Patent Publication Number: US-2021174282-A1

Title: Self-powered semi-active electronic tag with autonomous processing capability and its communication procedure

Description:
PURPOSE OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention consists of an electronic device (nanochip) made up of semi-active, self-powered electronic tags (without the use of batteries), with autonomous processing capacity and its direct two way communication procedure with another device of the same type and with communication via Wifi (or similar) to the Internet (IoT) for connection via Wifi/Bluetooth/Internet with blockchain, capable of identifying machine-to-machine or machine-to-user transactions, developed with nanotechnology techniques applicable to any industrial product and even living beings and whose process is developed in three stages. A device capable of generating its own chain of custody, processing and transmitting information and notifications between tags and between these and authorised networks. 
     FIELD OF APPLICATION 
     This invention belongs to the sector of passive electronic tags (electronic tags that do not use batteries) and active ones (that require batteries for their operation) or semi-active ones like this one, used for recording, reading, writing, storage and exchange of data and information limited to the field of nanotechnology. 
     Electronic tags are understood to be elements that are attached, placed or embedded in another object, without limitations of type of material andior size; that contain and transmit data andior information. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     There are currently electronic tags classified as active, semi-active and passive. The active and semi-active tags use batteries, except in this invention that although being semi-active does not require batteries, while the passive ones require an external source of energy to carry out the transmission of information. 
     Passive electronic tags are read and/or read-write and are mainly used for object identification; in no case do they have any processing capacity. However, they do not communicate with each other and require the installation of a reading device infrastructure to retrieve the information. 
     Semi-active electronic tags are also read and/or read-write, but have a battery that allows them a greater range in communication. Since batteries lose effectiveness over time, the transmission of information is affected, which in turn decreases their reliability. This invention constitutes a semi-active electronic tag but without batteries, which has not existed in the market until now. 
     Active electronic tags have batteries and allow the writing, reading, storage, and exchange of data and information, but as they depend on batteries they have a limited life time, a high cost and a high environmental impact. As in the case of semi-active ones, as they depend on an internal source of energy which runs down, their reliability is lessened and the availability of information is not guaranteed. 
     Until now all passive, semi-active and active electronic tags have required reading devices to record and obtain information and data. It has only recently been possible to communicate between tags as long as they have a battery, in other words, they have needed to be active tags, which makes them expensive compared to passive tags, and they have a negative impact from an environmental cost perspective. 
     In the case of the novel application proposed here, which is a semi-active tag, which performs operations of recording, reading, writing, processing, storage and exchange of data and information without the use of batteries, using electromagnetic energy from external sources, which allows you to be connected as long as there is electromagnetic energy and to perform the transactions ordered or stored so that when you have an Internet connection, such information can be transmitted. 
     DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       
     
       
         
           
               
             
               
                   
               
               
                 Definition of terms 
               
               
                   
               
             
            
               
                   
               
            
           
           
               
               
            
               
                 Contract: 
                 it is an electronic contract understood as the conditions 
               
               
                   
                 provided and stored in the memory that must be met for 
               
               
                   
                 the transaction to be executed. 
               
               
                 Transaction: 
                 these are the orders emitted by the processor once 
               
               
                   
                 the pre-established conditions in the electronic 
               
               
                   
                 contract stored in the memory have been validated 
               
               
                   
                 or, if appropriate, contracted with the information 
               
               
                   
                 coming from blockchain. 
               
               
                 Blockchain: 
                 this device and procedure may operate with private, 
               
               
                   
                 semi-private and/or public blockchains. 
               
               
                 IoT: 
                 Nomenclature referring to the Internet of things. 
               
               
                 Biometric 
                 a unique identification code generated from the 
               
               
                 token: 
                 user&#39;s biometric identification processing, 
               
               
                   
                 without storing captured biometric data, 
               
               
                   
                 maintaining privacy and security. 
               
               
                 Nanochip: 
                 an electronic component whose subcomponents of 
               
               
                   
                 the integrated circuit are in the order 
               
               
                   
                 of nanometres. 
               
