AS3993 – AN13 – Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI)
www.ams.com
Revision 2.0 / 6/22/12
page 2/17
1. Introduction
The Femto Reader is a small form factor and low costs EPC Class 1 Gen 2 UHF RFID
demonstration reader system. Leveraging ams’ UHF RFID AS3993, provides close to the
industry’s lowest BOM cost, best in class power consumption with the least amount of
complexity.
Second only to ams Femto design the low reader BOM enables UHF RFID markets that have
previously been out of reach due to cost restraints. With regards to overall cost vs. performance
the FERMI UHF RFID demo reader is unmatched in the industry.
By using the internal PA delivering up to 20 dBm, it is ideally suited for cost and form factor
constraint applications.
The Femto demo reader features an antenna tuning circuit to re-tune the resonance frequency of
the antenna in case a de-tuning occurs. In addition the Femto reader features an antenna switch
to allow UHF RFID operation through an external antenna or the onboard chip antenna
.
The Femto reader is designed as such that it can be easily connected to an external host MCU
via SPI leaving the onboard MCU idle. The high level of integration found on the AS3993 UHF
RFID AS3993 allows for minimal code loading and quick implementation.
The designs come with free, fully portable code and all Gerber data and schematics. This allows
for a quick, trouble free design in.
1
Not populated for Femto Version 1.x
