Scalable Near-field Fed Far-field UHF RFID Reader Antenna for Retail Checkout Counters

Abstract

This paper presents a scalable ultra-high-frequency (UHF) radio frequency identification (RFID) reader antenna for retail checkout counters. The antenna’s simultaneous near-field and far-field operation enable effortless and reliable asset identification. Two meandered microstrip lines that are 90°-of-phase form the near-field antenna rim around a far-field patch antenna. The patch antenna is fed by those meandered lines along the vertices on its orthogonal points, resulting in circular polarization. The near-field radiation is evenly distributed with no surface dead zones, and the far-field radiation pattern is symmetrical with a 90° half-power beam-width in both azimuth and elevation planes. The antenna operates in the North American UHF RFID band (902–928 MHz) with a 50 MHz impedance bandwidth. The antenna’s gain and axial ratio at the band’s center frequency of 915 MHz is 3.3 dBi, and 1.4 dB, respectively. This antenna is low-profile, low-cost and recyclable as it is constructed from polyolefin substrate and copper foils.