A Proposed Compact Broadband Meander Antenna for RFID Applications

Abstract

Radio Frequency Identification technology aims at identifying and tracking objects labeled with tags. To achieve this goal, the need for antennas with certain characteristics and specifications becomes of great importance. In this research work, a proposed compact broadband meander antenna for Radio Frequency Identification Applications is presented. In the proposed model of the antenna, the inductive strips are bent to generate capacitive effects between them. To achieve an acceptable impedance matching at a frequency of 876MHz between the antenna and the receiving microchip of model “NXP UCODE G2XL”, shorting lines created along the antenna structure together with a T-shaped matching circuit are used. This proposed design of the antenna results in a compact size antenna (75×25×1.6mm3) with a resonance frequency that lies in theEuropean band of 867MHz, and it has an input impedance of Z = 16 - j156 Ω. The antenna is made from copper strip with a thickness of 35 μm and fabricated on an FR4 epoxy substrate with a thickness of 1.6 mm. This paper presents the proposed antenna simulation results performed in various situations and conditions. The antenna performance is investigated in terms of various aspects such as gain, radiation pattern, return loss, and input impedance.