Paratek Confidential and Proprietary

Near-Field Focused Phased Array and Scanning Antennas for

RFID Applications

Greg MendoliaVice President, Product Strategy

Office: 443-259-0140 x 130Fax: 443-259-0451

Paratek Microwave, Inc.6935 Oakland Mills Road, Suite G

Columbia, MD 21045

Reproduction Not Permitted Paratek Confidential and Proprietary Page 2

Paratek Microwave, Inc.

• Founded in 1998 to develop innovative RF components based upon the company’s proprietary materials technology, ParascanTM

– The Parascan™ materials science enabled the development of Paratek’s thin film, thick film and bulk material electronically tunable capacitors

• Electronic tunable RF components led to development of smart scanning antennas – Independent, multi-beam, 360° steering– Frequency coverage from 30MHz to 3 GHz– Fast scanning in azimuth, elevation and frequency– Re-configurable aperture for wide beam acquisition and then

narrow steerable beam• Maintain uninterrupted communications, increased LPI/LPD,

higher capacity through frequency reuse• Null steering for increased anti-jam

– Higher gain• Horizontal and vertical polarization diversity mitigates multipath

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RFID Technology Challenges

• Accurate reading of 100% of the tags is essential

Tags inside Tags inside moving payloadmoving payload - - B U T - -

• Technical limitations reduce tag read rates– Reader reception of tag data vulnerable to

obstruction and de-tuning from metal, liquid and dense materials

– Conventional reader antennas do not track and “stare” at moving tags

- - I M P A C T - -

• Slow industry adoption due to technology shortfalls

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Paratek Solution

Near Field Focused, Scanning Phased Array (NFA)

• Antenna power is surgically directed at – and focused on – targeted RFID tags by increasing power levels in the near field without polluting spectrum in the far field– Antenna RF power is focused at the tag instead of spread over the entire

area• More signal power delivered at the tag => more tags read and better

ability to write to tags– Multipath and interference problems reduced => decreased tag contention– Antenna tracks tags as they pass by

• Increased beam dwell time on tag => longer read time– Direction of tag movement can be detected

• Are items entering or leaving the area?

• KEY RESULT: Dramatically improved tag read rates for RFID unfriendly materials

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Paratek NFA vs. Conventional Reader Antenna

Paratek Near Field Focused Phased Array Antenna

Conventional Reader Antenna Energy Distribution

TagTag

Lower field intensity in near field

6dBi gain limit in far field

Higher field intensity in near field

6dBi gain limit in far field

• Near Field Focused Phased Array amplifies and focuses RF to increase power in the near field– Arrays of elements are used to control energy focus and distribution

• RF power decays quickly so that power levels in the far field are comparable to standard antennas– Compliant with FCC energy levels in far field– Permits higher near field energy intensity at the tag location

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Conventional Far Field Focused Array Antenna

Paratek NFA vs. Conventional Phased Array Antenna

Paratek Near Field Focused Phased Array Antenna

Tag

6dBi gain limit in far field

Lower field intensity in near field

Higher field intensity in near field

6dBi gain limit in far field

• Paratek re-engineers the phase of each element in the array, focusing the energy in the near field where the tags are located

• The depth and direction of the focused region can be easily steered with standard phased array electronics

• Conventional arrays focus energy in the far-field, not near field

Tag

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Paratek NFA vs. Conventional Array Reader Antenna

Near Field EIRP

RF energy not where its needed

FOMyz_dBParatek NFA AntennaDirectivity: 0-3 meters

RF energy focused on tags

FOMyz_dBConventional 1x8 Far-Field Array Antenna

Directivity: 0-3 meters

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Paratek NFA vs. Conventional Array Reader Antenna

Far Field EIRP

FOMyz_dBConventional 1x8 Far-Field Array Antenna

Directivity: 0-30 meters

High far field RF energy(pollutes spectrum)

Far field RF energy dispersed

FOMyz_dBParatek NFA Antenna

Directivity: 0-30 meters

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NFA vs Ref Antenna

y = -7.8454Ln(x) + 9.1101

-36-33-30-27-24-21-18-15-12-9-6-30369

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Distance (feet)

Rel

ativ

e P

ower

(d

B)

NFA

Ref Antenna

Shifted Log NFA

Log. (Ref Antenna)

y=-7.845Ln(x-4) + 4.11

Target focus range:NFA is 4.5 dB higher

NFA is 4.5dB lower

9 dB Improvement Over Conventional Antennas in Near Field / Far Field Ratio

Paratek NFA vs. Conventional Array

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Paratek NFA vs. Conventional Array

Comparative Statistical Read Rate (tags on surface of cases of bottled water)

275% greaterread rate @ 5’

1,060% greater read rate @ 6’

