise location or movement of the animal. For this reason, environments that have been enriched in order to attempt to recreate the natural habitat of the animals under experiment, cannot be used, as the data gathered is insufficient/inaccurate. In order to improve the current tracking systems , the RATT is presented. RATT is a tracking system based on passive RFID technology and it is composed of electronic tiles. Using several tiles, a large surface area, on which the animals can move freely, can be built. This enables the more accurate identification of the animals, as well as the tracking of their movements. This system, which can also be combined with a visual tracking system, paves the way for complete behavioral studies in enriched environments. Given the ability to track animals and thus conduct thorough behavioral experiments, it is possible to observe how the subjects behave from an external viewpoint. However, if we want to understand what is going on in the brains of these subjects, it is necessary to apply other analysis techniques, for example the study of BOLD signals. BOLD signals are based on vascular responses to neuronal activation and are used extensively in clinical and preclinical research studies. In preclinical settings, animals are usually anesthetized. However, anesthetics cause changes in the physiology of the animals, e.g. hypothermia, and this has the potential to disrupt fMRI signals. In order to avoid hypothermia in anesthetized rodents, TherMouseDuino is presented. This is an Open-Source automatic temperature control system, which reduces temperature fluctuations, thus providing robust conditions in which to perform fMRI experiments. In biology and neuroscience courses, brain anatomy is generally taught using MRI or histological sections of different planes. These show the most important macroscopic areas in an animals' brain. However, this method is neither dynamic nor intuitive. An anatomical 3D printed rat brain with educative purposes is presented in this thesis. Hand manipulation of the structure, facilitated by the scaling up of its dimensions, together with the ability to dismantle the "brain" into some of main its constituent parts, facilitates the understanding of the 3D organization of the nervous system. This is an alternative and improved method for teaching students in general and biologists, in particular, the rat brain anatomy.This work was supported in part by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) and FEDER funds under grants BFU2015-64380-C2-2-R (D.M.) and BFU2015-64380-C2-1-R, by EU Horizon 2020 Program 668863-SyBil-AA grant (S.C.). S.C. acknowledges financial support from the Spanish State Research Agency, through the “Severo Ochoa” Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D (ref. SEV-2013-0317) and by a grant “Ayudas para la formación de personal investigador (FPI)” from the Vicerrectorado de Investigación, Innovación y Transferencia of the Universitat Politècnica de València.Quiñones Colomer, DR. (2019). Developing preclinical devices for neuroscience research in the fields of animal tracking, fMRI acquisition, and 3D histology cutting [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/118795TESI

DESIGN AUTOMATION FOR LOW POWER RFID TAGS

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags are small, wireless devices capable of automated item identification, used in a variety of applications including supply chain management, asset management, automatic toll collection (EZ Pass), etc. However, the design of these types of custom systems using the traditional methods can take months for a hardware engineer to develop and debug. In this dissertation, an automated, low-power flow for the design of RFID tags has been developed, implemented and validated. This dissertation presents the RFID Compiler, which permits high-level design entry using a simple description of the desired primitives and their behavior in ANSI-C. The compiler has different back-ends capable of targeting microprocessor-based or custom hardware-based tags. For the hardware-based tag, the back-end automatically converts the user-supplied behavior in C to low power synthesizable VHDL optimized for RFID applications. The compiler also integrates a fast, high-level power macromodeling flow, which can be used to generate power estimates within 15% accuracy of industry CAD tools and to optimize the primitives and / or the behaviors, compared to conventional practices. Using the RFID Compiler, the user can develop the entire design in a matter of days or weeks. The compiler has been used to implement standards such as ANSI, ISO 18000-7, 18000-6C and 18185-7. The automatically generated tag designs were validated by targeting microprocessors such as the AD Chips EISC and FPGAs such as Xilinx Spartan 3. The corresponding ASIC implementation is comparable to the conventionally designed commercial tags in terms of the energy and area. Thus, the RFID Compiler permits the design of power efficient, custom RFID tags by a wider audience with a dramatically reduced design cycle

