BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The structure and the technical means adopted by the present invention to achieve the above and other objects can be best understood by referring to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and the accompanying drawings, wherein
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a substrate damage detection mechanism using RFID tags in accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 shows that a number of conducting circuit loops are arranged on an objective substrate in accordance with the first embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 3 shows the composing elements of a protecting circuit when the conducting circuit loop is a defogging circuit in accordance with a second embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 4 shows the conducting circuit loop arranged to cover the margin of the substrate in accordance with a third embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 5 shows the conducting circuit loop arranged to cover the substrate in accordance with a fourth embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 6 shows the conducting circuit loop arranged to cover a heat insulating paper in accordance with a fifth embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 7 shows the substrate as a windshield in accordance with the fifth embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 8 shows the first step to apply the RFID tag on a windshield in accordance with the fifth embodiment of the present invention; and
FIG. 9 shows the RFID tag applied on the windshield in accordance with the fifth embodiment of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
With reference to the drawings and in particular to FIG. 1, which is a block diagram of a substrate damage detection mechanism using RFID tags in accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention, a RFID tag 10 includes a reference voltage 11, a RFID chip 12, a data input/output port 13 connected to the RFID chip 12, a RFID transmitter 14 connected to the RFID chip 12, and a conducting circuit loop 15. The conducting circuit loop 13 is arranged in a normal-closed circuit loop manner and provided with a first end 151 that is electrically connected to the reference voltage 11 and a second end 152 that is electrically connected to the data input/output port 13 of the RFID tag 10. In practice, the RFID tag 10 may also include a plurality of conducting circuit loops 15a, 15b and 15c with the conducting circuit loops connecting the data input/output port 13 with the second end 152 and the reference voltage 11 with a common connecting end 153.
In practice, the data input/output port 13 may adopt either a pull high or a pull low design. If the data input/output port 13 adopts the pull high design, the reference voltage 11 should be a ground with a low potential. Once a fracture 154 is occurred at the conducting circuit loop 15, the potential of the data input/output port 13 changes from low to high resulting from the changing from a closed state to an opened state of the conducting circuit loop 15. On the contrary, if the data input/output port 13 adopts the pull low design, the reference voltage 11 should be a direct current power source with a high potential. Once the fracture 154 occurs at the conducting circuit loop 15, the potential of the data input/output port 13 changes form high to low resulting from the changing from a closed state to an opened state of the conducting circuit loop 15.
The RFID chip 12 generates a conductive code when the conducting circuit loop 15 is in the closed state and originally conducting and generates an open-circuit code when the conducting circuit loop 15 becomes an opened state resulting from the fracture 154 of the conducting circuit loop 15 in which both the conductive code and the open-circuit code are transmitted by the RFID transmitter 14 and received by a RFID reader 2 to determine the damage of the conducting circuit loop 15.
Please refer to FIG. 2 that shows a number of conducting circuit loops arranged on an objective substrate in accordance with the first embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the conducting circuit loops 15, 15a, 15b and 15c of the RFID tag 10 are arranged to cover an objective substrate 16. The RFID reader 2 will detect the damage of the substrate 16 if the fracture 154 occurs to both the conducting circuit loop 15 and the objective substrate 16.
Please refer to FIG. 3 that shows the composing elements of a protecting circuit when the conducting circuit loop is a defogging circuit loop of a vehicle in accordance with a second embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the conducting circuit loop 15 is a defogging circuit loop of a vehicle. The first end 151 of the conducting circuit loop 15 is connected to a ground and the second end 152 is connected to a protecting circuit 3. The protecting circuit 3 is arranged between the second end 152 of the conducting circuit loop 15 and the data input/output port 13, and includes a switch 30, a power source 31, a ground 32, a first diode 33, a second diode 34, a resistor 35, and a zener diode 36. When the switch 30 is closed, an electrical power energy is supplied to the protecting circuit 3
The RFID tag 10 is provided with a first data input/output pin 13a and a second input/output pin 13b. In this embodiment, the data input/output pin 13a adopts a pull high design, while the data input/output pin 13b adopts a pull low design.
