Electromagnetic Modeling of Self-Tuning RFID Sensor Antennas in Linear and Nonlinear Regimes

Abstract

Multistate chips for an UHF radio frequency identification ensure self-compensation of the variations in antenna impedance. This self-tuning capability can provide a digital information about the change in local boundary conditions within the vicinity of the tag. This feature can be exploited further for low-cost wireless sensing applications. An electromagnetic model of the tag in linear and nonlinear regimes allows prediction of analog and digital responses of the device depending on the boundary conditions that cause the variation of the antenna impedance and/or gain. In addition, the model provides estimation of the degradation in communication performance of the tag due to imperfect retuning of the chip impedance. The theoretical findings of the model are verified in sensing applications using a reference self-tuning tag. Sensing measurements of liquid compounds in linear regime and of the water-filling level of a box in nonlinear regime are demonstrated as a practical application of the proposed mathematical model.