RAIN RFID Test Instrument

RAIN RFID Xplorer an All-In-One High-Precision RFID Test Instrument.

Performance and
Conformance Tests

The CISC RAIN Xplorer is a unique RFID test product developed for convenient tag frequency sensitivity, communication range, and backscatter measurements. The RFID tester is designed for open area tests and measurements in an RF-controlled environment using portable or fixed RF test chambers. The system is supplied with software and a reference tag for self-calibration. The test equipment is controlled using a graphical user interface (GUI) with an additional application programming interface (API) for the development of user-defined test sequences within standard development environments.

Key Benefits

High precision RFID tester
Fast and easy to use
One device – many tag and reader test modes
GUI and API function for user-defined test sequences
Supporting EPCglobal, ISO/IEC, IATA, VDA and all Brazil RFID test standards

Key Features

Basis RAIN RFID frequency range from 800 MHz to 1 GHz
Extended RAIN RFID frequency range from 700 MHz to 1.3 GHz
Tag and Reader Performance tests
Tag and Reader Conformance tests
Sniffer mode to analyze the communication between reader and tags
ETSI EN 302 208 reader and tag tests (RED compliance/CE marking)

TESTING Modes

SOFTWARE Maintenance Service

Maintenance means the provisioning of regular Updates for the software of the Product. CISC Semiconductor provides Updates on a schedule of approx. six (6) months (typically two times in a year). These updates don’t add completely new features but focus on maintaining top performance, ensuring compatibility, provide continuous improvements in functionality of the Product, continuous usability enhancements and necessary security updates. Updates are made available online under www.cisc.at/mycisc for the Licensee’s Technical Contact(s). Note: Upgrades are not part of the Maintenance.

Cost: Maintenance is optional. It is provided in the form of Updates of the software for the Product purchased by the Licensee. Maintenance must be purchased by Licensee in advance for an annual extension of 20% of the current license price of the at the date of order. Extensions of Maintenance may also be purchased for more than one year.
For every purchase of the product Maintenance is included for the first twelve (12) months after purchase (shipment date) for free.

Main Feature Overview

Year 2025

Release: Build_250430

Tag Performance Tester

New function for automated report generation

Tag Conformance Tester

Improvements of the Automation
- Update of the ISO 29167-10 test sequence, to support protocol updates

Sniffer and Tag Emulator

Support the analysis of Gen2V3 commands (Query X/Y, ReadVar)
Improved the analysis of the monotony of power-up and power-down envelopes.

Reader Performance Tester

Option to change plot attributes (color, line style, etc.) for the reader sensitivity graph
Option to generate XML result file, without embedding a stylesheet

API

Improved the analysis of the monotony of power-up and power-down envelopes.

Release: Build_2510 (Planned)

Tag Performance Tester

Usability improvements

Sniffer and Tag Emulator

Usability improvements

Reader Performance Tester

New function for automated report generation

Year 2024

Release: Build_240731

Tag Performance Tester

Option to rename plots from the plot legend
Option to select active plot from the plot legend

Sniffer and Tag Emulator

Improved Logic Signal Graph (autoscaling, shading, context menu)
Improved the analysis of the monotony of power-up and power-down envelopes.

Reader Performance Tester

Option to rename plots from the plot legend
Option to select active plot from the plot legend
Improvements of the Impedance Emulator control
- New display metric: “Return Phase (deg)”
- New test automation option: “Phase Channel Sweep”
- New system setting: “Apply IE Phase Shift”

Year 2023

Release: Build_230630

Tag Performance Tester

Option to change plot attributes (color, line style, etc.) for sweep results graphs
Improvements of the ETSI 302 208 tag e.r.p measurement
- Option to add orientation sweep results to the test report
- Option to generate a declaration of conformity
Change of the default Header Time from 1.5 ms to 2.5 ms (for compliance with Gen2V3 tags)
Option to add a timestamp to the measurement results
New design of the System Setup window
New setting that allows to change the TX power applied for the Inventory measurement

Tag Conformance Tester

Improved the response frame detection
Improved the accuracy of the Tari setting
Change of the default Header Time from 1.5 ms to 2.5 ms (for compliance with Gen2V3 tags)

Sniffer and Tag Emulator

New result parameter: Power in Channel
The following buttons are not anymore reset if the sniffing is stopped.
- Record
- Save XML Log
- Tag Emulator

Reader Performance Tester

Option to add a timestamp to the measurement results

General

Display warning if the application has no write permission for the selected
working directory

Release: Build_231130

Sniffer and Tag Emulator

Optical improvements when resizing the application window.