The first diode 33 and the second diode 34 serve as protective elements for the RFID tag 10. The resistor 35 and the zener diode 36 in combination serve as a voltage regulation circuit for the RFID tag 10. The first diode 33 has a positive pole connected to the data input/output pin 13a of the RFID tag 10 and a negative pole connected to the second end 152 of the conducting circuit loop 15. The second diode 34 has a positive pole connected to the second end 152 of the conducting circuit loop 15 and a negative pole connected to the data input/output pin 13b of the RFID tag 10 through the voltage regulation circuit formed by the resistor 35 and the zener diode 36.
When the switch 30 is closed, the input/output pins 13a and 13b of the RFID tag 10 are with high potentials (with a conductive code 11) no matter the fracture 154 exists or not, and the input 13b is with low potentials no matter the fracture 154 exists or not when the switch 30 is opened. Therefore, the input 13b may be used to detect whether the switch 30 is closed or opened. Moreover, as the potential of the input 13b of the data input/output port 13 is low, the input 13a may be a high potential (with an open-circuit code 10) or a low potential (with a conductive code 00) depending on whether the fracture 154 exists or not.
Please refer to FIG. 4 that shows the conducting circuit loop arranged to cover the margin of the substrate, a tempered glass, in accordance with a third embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the substrate is a tempered glass 4 and the conducting circuit loop 15 of the RFID tag 10 is arranged to cover only the margin of the tempered glass 4. Such embodiment has its value because conducting circuit loops 15 may no be able to be arranged to cover the entire surface of the tempered glass 4 due to visibility concerns. Although the strength and the yield stress of a tempered glass is higher than ordinary glass, tempered glass tends to crumble when damaged, and once the tempered glass 4 is crumbled the conducting circuit loop 15 is damaged as well. In this way, the detection of the glass is achieved.
FIG. 5 shows the conducting circuit loop arranged to cover the tempered glass in accordance with a fourth embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the conducting circuit loop 15 may be arranged in a specific manner to cover a portion of the tempered glass 4.
Please refer to FIG. 6 that shows the conducting circuit loop arranged to cover a heat insulating paper in accordance with a fifth embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the conducting circuit loop 15 with predetermined intervals is arranged to cover a heat insulating paper 5.
Please refer to FIG. 7, which shows the substrate as a windshield in accordance with the fifth embodiment of the present invention, the conducting circuit loop 15 of the RFID tag 10 is arranged to cover the margin of a windshield 6. In practice, a single-sided conducting material 18 (i.e. with an electrical insulating material covering one side) can be arranged at the sides of the windshield 6.
Please refer to FIG. 8 that shows the first step to apply the RFID tag on a windshield in accordance with the fifth embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the conducting circuit loop 15 is provided with a plurality of gaps 17, and the single-sided conducting material 18 is provided with an insulator peeled-off area 19, which is later used to electrically connect the conducting circuit loop 15.
Please refer to FIG. 9, which shows the RFID tag applied on the windshield in accordance with the fifth embodiment of the present invention, the windshield 6 is bond with the heat insulating paper 5 as shown in FIG. 6. Through a plurality of contacts a, b, c, d, e, f, g and h the conducting circuit loops 15 forms an electrically closed loop. Therefore, the detection mechanism of the conducting circuit loop 15 is established. Moreover, although the windshield 6 (tempered glass) tends to crumble when damaged, the heat insulating paper 5 is able to hold the crumbled pieces of the windshield together and prevent it from bursting into pieces.
In practice, multiple ways of encoding the conductive code and the open-circuit code may be adopted. By way of example, the conductive code (generated when the conducting circuit loop 15 is in a closed state) may be a “0” in the binary system, while the open-circuit (generated when the conducting circuit loop 15 is in an opened state) may be a “1”. Moreover, to avoid possible encoding errors or faults imported from the manufacturing of the glass, codes with multiple numbers may also be used, that is, a “0000’ for a perfectly manufactured glass, a “0010” for a manufactured glass with several faults and a “1111” for a damaged glass.
In addition, the conducting circuit loop 15 may be arranged inside the substrate, and the conducting circuit loop 15 may be made of pliable metal materials such as aluminum, copper or transparent conducting glue.
While the invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to the most practical and preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the disclosed embodiments, but on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangement included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.
Patent Application
20080061972