Same far-field EIRP

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Antenna Characteristics: • 862 - 928 MHz• Passive Tx/Rx, 30 dBm max• Gain 6.3 – 8.4 dBi• Dual linear polarization V/H• 27 dB isolation V-H ports

9.5”

1717””

9.5 lb

Pattern

Paratek Scanning Antenna

• Full 360° azimuth scan range• 50° Azimuth beam (-3dB)• 70° Elevation beam (-3dB)• < -10 dB Side/back lobe• > 12 dB Return loss, 50 ohm• < 1 ms Beam switch/scan

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RFID Vertical BeamPatterns

0

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Azim0 m

Azim1 m

Azim2 m

m

...Efficiency:

fs

862

895

928

MHz Gain

6.901

6.998

8.01

dB Directivity

10.572

10.579

11.098

dB

3.671

3.582

3.088

dB _beam_peak

0.1

1.3

0

deg _beam_peak

0.4

0.1

0.4

deg

Elevation Plane Azimuth PlanePatterns

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Azim0 m

Azim1 m

Azim2 m

m

...Efficiency:

fs

862

895

928

MHz Gain

7.024

6.798

7.717

dB Directivity

10.712

10.572

11.104

dB

3.687

3.774

3.387

dB _beam_peak

0.3

0.9

0.4

deg _beam_peak

40.5

41

41.5

deg

Patterns

0

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Azim0 m

Azim1 m

Azim2 m

m

...Efficiency:

fs

862

895

928

MHz Gain

6.947

6.799

7.368

dB Directivity

10.772

10.623

10.857

dB

3.825

3.824

3.489

dB _beam_peak

1.1

0.7

0.9

deg _beam_peak

78.3

79.2

78.9

deg

Patterns

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Azim0 m

Azim1 m

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m

...Efficiency:

fs

862

895

928

MHz Gain

6.743

6.595

7.668

dB Directivity

10.467

10.411

11.099

dB

3.724

3.816

3.431

dB _beam_peak

0.5

1

0.9

deg _beam_peak

120.1

120.7

119.2

deg

Patterns

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m

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Azim0 m

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Azim2 m

m

...Efficiency:

fs

862

895

928

MHz Gain

6.385

6.735

7.483

dB Directivity

10.06

10.488

10.93

dB

3.675

3.754

3.447

dB _beam_peak

3.3

0.3

0.8

deg _beam_peak

158.3

157.8

156.4

deg

Patterns

0

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m

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0

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Azim0 m

Azim1 m

Azim2 m

m

...Efficiency:

fs

862

895

928

MHz Gain

5.935

6.094

6.841

dB Directivity

9.654

9.926

10.295

dB

3.719

3.832

3.454

dB _beam_peak

4.3

0.7

3

deg _beam_peak

158.9

158.3

157.2

deg

Patterns

0

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Azim1 m

Azim2 m

m

...Efficiency:

fs

862

895

928

MHz Gain

6.383

6.568

7.633

dB Directivity

10.569

10.755

11.273

dB

4.187

4.187

3.64

dB _beam_peak

3.2

3.3

2.7

deg _beam_peak

117.4

117.6

118.9

deg

Patterns

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...Efficiency:

fs

862

895

928

MHz Gain

6.335

6.333

7.376

dB Directivity

10.114

10.218

10.86

dB

3.78

3.885

3.485

dB _beam_peak

4

1.6

0.7

deg _beam_peak

83.2

82.8

81.2

deg

Patterns

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...Efficiency:

fs

862

895

928

MHz Gain

6.601

6.818

7.707

dB Directivity

10.273

10.575

11.025

dB

3.672

3.757

3.319

dB _beam_peak

0.3

0.6

2

deg _beam_peak

39.4

39.4

39.6

deg

Patterns

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...Efficiency:

fs

862

895

928

MHz Gain

6.975

7.178

8.177

dB Directivity

10.659

10.852

11.372

dB

3.684

3.674

3.195

dB _beam_peak

0.1

3

2.7

deg _beam_peak

0.1

0

0.2

deg

10dB

8dBi

Paratek Scanning Antenna

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Video 1

Conventional Far Field Focused Array Antenna

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Video 2

Paratek Near Field Focused Phased Array Antenna

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Summary

• Paratek’s Near Field Focused, Scanning Phased Array (NFA) antenna dramatically improves tag read rates under all conditions, especially RFID unfriendly materials, while also enhancing the ability to write to tags

• Electronic steering enables tracking of tags for increased acquisition time => Results in dramatically improved read rates, as well as identification of direction of travel for tagged products

• Directed and controlled RF energy reduces tag contention and multipath issues

• NFA transmitted RF energy (EIRP) decays at a faster rate over distance => Results in lower far field interference to other products or to other RFID systems