High gain long‐read range AMC‐backed tag antenna for european UHF RFID applications

Abstract

ABSTRACTA high gain long‐read range metamaterial tag antenna for European UHF RFID applications is proposed and analyzed. It consists of a meander dipole tag antenna backed by a spiral shaped artificial magnetic conductor to increase the tag gain and hence its reading distance. A realized gain of 6.39 dB is achieved, with a total efficiency of 90% at 868 MHz. The overall structure size is (0.59λ0 mm × 0.289 λ0 mm × 0.065 λ0 mm). Three measurement scenarios are considered: in an anechoic chamber, laboratory corridor, and outdoor. A maximum reading range of 35 m is achieved outdoor and up to 46 m in corridor with no degradation when mounted onto a metal sheet. Moreover, the minimum activation power of the tag when attached to the metal surface is half the one when mounted alone. Furthermore, the via‐less structure is low cost and easy to fabricate. It is suitable for applications where the tag profile is not a critical parameter such as moving vehicles, road tolls, railroad cars, parking garages, aircraft, and cargo containers. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 58:2944–2948, 2016