Applications of Antenna Technology in Sensors

During the past few decades, information technologies have been evolving at a tremendous rate, causing profound changes to our world and to our ways of living. Emerging applications have opened u[ new routes and set new trends for antenna sensors. With the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT), the adaptation of antenna technologies for sensor and sensing applications has become more important. Now, the antennas must be reconfigurable, flexible, low profile, and low-cost, for applications from airborne and vehicles, to machine-to-machine, IoT, 5G, etc. This reprint aims to introduce and treat a series of advanced and emerging topics in the field of antenna sensors

Sophisticated Batteryless Sensing

Wireless embedded sensing systems have revolutionized scientific, industrial, and consumer applications. Sensors have become a fixture in our daily lives, as well as the scientific and industrial communities by allowing continuous monitoring of people, wildlife, plants, buildings, roads and highways, pipelines, and countless other objects. Recently a new vision for sensing has emerged---known as the Internet-of-Things (IoT)---where trillions of devices invisibly sense, coordinate, and communicate to support our life and well being. However, the sheer scale of the IoT has presented serious problems for current sensing technologies---mainly, the unsustainable maintenance, ecological, and economic costs of recycling or disposing of trillions of batteries. This energy storage bottleneck has prevented massive deployments of tiny sensing devices at the edge of the IoT. This dissertation explores an alternative---leave the batteries behind, and harvest the energy required for sensing tasks from the environment the device is embedded in. These sensors can be made cheaper, smaller, and will last decades longer than their battery powered counterparts, making them a perfect fit for the requirements of the IoT. These sensors can be deployed where battery powered sensors cannot---embedded in concrete, shot into space, or even implanted in animals and people. However, these batteryless sensors may lose power at any point, with no warning, for unpredictable lengths of time. Programming, profiling, debugging, and building applications with these devices pose significant challenges. First, batteryless devices operate in unpredictable environments, where voltages vary and power failures can occur at any time---often devices are in failure for hours. Second, a device\u27s behavior effects the amount of energy they can harvest---meaning small changes in tasks can drastically change harvester efficiency. Third, the programming interfaces of batteryless devices are ill-defined and non- intuitive; most developers have trouble anticipating the problems inherent with an intermittent power supply. Finally, the lack of community, and a standard usable hardware platform have reduced the resources and prototyping ability of the developer. In this dissertation we present solutions to these challenges in the form of a tool for repeatable and realistic experimentation called Ekho, a reconfigurable hardware platform named Flicker, and a language and runtime for timely execution of intermittent programs called Mayfly

Sensores passivos para aplicações espaciais

Mestrado em Engenharia Eletrónica e TelecomunicaçõesUma das áreas, se não a principal área, com maior desenvolvimento nos últimos anos e a exploração espacial. A entrada de empresas privadas no negocio aliadas aos novos meios de comunicação reacenderam a curiosidade sobre o espaço. Esta dissertação surge com o intuito de desenvolver um sistema de comunicação passivo, com capacidades de monitorização e de processamento para aplicações espaciais. Para tal quer-se utilizar conceitos tais como: antenas, projecto de formas de onda, transmissão de energia sem os, circuitos de RF-DC, radio retrodifusão , modulação e desmodulação de sinais. Para se chegar a um sistema funcional, pretende-se analisar e testar diferentes soluções para cada uma das partes do sistema. Quer-se que o trabalho seja o mais abrangente possível, e que aborde todos as partes necessárias para o desenvolvimento do sistema. No entanto e devido a complexidade do mesmo, este trabalho e focado em quatro pontos: antenas, circuitos de RFDC, circuitos de retrodifusão e microcontroladores. Os restantes aspectos são abordados mas superficialmente. Para alem de toda a parte hardware do sistema, também se pretende desenvolver uma solução otimizada a nível do software, de modo a que a solução nal tenha o melhor rendimento possível. Inicialmente o sistema ser a projectado para aplicações espaciais, no entanto espara-se que o mesmo possa ser usado em outras áreas.One of the areas, if not the principal area, with higher development in recent year is space exploration. The entry of more private companies in the business allied with new ways of communication reignited the curiosity about the space. This dissertation, appears with the intention of developing a passive communication system for spatial applications. The system should have sensing and processing capabilities. To achieve this, some concepts are important: antennas, waveform design, wireless power transmission, circuit RF-DC, radio backscatter, wave modulation and demodulation. In order to design a functional system, each part of the system will be analysisd and tested. The work is designed to be the more embracing possible, however due to its complexity it is more focused in four points: antennas, circuit RF-DC, radio backscatter and microcontrollers. The other aspects are approached but with less details. Beyond all the hardware aspects, it is also intended to develop a optimized solution for software, trying to achieve a better general system e ciency. The system is designed for spatial applications, however it is expected that it could be a solution for other areas