General

Support of Windows 11

Year 2022

Release: Build_220531

Tag Performance Tester

Improvements of the ETSI 302 208 tag e.r.p measurement
- Option to select between spectrum mask limits according EN 308 208 V3.4.1.
- Option to verify measurement accuracy by comparing results with reference data.

Sniffer and Tag Emulator

Improved detection of the power-up and power-down envelope
Improved decoding of reader commands

Reader Performance Tester

Indicate the expected duration of the measurement, for the applied settings.

General

Upgrade of all GUI applications from 32-bit to 64-bit.

Release: Build_221130

Tag Performance Tester

Improved context menus

Tag Conformance Tester

Improvements of the Automation
- New test sequence: “RFID Tag Test_Gen2 Extended Conformance Test.seq”

Sniffer and Tag Emulator

Support additional reader transmit masks
New result parameter: Frequency Shift
New function to display the reader success rate over the number of Queries received by the TE.
Improved the Reader Conformance Check report
Introduced new result verdicts to the Reader Conformance Check report

Reader Performance Tester

Indicate the expected duration of the measurement, for the applied settings.
Update of the RFSM calibration data reading, to improve the accuracy.

General

Upgrade of all GUI applications from 32-bit to 64-bit.

Year 2021

Release: Build_210531

Tag Performance Tester

Improvements of the ETSI 302 208 tag e.r.p measurement
- Improved HTML report generator
  - Added software version to the info section.
  - Added name of the measurement device to the info section.
  - Added version of the ETSI EN 302 208 protocol to the info section.
  - Option to add a comment to the info section.
  - Option to add a block diagram of the test setup.
  - Introduced the test result “Inconclusive”.
- Added description of the setup for on-metal tags.

Tag Conformance Tester

Improvements of the Automation
- Added Application Conformance (Annex N) test cases.

Sniffer and Tag Emulator

Option to analyze the waveform after a command, if no tag response is detected
Improvment of the Frequency Channel Analysis
- New function to evaluate whether timing requirements are fulfilled for FCC 15.247 and ETSI EN 302 208.
Improvement of the Tag Emulator
- Improved command counter
- StoredPC: Support T-bit
- Improved format of TE sequence files, to support comments.

Reader Performance Tester

Function to verify if background noise is present
Setting to modify the StoredPC of the Tag Emulator

API

Added new functions to the API
- Function to load STM files
- Functions for Reader and Tag Analysis
- Functions to support the Reader Conformance Check
- Functions to support the TE Sequence Mode
- Extended power sweep function
Added new examples

Release: Build_211126

Tag Performance Tester

Improvement of the Tag Population Analysis
- New setting to configure the number of Inventory rounds, used for the measurement
- Option to load analysis results from a file
Improvements of the ETSI 302 208 tag e.r.p measurement
- Introduced additional plots to the spectrum graph
- Improved HTML report generator
  - Added result summary to the top of the report
  - Added result table for the unwanted emission measurements

Sniffer and Tag Emulator

Option to display the reader spectrum of a single command instead of the combined spectrum of all commands in the frame
Option to detect and analyze the power-up and power-down RF envelope
Introduced additional analysis parameters
- Reader command
  - Overshoot (%)
  - Undershoot (%)
- Power-up and power-down RF envelope
  - Rise time (us)
  - Fall time (us)
  - Overshoot (%)
  - Undershoot (%)
  - Monotony
  - Header Time (us)
  - Signal level when OFF (%)
- Improvements of the Frequency Channel Analysis
  - Added measurement of the min. channel off time

Reader Performance Tester

Auto-save function

API

Added new functions to the API
- Functions to support the Spectrum Test (Interference Analysis)
Added new examples

General

Improved functions to export graphs as images.

Year 2020

Release: Build_202001

Tag Performance Tester

Alignment of the tag backscatter power measurement with ISO/IEC 18046-3.

Tag Conformance Tester

Alignment of the tag backscatter power measurement with ISO/IEC 18046-3.

Sniffer and Tag Emulator

Alignment of the tag backscatter power measurement with ISO/IEC 18046-2 and ISO/IEC 18046-3.
Update of the reader envelope analysis
Calculator to evaluate the absolute Tag Emulator backscatter power
Improved the reader command detection and the tag response detection

Reader Performance Tester

Alignment of the reader sensitivity measurement with ISO/IEC 18046-2
New option to export the data from the success rate graph

API

Alignment of the tag backscatter power measurement with ISO/IEC 18046-2 and ISO/IEC 18046-3

Release: Build_200428

Tag Conformance Tester

Improvements of the Automation
- Support of tags whose lock functionality is limited to permanently lock all memory
- Update of the ISO/IEC 29167-10 test sequence to comply with updates in ISO/IEC 19823-10

Release: Build_200703

Tag Performance Tester

Improved TID decoding.
Improved algorithm of the tag population analysis.
Improved accuracy of the pulse-width for SSB-ASK modulation.

