Radio Frequency Identification Antenna Research Articles

Novel printed passive ultra high frequency radio frequency identification antenna using meander technique

<p>In this paper, a novel radio frequency identification (RFID) antenna using a meander technique associated with a slotted patch is studied for RFID applications in the ultra high frequency (UHF) band [867.5-868 MHz]. The proposed RFID antenna is designed on a Kapton substrate with dielectric constant 3.5 and loss of 0.0027. It consists of two opposite meander line antennas of 8 turns each one and interconnected to ALIEH H3 microchip associated to two slotted patch’s with a global size 105×25×0.1 mm<sup>3</sup>. The proposed RFID antenna is designed and simulated using CST MWS as an electromagnetic solver. The results of the simulation show a return loss of -22.64 dB at 868 MHz, a reading distance of around 5 m, and a simulated input impedance of the antenna are 31.72+j109.68 Ω at the operating frequency 868 MHz.</p>

Quantitative Experimental Evaluation of RFID Propagation Loss with Wooden and Metal Bookshelves

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is wireless multimedia applications for bookshelves experimental system to replace the barcodes media technology. The RFID propagation channel characteristics and environment effect should be known. In this study to evaluate the RFID propagation loss with wooden and metal bookshelves based on data of measurement. Experimental study evaluation of RFID multimedia system with bookshelves is using vector network analyzer (VNA) and the microstrip patch antennas of transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx) antennas at a frequency range from 2.4 GHz to 2.5 GHz. The results of experiment are considering the path loss, received signal strength (RSS), and comparison the path loss differences with cumulative distribution function (CDF) to evaluated, respectively. In this research work are necessary for RFID antenna design and evaluate the RFID multimedia systems.

Multilayer Smart Holographic Label with Integrated RFID for Product Security and Monitoring

Counterfeiting presents a major economic problem and an important risk for the public health and safety of individuals and countries. To make the counterfeiting process more difficult, and to ensure efficient authentication, a solution would be to attach anti-counterfeit labels that include a radio frequency identification (RFID) element to the products. This can allow real-time quality check along the entire supply chain. In this paper we present the technology optimized to obtain a multilayer holographic label with a high degree of security, patterned on a thin zinc sulfide film of a semi-transparent holographic foil rather than on the standard substrate for diffractive optical elements (metallized foil). The label is applied onto the product surface or packaging for anti-counterfeit protection. The developed multilayer structure contains various elements such as: a holographic background, nanotext-type elements, holographic elements, and an RFID antenna. The employed semi-transparent holographic foil offers the RFID antenna the possibility to transmit the electromagnetic signal through the label and thus to maximize the antenna footprint, achieving up to 10 m reading distance, with a 6 cm × 6 cm label, much smaller than the commercial standard (minimum 10 cm × 10 cm).

Loss of individualized behavioral trajectories in adult neurogenesis-deficient cyclin D2 knockout mice.

There is still limited mechanistic insight into how the interaction of individuals with their environment results in the emergence of individuality in behavior and brain structure. Nevertheless, the idea that personal activity shapes the brain is implicit in strategies for healthy cognitive aging as well as in the idea that individuality is reflected in the brain's connectome. We have shown that even isogenic mice kept in a shared enriched environment (ENR) developed divergent and stable social and exploratory trajectories. As these trajectories-measured as roaming entropy (RE)-positively correlated with adult hippocampal neurogenesis, we hypothesized that a feedback between behavioral activity and adult hippocampal neurogenesis might be a causal factor in brain individualization. We used cyclin D2 knockout mice with constitutively extremely low levels of adult hippocampal neurogenesis and their wild-type littermates. We housed them for 3 months in a novel ENR paradigm, consisting of 70 connected cages equipped with radio frequency identification antennae for longitudinal tracking. Cognitive performance was evaluated in the Morris Water Maze task (MWM). With immunohistochemistry we confirmed that adult neurogenesis correlated with RE in both genotypes and that D2 knockout mice had the expected impaired performance in the reversal phase of the MWM. But whereas the wild-type animals developed stable exploratory trajectories with increasing variance, correlating with adult neurogenesis, this individualizing phenotype was absent in D2 knockout mice. Here the behaviors started out more random and revealed less habituation and low variance. Together, these findings suggest that adult neurogenesis contributes to experience-dependent brain individualization.

