ST25RU3993-EVAL  

The ST25RU3993-EVAL board is a RAIN® RFID (UHF) reader system based on the ST25RU3993 integrated reader IC. The objective of the ST25RU3993-EVAL board is to provide engineers, students and technically interested people with a comprehensive RAIN RFID reader system, which allows evaluation of the properties and the feature set of the ST25RU3993. For this purpose the architecture of the ST25RU3993-EVAL board combines a high RF power, long-range reader and a low RF power, short-range RAIN RFID reader. In addition the ST25RU3993-EVAL board has been fitted with numerous easy to access test points and measurement possibilities.

The ST25RU3993-EVAL is controlled by a graphical user interface (GUI) running on a host PC through a USB/UART bridge (it requires a driver installation). The GUI can be found at www.st.com.

The ST25RU3993-EVAL is powered through a USB3.0 port in order to provide enough power for the high RF power, long-range configuration of the reader. If a USB3.0 port is not available, a USB2.0 Y-cable or an external power supply can be used to enable the long-range capabilities of the reader. If neither is available only the low RF power short-range reader configuration is available.

The ST25RU3993-EVAL provides two SMA (female) antenna connectors, which can be controlled via the GUI. To enable scanning for RAIN RFID transponders the user must connect a suitable 50 Ω UHF antenna for the targeted frequency range.

The ST25RU3993-EVAL board supports frequency channels ranging from 840 MHz to 960 MHz and Arm®-based devices.

Key Features

• Based on the ST25RU3993 RAIN® RFID (UHF) reader IC:
  • ISO/IEC 18000-63:2015 / Gen2V2
  • ISO/IEC 18000-62:2012
• Two SW-controlled power amplifier (PA) options:
  • External PA: 1 Watt (29 dBm) max. TX power
  • Internal PA: 63 mW (18 dBm) max. TX power
  • Configurable TX power level
  • Power detector to monitor TX power
  • Carrier cancellation circuitry
  • Automatic / Manual carrier cancellation retuning
  • Differential RX input
  • Max. sensitivity: -80 dBm
  • Adaptive / Manual sensitivity configuration
  • External reference: 20 MHz TCXO, clipped sine wave
  • External reference option: 20 MHz crystal
  • Frequency: 840 MHz – 960 MHz
  • Adaptive / Manual anti-collision slot handling
  • Continuous modulated RF output mode
  • Continuous wave RF output mode
  • Two antenna connectors: SMA (F)
  • Automatic / Manual antenna port switching
  • Reflected power measurement
  • Carrier sense (LBT)
  • Transponder RSSI display
  • Direct command support
  • Transponder EPC read / write
  • Link applications to transponder read
  • Generic custom transponder command tool
  • Store / Recall reader configuration
  • Register map
• Host interface and supply
  • USB/UART bridge
  • USB Receptacle: Micro, B-Type
  • Main supply: 5 V USB powered (750 mA)
• MCU:
  • STM32L476RGT6 (Arm® 32-bit Cortex®-M4)
  • 64 MHz
  • 128-Kbyte RAM
  • 1-Mbyte Flash
  • SPI mode 1 (4 MHz)
  • Firmware programmable through USB/UART
  • SWD debug Interface
• LED Indicators:
  • Power amplifier selection
  • Carrier cancellation tuning activity
  • Carrier cancellation tuning OK
  • OSC OK (20 MHz external reference)
  • PLL OK
  • RF ON
  • No tag response
  • Tag CRC error
  • Tag found
  • Active antenna port
  • Power amplifier option
  • BT OK (not installed)
• Test points:
  • In-circuit RF power levels and signals
  • RFID communication TX and RX
  • UART and SPI signal lines
  • UART_LOG for debugging purposes
  • Control voltage of internal VCO
  • RF power detector output voltage
  • 20 MHz reference signal
  • External PA BIAS voltage
  • LDO output voltages
  • LDOs: Zero Ω resistor for current consumption measurement
  • Main supply: jumper for current consumption measurement
• Buttons:
  • MCU reset
  • MCU boot mode
  • BT module reset button (optional)
• Buzzer
• Wireless Interface (optional):
  • BT4.0 - SPP profile
  • JTAG interface: for BT module programming
  • BT module boot mode jumper (optional)