A Novel Long-Range Passive UHF RFID System over Twisted-pair Cable

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is one of the most representative, rapidly growing, and highly extendable technologies, which uses electromagnetic waves in accordance with specific communications standards and regulations to identify, track, or even localise desired objects. However, due to its high cost, limited read range, and uncertain reliability, its adoption still lags, especially in large-scale organisations. Even though an RFID distributed antenna system (DAS) can greatly improve the detection range and read rate of a single reader when system uses different combinations of antenna states with frequency and phase hopping, the lossy and heavy coaxial cables between reader and antennas still limits the system coverage and design flexibility for wide-area passive UHF RFID applications. In order to develop a cost-efficient and flexibly-installed passive RFID DAS, a novel large-range passive UHF RFID system over twisted-pair cable is proposed in this dissertation. This new system consists of one baseband central controller and one antenna subsystem, connected by a commonly used twisted-pair cable. It is shown that transmitting/receiving low frequency baseband signals over a twisted-pair cable can significantly reduce cable attenuation and extend the communication distance. A simulation is conducted to demonstrate that frequency and phase hopping can also be remotely controlled to fit this system structure by slightly varying the frequency or phase of the input reference signal of the frequency synthesis system. The features of twisted-pair cable in terms of its low cost, light weight, and bend radius greatly improve the design and installation flexibility of an RFID system. The implemented system is designed based on the ISO 18000-6C and EPC Class 1 Generation 2 standards, and can operate according to FCC (902-928 MHz) and ETSI (865-868MHz) regulations. The results of the measurement show the reader can achieve a sensitivity of - 94.5 dBm over 30 m Cat5e cable, and its sensitivity can still remain at around -94.2 dBm over 150 m Cat5e cable. The experimental results of tag detection show that the passive tags can be successfully detected over a 6 m wireless range following a 300 m of twisted-pair cable between the central controller and antenna. This detection range cannot be achieved by existing commercial RFID systems. Since the transmission and reception in a RFID system are simultaneous, finite isolation of the circulator/directional coupler and environmentally dependent reflection ratio of the antenna lead to serious leakage problems. Leakage can directly cause sensitivity degradation due to saturation of the RF components. A fast leakage suppression block is developed in efforts to solve this problem. Measurements show that this new canceller can deliver an average suppression of 36.9 dB, and this excellent performance remains when the system uses frequency hopping. With help of an improved scanning algorithm, this canceller can find its optimal status within 38 ms, and this settling time is short enough for most commercial RFID readers. By reducing the number of voltage samples taken, the convergence time can be further improved. To fully investigate this new passive UHF RFID system value, a comparison study between the new system and a commercial system is conducted. This new automatic passive UHF RFID system is confirmed to deliver high performance long-range passive tag detection. Particular advantages are shown in the fast tag read rate and capability of uplink SNR improvement. This novel system is also superior to conventional RFID systems in terms of link distance, link cost, and installation flexibility

