The Center for Advanced Communications (CAC) at Villanova University has established state-of-the-art Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) facilities on Villanova University campus. The main objective of this Lab is to become a leading provider of RFID research in the region and promote collaboration and partnership with RFID manufacturing industries. The Lab provides capabilities for the development of new RFID technologies and prototype designs. It hosts testing facilities for RFID products, and supports the evaluation of RFID tag and RFID-assisted tagged localization methods, collision avoidance techniques, and signal propagation characteristics. The RFID Lab is located in CEER 305.

Main Components

The RFID Lab has the following main components:

• Two Agilent Vector Signal Generators, Model ESG E4438C. This vector signal generator delivers calibrated test signals at baseband, IF, and RF frequencies up to 6 GHz. Offering an internal baseband generator with arbitrary waveform and real-time I/Q capabilities, ample waveform playback and storage memory, and a wide RF modulation bandwidth.
   
• Agilent Vector Signal Analyzer, Model 89641. The dual-channel vector signal analyzer (VSA) offers DC to 6 GHz frequency range and 36 MHz analysis bandwidth for measuring RFID signal waveforms as well as various wireless communication signals, including GSM (EDGE), cdma2000, W-CDMA, 802.11a/b/g wireless LAN, and Bluetooth systems.
   
• Agilent Digital Oscilloscope, Model Infiniium 54855A. The 4-channel oscilloscope has a bandwidth of 6 GHz. It allows data sampling at a rate of 20 GSa/s on all four channels simultaneously.
   
• RFID Readers. The Lab is equipped with several types of passive RFID Readers. Active RFID readers will soon be added to the Lab’s test capabilities.

Set-Up Cost

The total cost of the set-up exceeds $320,000, covering:

• two Vector Signal Generators - $120,000
• the Vector Signal Analyzer - $137,000
• the Digital Oscilloscope - $60,000
• RFID readers - $6,000, with cables, antennas, software packages, and hardware components.

We welcome collaboration and partnership with federal and state agencies, industries, and universities.

Opportunities

The RFID Lab is looking for qualified candidates to fill in the following position:

Research Assistant
A Research Assistant position is available for graduate students in the areas of statistical signal and array processing for RFID applications, such as direction finding, positioning, source separation, and interference cancellation.

If you are interested, please send your resume, including your education background, course transcript, research experience, a list of publications, and the GRE score, to the following address. If your first language is not English, please also provide the TOEFL score. Preference will be given to those who have finished Master's program in the related areas and plan to pursue the Ph.D. degree at Villanova.

More Information

Dr. Yimin Zhang
Director
Radio Frequency Identification Lab
Center for Advanced Communications
Phone: 610.519.4544
FAX: 610.519.6118

Janice J. Moughan Administrative Coordinator
Center for Advanced Communications
Phone: 610.519.4599
FAX: 610.519.6118

Address: 119 Tolentine Hall
800 Lancaster Ave.
Villanova, PA 19085-1699

Sponsors

We greatly appreciate the generous support of the following Government agencies and industries through funded projects and donations. We are looking for industrial sponsors and collaborators. If you are interested, please contact the Lab director.

• Government Sponsors
  • Ben Franklin Technology Partners
  • National Science Foundation (NSF)
• Industry Sponsors
  • VerdaSee Solutions Inc.
  • Purrfect Fence
• Donators
  • Xilinx
  • ODIN technologies