Tag Conformance Tester

Improved TID decoding.
Improved accuracy of the pulse-width for SSB-ASK modulation.

Sniffer and Tag Emulator

Option to change the unit of the signal in the main graph from V to dBm.
Improved processing time
Improved tag response detection.

API

Added new examples

Release: Build_201030

Tag Performance Tester

New Frequency Sweep display metrics:
- Transmitted Power (dBm)
- Backscattered Power at Receiver (dBm)
- Backscattered Signal Phase (deg)
- Read Data

Sniffer and Tag Emulator

Re-design of setting dialogues
Added Slot analysis as a new funtion of the the Communication Analysis
Improvement of the Tag Emulator
- New error option “No reply” to force the TE to not respond to commands

Reader Performance Tester

User-definable step delay added
New sweep functions added:
- Return Loss Sweep (requires the CISC Impedance Emulator)
- Sensitivity monitoring over time
Option to combine multiple sweeps

API

Added Phyton examples

Year 2019

Release: Build_190121

Tag Performance Tester

Improvements of the ETSI 302 208 tag e.r.p measurement
- The (calculated) path loss between the DUT and the antenna is considered in the results

Sniffer and Tag Emulator

Improved algorithm for the Reader Conformance check.
Improvements of the Communication Analysis
- Lines in the Q-value development graph, indicate Query commands
- QueryAdjust and QueryRep commands, which occur before the first Query, are not considered in the Q-value development graph
- Improved algorithm for inventory and communication statistics

Release: Build_190520

Tag Performance Tester

Re-design of GUI elements and menu items
Improvement of the RX measurement (backscatter power) accuracy by up to 0.5 dB
Improved speed of the Top-down (Fine) sweep algorithm
Improvements of the ETSI 302 208 tag e.r.p measurement
- Option to test all frequencies of the lower and/or upper band in a single sweep
- Option to select a user defined modulation rate (BLF)
- Option to export all results as pictures

Tag Conformance Tester

Improve accuracy of T2 timing.
Support new revision of ISO/IEC 29167-10

Sniffer and Tag Emulator

Increase of the maximum sampling frequency to 12.5 MHz, to increase the maximum real-time receiving bandwidth by factor of two
Re-design of the logic signal graph:
- Overview graph added, in which the complete signal is shown
- Zooming in main graph using the mouse wheel
Improved reader analysis by adding new result parameter: Data-0 and Data-1

Reader Performance Tester

The sensitivity results can be saved in an additional file format (XML)
New sweep type: Phase & BLF Sweep
Improved scaling of GUI elements, if the application window is resized

General

Improved tag response bit detector
User-definable IP address of the CISC RFID Xplorer

Release: Build_191011

Tag Performance Tester

New power sweep algorithm: Differential power sweep
Improvements of the ETSI 302 208 tag e.r.p measurement
- Improved HTML report generator

Sniffer and Tag Emulator

Improvement of receiver tuning to reduce noise

General

Update of runtime menu items

Year 2018

Release: Build_180208

Tag Conformance Tester

Improved response detection at high Tari values
Decode responses for signals loaded from IQ files
New function to export IQ data as STM file

Sniffer and Tag Emulator

Improvement of continous signal streaming function
Option to Save/Load TE configuration settings to/from setting files
Improvement of the Tag Emulator
- Support addtional states and commands

Reader Performance Tester

Improvement of the linearity compensation of the RFSM backscatter power over its dynamic range
Option to Save/Load TE configuration settings to/from setting files

API

Support of 64-bit targets

General

Updated warning and error messages

Release: Build_180601

Tag Performance Tester

Option to pause graph updates, while sweep is running
Re-design of command sequence selection in the Communication Settings (Advanced)
Assistent for generating Gen2 commands as User-defined command

Tag Conformance Tester

New option to modify the expected BLF, to improve the decoding if a response has a high BLF offset
Re-design of command sequence selection in the Communication Settings (Advanced)
Assistent for generating Gen2 commands as User-defined command

Sniffer and Tag Emulator

Improved command detection and decoding
Improvement of the Tag Emulator
- Support of the ISO/IEC 29167-10 cryptographic suite. Fully or partially supported new commands: Challenge, Authenticate, ReadBuffer
- Supports Read commands with a WordCount set to zero

Reader Performance Tester

The application can be opened to view results, also if no RFID Xplorer is connected
Update the success rate graph in run-time
New graph to display the measured reader power and the backscatter power over time