Copper nanoparticle conductive patterns fabricated by thermal sintering using carboxylic acid vapors and their application for radio-frequency identification antennas

Copper nanoparticle conductive patterns fabricated by thermal sintering using carboxylic acid vapors and their application for radio-frequency identification antennas

Design and analysis of broadband circularly polarized compact planar antennas for 2.45 GHz RFID handheld reader applications

AbstractIn this article, an innovative design of a broadband circularly polarized compact planar antenna for RFID (radio frequency identification) receivers is presented. The suggested structure used the concept of slots loaded parasitic element printed underneath a coplanar waveguide-fed radiator to achieve the circularly polarized (CP) radiation and size reduction. A parasitic element loaded with F-slot and L-slot, and a window-type slotted ground plane was used to achieve resonance at 2.45 GHz with right-handed circularly polarized radiation for RFID handheld reader application. Experimental results confirmed that the designed antenna of size 16.5 × 14.8 × 1.6 mm3 attained a −10 dB impedance bandwidth of 15.8% (from 2.330 to 2.716 GHz) and 3 dB AR bandwidth of 3.43% (from 2.410 to 2.494 GHz). An axial ratio of 0.43 dB was achieved in the boresight of the antenna at the 2.45 GHz RFID band. The concept of electric field distribution on the antenna was used to elaborate the excitation of CP radiation in the antenna.

Patterned Ag/PI RFID Tag Integrated with Humidity Sensing by In Situ Metallization.

This article presents a cost-efficient flexible chipless radio frequency identification (RFID) tag with wireless humidity sensing, which is fabricated by in situ metallization and inkjet printing techniques. The inkjet printing technique is applied to print the mask for RFID antenna, which is designed with frequency-encoding simulation by a high-frequency structure simulator (HFSS). A high-quality patterned Ag antenna is realized by the in situ metallization of a polyimide (PI) film, leading to strong adhesion between the Ag antenna and PI substrate. The patterned Ag antenna of the chipless RFID tag consists three parallel dipole resonators, one of which is sensitive to humidity, while the other two are utilized to encode and store data. As a result, a 2-bit chipless RFID with high humidity sensitivity based on a Ag/PI film is developed, which displays excellent flexibility and good mechanical stability. The performance of the fabricated tag shows good agreement with the simulation results. Moreover, the tag is applied to detect the water source, where the resonance frequency shows good linearity versus the distance to the water source. These results demonstrate that the proposed chipless RFID tag with humidity sensing has a 2-bit storage capacity, high humidity sensitivity, excellent mechanical properties, and long-term stability, confirming a cost-efficient preparation process for flexible electronics.

A drawer‐conformal radio‐frequency identification antenna with vertically polarised quasi‐endfire radiation

A radio-frequency identification antenna with a quasi-endfire radiation beam and a vertical polarisation is presented. A size-reduced magnetic dipole is used as the radiation source whose radiating waves are restricted by a dual-layer metasurface to propagate along the horizontal direction and result in an endfire pattern. Two vertical metal plates are placed at both ends to induce magnetic currents to realise the vertical polarisation. Based on the near-field power analysis, the proposed metasurface-covered endfire antenna, which is conformal to fit compactly into a drawer with little influence on the storage space, can be used for smart home and smart library systems, such as intelligent storage and reading.

Robust RFID tag design for reliable communication within the Internet of Things

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a cost-effective method to support the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and is an enabling technology for Industry 5.0. The use of RFID is particularly suited to IIoT as it does not require a line of sight for communication and can be retroactively affixed to non-smart items. However, RFID communication is affected by the properties of the material the tag is affixed to, specifically the material permittivity. Metal is commonly present in smart factory environments and supply chains and impedes RFID communication. A suitable tag design is required to accommodate these challenges and ensure resilience for Industry 5.0 applications. The research presented in this paper has assessed the communication performance of RFID antenna designs with and without metal present beneath the tag. The RFID tag designs that performed reliably in the simulation were manufactured, and their read range was tested on materials of varying relative permittivity and thickness to represent MP and NMP scenarios. The results have verified the robustness of “Cyber” to “Physical” designs and provide recommendations to support practitioner IIoT tag selection.

