RFID Interference with Hospital Equipment

1
RFID Interference with Hospital Equipment

• Alex Adams
• Jason Cordero
• Eric Faust
• ECE4007 - L03

2
Overview

• Premise based on JAMA article
• Project intended to test a shielding method
  against EMI
• Began by testing for EMI
• Results made shielding testing difficult to
  perform

3
Experiment Design

• Testing intended to establish baseline
• Two phases
• Preliminary determine need
• Incremental detailed data points

4
Proposed Preliminary Test

• Test close proximity between readers and
  equipment
• Determine need for further testing
• Display maximum interference

5
Proposed Incremental Test

• Test necessary faces
• Describe level of interference at each position
• Test multiple layers

0.5 m
6
Performed Experiment

• Held closely to preliminary
• Changed proposed incremental to meet ANSI C63.18
  standards
• Did not perform full incremental (lack of need)?

7
Changed Incremental Test

• Reader connected to DUT with string
• Initial distance selected from preliminary test
  plus 10cm
• Decreased in 5cm intervals

8
Experimental Results

• Preliminary test performed on six devices
• Critical function loss required to fail
  preliminary test
• Only noted EMI occurred in Ohmeda RGM 5250
• Speaker buzzed
• No effect on critical functions

9
Design Possibilities

• Shielding fabric not tested, but still plausible
• LF emissions from RF burst pattern possible other
  source
• Burst shaping solution
• Filtering solution

10
Conclusions

• Not extensive study
• Still indicates plausibility of safe
  implementation
• Results suggest previous study flawed
• Different UHF frequency from US
• Different result on identical model of equipment