               
                 Semi-active 
                 this characteristic refers on the one hand to 
               
               
                 device: 
                 the capacity of activation of the tag at the 
               
               
                   
                 moment of receiving an electromagnetic signal 
               
               
                   
                 and, on the other hand, we call the tag 
               
               
                   
                 semi-active because it is only activated in 
               
               
                   
                 cases where the received signal is recognised 
               
               
                   
                 and accepted by the processor and memory to 
               
               
                   
                 execute the transaction which corresponds 
               
               
                   
                 to a microcontract. 
               
               
                 Microcontract: 
                 these are the pre-programmed conditions 
               
               
                   
                 stored in the memory or in blockchain, 
               
               
                   
                 which the processor recognises and 
               
               
                   
                 validates to carry out the tag transaction. 
               
               
                 Generic 
                 they are network communication devices for 
               
               
                 readers: 
                 general non-specific use such as access 
               
               
                   
                 point devices, Wifi and Bluetooth among others. 
               
               
                   
               
            
           
         
       
     
     It is a tagging system by means of a semi-active electromagnetic auto-feeding electronic device (nanochip) (without the use of batteries), used for recording, reading, writing, processing, storing and exchanging data and information, capable of communicating with another of the same type by means of a proprietary communication protocol; the device is composed,
         Of two antennas   A nanochip device, which in turn is composed of
           Two electromagnetic modules,   A harvesting and energy storage module,   A processing module and communication protocol   A memory module   
               

     As shown below, the electronic tag is composed of: 
     1. Antenna ( 1 ): It&#39;s a dual-function device:
         for the capture and coupling of the electromagnetic signal that is in the air, with the harvesting and energy storage module.   for the transmission and emission of data to Wifi, Internet and blockchain through the EM module ( 4 )       

     2. Electromagnetic module EM ( 4 ) comprising: A demodulation module that is responsible for extracting information from the carrier signal which arrives or is received via Wifi/Bluetooth/Internet and a modulation module that is responsible for inserting the information into the carrier signal for transmission to the processor ( 5 ). 
     3. Harvesting and energy storage module ( 3 ): It is responsible for extracting energy from the arriving electromagnetic signal received through the antenna ( 1 ) to feed the electronic circuits of the device. 
     4. Processing module ( 5 ): It processes all the functions of the nanochip through a proprietary piece of software and takes care of:
         processing the information demodulated by the EM module ( 4 ) validating the latter with the pre-programmed data stored in the memory by means of these functions:   it identifies the issuer of the requesting device.   it validates the issuer.   it searches the memory for the corresponding transaction.   it performs two way communication with Wifi and/or Bluetooth, Internet, blockchain and/or its counterpart tag.   It stores the transaction in the memory.   It fulfils the security function by encrypting data and authentication by validating two counterpart tags through a proprietary communication protocol, or in case of user intervention, through a biometric token.   Type of transaction, it validates the transaction, transmits said information either to the EM module ( 4 ) for its transmission via Internet to blockchain or to the EM module ( 7 ) for two-way communication with its counterpart.   The device is versatile in the sense that it can carry out different functions according to the type of product or industry for which it is pre-programmed and applied.   The device is capable of processing multiple transactions almost simultaneously.   Thanks to the system of communication both with the reader via Will or Bluetooth and with the counterpart tags, the processor is able to select different types of generic readers allowing it, or those, which are authorised for the completion of the transaction, and simultaneously enabling efficiency with regards to a massive capacity for reading 100% of the tags.       

     5. Memory module ( 6 ): It stores information relevant to the transactions carried out by the device and the memory module is not susceptible to this information being violated since the only reading access is through the processor, which fulfils the already established security function. This module locally stores only those transactions that have not been sent to blockchain, always keeping the last two transactions locally. 
     6. Antenna ( 2 )—it is a device whose function is the transmission and emission of data between counterparts to EM ( 7 ). 
     7.—Electromagnetic module EM ( 7 ): Demodulation module responsible for receiving and transmitting the information from the counterpart tags and transmitting it to the processor. 
     The procedure comprises: 
     A procedure for recording, reading, writing, processing, storing and exchanging data and information, through the following stages:
         In the first stage, the electromagnetic wave, which contains energy and data, is captured by the first antenna ( 1 ) of the tag, which carries the wave simultaneously to the energy harvest module ( 3 ), which is responsible for providing energy to the various components of the electronic circuit and to the EM module ( 4 ), which is responsible for demodulating the carrier signal to obtain data and information.       