Water-based combifuge ink with unique tamper-evident features for anti-counterfeiting applications

Unique characteristics of pigments in printing inks are essential in achieving multi-level security features in genuine articles to combat counterfeiting. This study reports the synthesis and characterisation of 6-bromo-5-hydroxy-2-(2-hydroxyethyl)-1H-benzo[de]isoquinoline-1,3(2H)-dione (BHENA) as a biocompatible and thermally stable pigment with attractive features for anti-counterfeiting application. A water-based stable ink was formulated using BHENA pigment and printed on security paper using flexography technique. The homogeneous pale-yellow print dried fast, and displayed good rub-resistance as well as light-fastness. The print proofs demonstrated captivating fluorescence responses upon exposure to different solvents and sodium hydroxide, when viewed under 365 nm ultraviolet (UV) light source, which could provide clear evidence for document tampering. Moreover, a remarkable penetrating fluorescence that show through the rear side of the print can be a novel add-on security feature. The combifuge eco-friendly luminescent ink can thus impart robust tamper-evident security features, especially penetrating UV fluorescence even with minimal pigment concentration, in cheques, legal or confidential documents, certificates, merchandise and electronic barcodes to avoid duplication or sale of fake products. Further, the electrical features and surface morphology analysis of the prints advocate the suitability of formulated water-based ink to achieve low-voltage-driven organic thin-film transistors on security documents and banknotes for anti-forgery applications. Furthermore, an ultra-high frequency organic- Radio frequency identification antenna resonating at 1.03 GHz has been designed and simulated as yet another anti-counterfeiting solution. The antenna has the advantage of compact size, better impedance matching and suitable radiation characteristics, thereby making it as a very competitive candidate for appropriate applications.

Effects of Stitch Density, Thread Tension and Using Conductive Yarn as Upper or Lower Thread on Reading Performance of Embroidered RFID Tag Antennas

Textile-based Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags are widely used in different applications such as sensing, localization, and identification applications. Embroidery is one of the methods in textile-based RFID tag production. The embroidered RFID tags are generally used in the follow-up of textile raw material production and inventory, and laundry of commercial textiles. They capture the transmitted electromagnetic wave and generate a new one with a special coding that includes the required information about the item. Therefore, the fabrication parameters of the embroidered antennas are important in terms of durability, cost, and working performance. The conductivity of an embroidered antenna depends on the conductivity of the thread, stitch density, thread tension, and sewing method of the embroidery. In this study, the effect of stitch density, thread tension, and using conductive yarn as needle (upper) or bobbin (lower) thread for embroidered RFID antennas were examined using a polyester yarn twisted with stainless steel that is plain stitched on cotton fabric. The read range performances of the samples were tested with an integrated circuit (IC) by using an indoor RFID reader. It was seen that the optimised stitch density has a significant impact while it was determining the amount of conductive element due to the length of the yarn. Additionally, using conductive yarn as lower thread gave nearly 50% better results in signal strengths.

An optically transparent circularly polarized ultrahigh‐frequency radio frequency identification reader antenna

An optically transparent circularly polarized (CP) radio frequency identification (RFID) antenna is presented in this paper. The RFID antenna consists of a coplanar-fed waveguide inverted L-shaped monopole with a dual feeding structure. The CP wave with a bidirectional radiation pattern is obtained by feeding the radiator at both ends. The transparency of the antenna is obtained by using fluorine tin oxide (FTO) coated soda-lime glass substrate. The proposed antenna operates at a Universal RFID frequency (800–1100 MHz) with circular polarization. The antenna has an impedance bandwidth of 300 MHz and an overlapped 3-dB axial ratio (AR) bandwidth of 110 MHz (860–970 MHz, 12% centered at 915 MHz). It has a peak realized gain of 1.4 dBic. The antenna with the size of 100 × 100 mm2 is designed for ultrahigh-frequency RFID reader applications.

