Patent ID: 8723720

Claim:
A wireless detection beacon for use with a Radio Frequency (RF) interrogator transmitting at a first frequency and receiving at a second frequency, the wireless detection beacon comprising: a substrate; a power supply carried by said substrate; an antenna assembly carried by said substrate; a local oscillator carried by said substrate and configured to be powered by said power supply to provide a local oscillator signal at a third frequency; a mixer carried by said substrate and coupled to said antenna assembly and the local oscillator, said mixer configured to generate an outgoing beacon signal to the antenna assembly at the second frequency based upon mixing an incoming signal from the RF interrogator at the first frequency with the local oscillator signal at the third frequency, said second frequency comprising a difference/sum of the first and third frequencies and operable for range and direction finding by the RF interrogator; wherein said antenna assembly comprises an input antenna configured to receive the incoming signal, and an output antenna configured to transmit the outgoing beacon signal, said mixer being coupled therebetween; a first filter coupled between said input antenna and said mixer; a second filter coupled between said mixer and said output antenna; and an amplitude modulation circuit coupled between said local oscillator and said mixer, and configured to modulate the outgoing beacon signal at the second frequency to provide beacon identification.