Simulation de fautes pour l'évaluation du test en ligne de systèmes RFID

Les systèmes RFID pour RadioFrequency Identification sont capables d identifier des objets ou des personnes sans contact ni vision direct. Ainsi, leur utilisation grandit de manière exponentielle dans différents secteurs : nucléaire, aviation, ferroviaire, médical, traçabilité, contrôle d accès Mais ce sont surtout des systèmes fortement hétérogènes, composés de matériel analogique ou digital, et de systèmes informatique : le tag, attaché à l objet à identifier, contenant l identifiant de ce dernier ; le lecteur, appareil capable de venir lire les informations contenus dans les tags ; et le système informatique gérant l ensemble des données générées par le système. Ces systèmes sont de plus en plus utilisés dans des domaines critiques ou dans des environnements difficiles, alors qu ils sont basés uniquement sur des équipements bas coût et peu performant les tags ne permettant alors pas de garantir des communications robustes. Tous ces points font que le test en ligne des systèmes RFID est une tâche complexe.Cette thèse s intéresse donc à la sûreté de fonctionnement des systèmes RFID : comment être certains que le système fonctionne comme il faut au moment où on en à besoin ? En premier, les défaillances et leurs causes ont été étudiées à l aide d une méthode classique : AMDE Analyse des modes de défaillances et de leurs effets. Cette étude a permis d identifier les points faibles des systèmes RFID. Après cela et grâce à cette analyse, il nous a été possible de définir et d implémenter un simulateur de systèmes RFID appelé SERFID, pour Simulation et Evaluation des systèmes RFID. Ce simulateur est capable de simuler différents systèmes RFID multi-équipements (HF ou UHF, normes actuellement implémentées : ISO15693 et EPC Classe 1 Génération 2), du tag au lecteur, en passant par le canal de communication permettant aux tags et aux lecteurs de communiquer. SERFID permet aussi de connecter les lecteurs simulés à des middlewares existants ou nouveau afin des les évaluer. Pour permettre l évaluation de la sûreté de fonctionnement des systèmes RFID, SERFID permet l injection de fautes dynamiquement au sein des tags, lecteurs ou du canal de communication permettant de simuler différentes défaillances pouvant apparaître : diminution de la qualité de la communication ou de l alimentation du tag, erreurs au sein de la mémoire du tag, bruit SERFID a été notamment utilisé pour simuler et observer le comportement de systèmes RFID HF et UHF face à du bruit et des perturbations dans le canal de communication entre le tag et le lecteur. Finalement, cette thèse propose une nouvelle méthode pour détecter les tags fautifs ou vieillissants dans les applications de logistiques. Cette méthode, non intrusive et en ligne, est basée sur l observation des performances du système au cours de son fonctionnement : le logiciel de gestion analyse les résultats des différentes identifications. A partir du taux d erreur de lecture par tag, et en le comparant aux taux de lecture par tag précédemment observés, cette méthode est capable de déterminer quel groupe de tags est fautif ou non. Cette méthode a été évaluée par expérimentation et par simulation grâce à SERFID. Cette évaluation a permis de mettre en évidence les points forts et les faiblesses de la méthode.RFID systems for RadioFrequency Identification are able to identify object or person without any contact or direct vision. For this reason, their use grows exponentially in many different fields: nuclear, avionics, railways, medical, warehouse inventories, access control However they are complex heterogeneous systems, consisting of analog and digital hardware components and software components: the tag, closed on the object to identified, which contains its identifier; the reader which able to read identifiers on tags; and finally the IT infrastructure to manage data. RFID technologies are often used into critical domains or within harsh environments. But as RFID systems are only based on low cost and low-performance equipments, they do not always ensure robust communications. All these points make the on-line testing of RFID systems a very complex task.This thesis focuses on dependability of RFID systems: how to be sure that this system works correctly when we need to use it? Firstly, failures and their causes have been studied using a common method called FMEA Failure Modes and Effects Analysis This study allows to identify weakness aspects of RFID systems. After that and thanks to this analysis, a new simulator was designed and implemented. This simulator, called SERFID for Simulation and Evaluation of RFID systems, is able to simulate various RFID systems with many devices (HF or UHF, actually implemented standards: ISO15693 or EPC Class 1 Generation 2), from tag to reader, together with the RF channel between them and the physic aspect which permit to tags and readers to communicate. SERFID also permits to connect an existing or new middleware to simulated reader to evaluate new software approach. To analyze dependability of RFID systems, SERFID allows us to inject fault in tag, channel or readers dynamically, to simulate different failures which can be appear: decrease of quality of communication or tag supply, memory errors in tag, noises SERFID was in particular use to simulate HF and UHF RFID systems to observe their reaction according noises and disturbances in communication between tag and reader. Finally, a new method to detect faulty or aging tags or readers in traceability application was proposed. This non-intrusive on-line method is based on performance observation of the system during operation: the managing software analyzes results of an identification round. According read error rate per tag of an inventory, and comparing it with previous obtained read error rates per tag, this method is able to determine which group of tags is faulty or not. This method has been analyzed with to method: by experimentations and by simulation using SERFID. This analyze brings out weakness and strength of this method.SAVOIE-SCD - Bib.électronique (730659901) / SudocGRENOBLE1/INP-Bib.électronique (384210012) / SudocGRENOBLE2/3-Bib.électronique (384219901) / SudocSudocFranceF