Evaluating the foraging performance of individual honey bees in different environments with automated field RFID systems

AbstractMeasuring individual foraging performance of pollinators is crucial to guide environmental policies that aim at enhancing pollinator health and pollination services. Automated systems have been developed to track the activity of individual honey bees, but their deployment is extremely challenging. This has limited the assessment of individual foraging performance in full‐strength bee colonies in the field. Most studies available to date have been constrained to use downsized bee colonies located in urban and suburban areas. Environmental policy‐making, on the other hand, needs a more comprehensive assessment of honey bee performance in a broader range of environments, including in remote agricultural and wild areas. Here, we detail a new autonomous field method to record high‐quality data on the flight ontogeny and foraging performance of honey bees, using radio frequency identification (RFID). We separate bee traffic into returning and exiting tunnels to improve data quality solving many previous limitations of RFID systems caused by traffic jams and the parasitic coupling of RFID antennae. With this method, we assembled a large RFID dataset made of control bee colonies from experiments conducted in different locations and seasons. We hope our results will be a starting point to understand how ontogenetic and environmental factors affect the individual performance of honey bees and that our method will enable large‐scale replication of individual pollinator performance studies.

CuCl2-doped graphene-based screen printing conductive inks

The preparation of graphene-based conductive inks and their application in the field of flexible electronics have been extensively studied. However, improving the conductivity of the printed patterns always induces the neglect of the rheological properties of the graphene-based conductive inks or the mechanical properties of the as-printed patterns. In this study, the p-type doping of graphene with CuCl2 as the dopant is realized through liquid phase reaction, and the doped graphene powders are used to prepare the graphene-based conductive inks with a conductivity of 3.13 × 104 S m−1. Subsequently, to simplify the preparation of inks, CuCl2 is directly added into the graphene-based conductive inks, achieving the p-type doped graphene ink with the conductivity of 3.64 × 104 S m−1. The read range of ultrahigh-frequency radio frequency identification antenna and the temperature of the flexible electrothermal film printed with the CuCl2-doped graphene-based conductive inks can reach 7.15 m and 200°C, respectively when the equivalent isotropically radiated power is equal to 4 W and the input power density is 0.94 W cm−2. Moreover, good rheological properties of the conductive inks and high mechanical properties of the printed patterns are also obtained.

Design of an Analog RFID-Based Tag Antenna with Opened Circuited L-Shaped Stubs for Applications in Localization

This paper presents a new analog design for a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag antenna with a long-read range oriented to localization applications. The actual work focuses on the analog input characterization of antenna impedance by studying the capacitive effect, created by the gaps, and the effect of the introduced opened circuited L-shaped stubs, on the RFID tag characteristics. Numerical and measured results confirm that proposed tag antenna performances are significantly improved by introducing gaps and stub structures and after optimizing their dimensions, such as length and width. The introduced stubs with optimum dimensions provide good impedance matching, and improved return loss values. Furthermore, two operating frequency bands have been created when the antenna is excited by a 50 Ω port: a low-frequency band around 837 MHz and a higher one around 927 MHz. These results have been validated by measured ones. The proposed RFID antenna is mainly composed of three split rectangular resonators (SRR) where introduced structures concern only the larger SRR. The optimized antenna has an area of 76 × 24.6 mm2 and is printed on the Taconic RF-60A substrate with a dielectric constant of 6.12, a thickness of 1.6 mm, and a loss tangent of 0.025. Simulation results show interesting communication performances, of the proposed tag antenna, with a return loss of −22.3 dB around 916 MHz and a long-read range up to 25 m when it is fed by an industrial Mping M730 chip with a power sensitivity of −24 dB and an output impedance Zchip = 16 − j194 (Ω) at 916 MHz

Near‐field radio frequency identification leaky‐wave antenna based on artificial transmission line

The artificial transmission line (ATL) has a good characteristic of wavelength shortening, which can effectively cut down the size of microwave devices. In this article, the near-field radio frequency identification antenna based on an ATL was proposed. It mainly includes the radiating unit structure on the upper layer and the feeding structure on the lower layer. The two layers are connected by copper pillars for feeding. The height of the copper pillars is 16 mm (h0), which can obtain the maximum bandwidth. The antenna unit based on ATL consists of three curved microstrip lines, two interdigital microstrip lines, and four open microstrip lines. The interdigital structure on the upper layer of the antenna unit mainly affects the resonant frequency of the antenna unit, and the asymmetric interdigital microstrip lines increase the impedance matching bandwidth of the antenna unit. Compared with previous antennas, the proposed antenna features a low profile, and a good miniaturization based on an ATL by bending inductance and interdigital capacitance. The leaky-wave characteristic makes the energy radiate at a certain angle on the surface of the antenna. The leaky-wave characteristic and circular polarization characteristic of the antenna achieve a uniform field distribution. The simulated and measured bandwidth cover from 0.78 to 1.1 GHz for |S11| less than −10 dB. More importantly, the antenna has a large recognition area. The measured results demonstrate that the proposed reader antenna has a 100% read rate in 400 × 350 × 400 mm3 area in the metal shelf.