General

Option to select working directory

Release: Build_180627

Tag Conformance Tester

Improvements of the Automation
- New option to apply mandatory BLF settings only
- Update of the XML report. The number of passed, failed and inconclusive test results is written to the report header
- Improved handling of tag replies with a strong link frequency offset

Release: Build_180920

Tag Performance Tester

Option to highlight the ETSI + FCC bands within the frequency sweep graph
Show additional information (ERP) of TX power in Reference Reader settings

Sniffer and Tag Emulator

Re-design of the main graph:
- Overview graph added, in which the complete signal is shown
- Zooming in main graph using the mouse wheel
New option to trigger the Sniffer by an external signal on GPIO pin 2
Improved handling of graph updates while sniffing in case of detection of low PC performance
Improvement of the Tag Emulator
- Supports of target states A/B. The user has an option to configure the Tag Emulator to ignore the parameter Target of the Query command
- Supports Read commands with a WordCount set to zero

Reader Performance Tester

New comment field for sensitivity result plots

API

Support loading of *.xpl setting files into API XML converter

Year 2017

Release: Build_170515

Tag Performance Tester

Speed improvement of the inventory algorithm
Add option for contacted measurement. If the option is selected, the path loss and the calibration data are not considered in the results
Unused controls in advanced command settings are now disabled. Only the controls which are supported by the selected command are enabled
Change the location of the calibration file. Request user to select calibration file or start a new calibration before starting the first measurement.
Backscatter measurement: RBW set to 3 kHz, higher of the two sidebands used as result
Backscatter power intensity graph display improvement.

Tag Conformance Tester

Advanced formatting of tag responses

Reader Performance Tester

New graph: Success rate graph

Release: Build_170918

Tag Performance Tester

Receiver sensitivity improvement
Added additional command sequences
Added predefined setting files
New context menu function to enable/disable all plots of a graph

Tag Conformance Tester

Added additional command sequences
Added predefined setting files

Reader Performance Tester

New context menu function to enable/disable all plots of a graph
New function to obtain the sensitivity results from the average of multiple measurements
New sweep: BLF sweep

Release: Build_171003

Tag Conformance Tester

Improvements of the Automation
- Update of the ISO/IEC 29167-10 test sequence to comply with updates of the protocol.
  - Support of CMAC Authentication for ISO/IEC 29167-10
  - New test sequence (RFID Tag Test_Gen2 DUT Configuration Utility) for automated DUT configuration.

Year 2016

Release: Build_160125

Tag Performance Tester

Improvement of calibration
Faster inventory of tag population
Introduction of a new tag performance metric: “Operating range”

Release: Build_160809

Tag Performance Tester

New result format: XML file
New function to calculate the average of multiple plots
New function to create tag radiation patterns out of multiple frequency sweeps measured at various angles
Saving of graphs as pictures and exporting data to Excel and clipboard

Tag Conformance Tester

New GUI with well-arranged menu bar to support easier handling
Option to save and load settings

Sniffer and Tag Emulator

Extended with Tag Emulation function to emulate UHF RFID tags with user-defined behavior in order to analyze, verify and optimize RFID system installations or individual RFID readers
Improvement of the receiver sensitivity
Option to Save and Load System Settings
Function to export the content of the command list to the clipboard
Option to save graphs as pictures

Reader Performance Tester

First Release

Release: Build_161219

Tag Performance Tester

Support SSB-ASK and PR-ASK modulation
Auto saving of measurement results

Tag Conformance Tester

Support SSB-ASK and PR-ASK modulation
Improved Duty Cycle and Link Frequency measurement algorithm
Improved T1 and T2 timing measurements

Sniffer and Tag Emulator

Improvement of the tag response detectot and the response decoder
New result parameter: T4 link time
Extension with automated gain control (AGC) of the receiver
Improved response detector and response decoder
Improvement of the Tag Emulator
- Support of the Lock command
- Multiple Tags

Year 2015

Release: Build 150205

Tag Performance Tester

Major GUI re-design
- Better overview of the settings, results and measurement flow
- Easier handling of command settings
- Graphs scaling with resizable application window
Option to save and load settings
Speed improvement of Frequency Sweep and Orientation Sweep
Support of Gen2V2 commands (Untraceable, Authenitcate, ReadBuffer, …)

Tag Conformance Tester

Support of Gen2V2 commands (Untraceable, Authenticate, ReadBuffer, …)
Support of the ISO/IEC 29167-10 (AES) Crypto Suite

Release: Build 151202

Sniffer

Major GUI re-design
- Better overview of the settings and results
- Easier handling
- Better representation of command and response details
New function to analyze streamed records