Abstract

An active electrostatic transceiver is provided that has electrostatic electrodes, an energy storage means such as a battery and a transceiver circuit for communication within an electrostatic RFID communication system. The transceiver circuit includes power management features so that the energy storage means is not quickly depleted. Additionally the transceiver circuit includes amplifiers and filters so that the read range is further increased and noise sources are better filtered out. In a first embodiment, the transceiver circuit has a clock extractor that extracts a clock from the incoming data signal such that the clock and the data signal are synchronized so that demodulating the data from the data signal is simplified. In a second embodiment, the transceiver circuit has its own clock generator for initiating transmission of signals so that a reader need not have an exciter to generate an excitation signal. Each embodiment of the transceiver circuit has power management features so that power is conserved. Additionally, each transceiver circuit has the ability to operate in a passive mode, when there is insufficient charge in the energy storage means or a lower power mode is desirable.