     Once the signal has been demodulated, the processing module ( 5 ) executes the different instructions, according to the established transaction rules (contract), and stores the information in the memory ( 6 ), thus capturing, processing and storing the transaction information coming from the service that generates the contract, allowing the execution of consecutive quasi-simultaneous transactions.
         A second stage, for the execution of the transaction, according to the transaction rules, the processor ( 5 ) reads the data from the memory ( 6 ) and sends it to the EM module ( 7 ), which modulates the carrier frequency to be transmitted by the second Antenna ( 2 ) to the other tag of the same type, to establish the communication process. In this phase, the transaction between both tags is validated and confirmed based on the use of a secure communication protocol (proprietary) and an asynchronous protocol to confirm the execution of the transaction.   The third stage is the confirmation of the execution of the initial contract. For this purpose, the processing module ( 5 ) takes the data of the confirmed transaction from the memory module ( 6 ), sends it to the EM module ( 4 ) to modulate the carrier frequency and its corresponding transmission through the antenna ( 1 ) to the service that records the transaction.       

    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING 
       To complement the description being made and to support a better understanding of the semi-active electronic tag, in accordance with a preferred example of the practical implementation thereof, as an integral part of the description, the latter is accompanied by a drawing with an illustrative and non-limiting character, in which the following is represented: 

 
         FIG. 1 : Semi-active electronic tag with stand-alone processing capability and communication with others of the same type 
     
    
    
     
         
         
           
             Antenna ( 1 ): it is the coupling device of the electromagnetic signal with the electromagnetic module EM ( 4 ) that transmits and receives. 
             The electromagnetic module ( 4 ) comprises: a demodulation module that is responsible for extracting information from the carrier signal which arrives or is received and a modulation module that is responsible for inserting the information into the carrier signal for transmission. 
             Harvesting and energy storage module ( 3 ): it is responsible for extracting energy from the arriving electromagnetic signal to feed the electronic circuits of the device, 
             Processing module ( 5 ): it is responsible for processing the information demodulated by the stages of the procedure and in turn processes the information to be transmitted by the device, and sends and receives the information that is or will be stored in the memory. 
             Memory module ( 6 ): it stores information relevant to the transactions performed by the device. 
             The electromagnetic module ( 7 ) is connected to the antenna ( 2 ), the processing module ( 5 ) and the energy harvesting module ( 3 ), 
             Antenna ( 2 ): it is the device which couples the electromagnetic signal with the electromagnetic module ( 7 ) that transmits and receives the signal from the tag or counterpart electronic tag. 
             Power supply line ( 8 ) 
             Data line ( 9 ) 
           
         
       
    
     PREFERRED IMPLEMENTATION OF THE INVENTION 
     In view of the aforementioned  FIG. 1  and in accordance with the numbering adopted for each component, an example of the preferred implementation of the invention can be seen in it, which includes the parts and elements that are shown and described in detail below: 
     1. The antenna ( 1 ) coupled to electromagnetic module ( 4 ) and the energy harvesting module ( 3 ). 
     2. The electromagnetic module ( 4 ) is connected to the antenna ( 1 ), the processing module ( 5 ) and the energy harvesting module ( 3 ). 
     3. The energy harvesting module ( 3 ) is connected to the electromagnetic modules ( 4 ) and ( 7 ), the processing module ( 5 ) and the memory module ( 6 ). 
     4. The processing module ( 5 ) is connected to the energy harvesting module ( 3 ), the electromagnetic modules ( 4 ) and ( 7 ) and to the memory module ( 6 ). 
     5, The memory module ( 6 ) is connected to the energy harvesting module ( 3 ) and the processing module ( 5 ), 
     6. The electromagnetic module ( 7 ) is connected to the antenna ( 2 ), the processing module ( 5 ) and the energy harvesting module ( 3 ), 
     7. The antenna ( 2 ) coupled to the electromagnetic module ( 7 ). 
     These components form an application-specific integrated circuit with the two connected antennas.