A ROS Gazebo Plugin Design to Simulate RFID Systems

Simulation, robotics, and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology have significant roles in the new industrial revolution, and their application are key aspects of making Industry 4.0 a reality. Developing efficient use cases in Industry 4.0 almost always requires accurate simulation tools to be used in the digital world. The problem of simulating RFID readers for robotics in environments where high populations of RFID tags exist is addressed in this paper. This paper will discuss the design of an RFID system plugin based on Robot Operating System (ROS) and Gazebo simulator and the probability-based model on which the plugin is based. To assess the performance of the proposed system model, the simulation results of the designed plugin are compared with experiments. We also prove that the proposed simulator is flexible enough to be used on any robot platform, including aerial and ground robots. We show initial results of the simulation of having an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and a Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) equipped with an RFID reader, navigating in an environment in which RFID tags have been placed. The robots will be reading tags in different map layouts using RFID antennas, with different orientations. We compare the simulation and experimental results in terms of the total unique tag readings vs. time, for various map-layouts. Finally, we show how this plugin can be used in robotics research by using it to simulate a novel, RFID-based stigmergic navigation strategy. We illustrate, the accurate navigation of the UAV using the proposed plugin.

RFID Gazebo-Based Simulator With RSSI and Phase Signals for UHF Tags Localization and Tracking

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is becoming very popular in the new era of Industry 4.0, especially for warehouse management, retails, and logistics. RFID systems can be used for objects identification, localization, and tracking, facilitating everyday operators’ efforts. However, the deployment of RFID tags and reader antennas in real-world application scenarios is crucial and takes time. Indeed, deciding where to place tags and/or readers’ requires examining many conditions. If some weaknesses appear in the design, the arrangement must be reconsidered. The proposed work presents a novel open-source RFID simulator that allows modeling environments and testing the deployment of RFID tags and antennas apriori. In such a way, validating the performance of the localization or tracking algorithms in simulation, possible weaknesses that could arise may be fixed before facilities are applied on the field. Any number of tags and antennas can be placed in any position in the created scenario, and the simulator provides the phase and the RSSI signals for each tag. Every reader antenna is parametrized so that different antennas of different vendors can be reproduced. The simulator is implemented as a plugin of Gazebo, a widely used robotic framework integrated with the Robot Operating System (ROS), to reach a broad audience. In order to validate the simulator, a warehouse scenario is modeled, and a tag localization algorithm that uses the phase unwrapping technique and hyperbolae intersection method employing a reader antenna mounted on a mobile robot is used to estimate the position of the tags deployed in the scenario. The outcomes of the experiments showed realistic results.

Graphene-Based RFID Tag Antenna for Vehicular Smart Border Passings

Globalization has opened practically every country in the globe to tourism and commerce today. In every region, the volume of vehicles traveling through border crossings has increased significantly. Smartcards and radio frequency identification (RFID) have been proposed as a new method of identifying and authenticating passengers, products, and vehicles. However, the usage of smartcards and RFID tag cards for vehicular border crossings continues to suffer security and flexibility challenges. Providing a vehicle's driver a smartcard or RFID tag card may result in theft, loss, counterfeit, imitation, or vehicle transmutation. RFID sticker tags would replace RFID tags as vehicle border passes to solve the mentioned problem. The RFID sticker tag adheres to the windscreen, side screen, dash, hood, or door of the vehicle, or any other acceptable location. Any damage or stripping from the installed location may cause data corruption and cannot be reused. Overall, these sticker tags will make the border crossings more secure and efficient. This article focuses on designing a rectangular-shaped RFID sticker tag antenna made of graphene sheets as a possible solution for smart border crossings. The proposed antenna is mathematically designed and analyzed with CST software to determine the optimum parameters. The design parameters are then used to create an antenna on a prepared graphene sheet. The performance results are carried out with CST software and a network analyzer. The designed RFID antenna stick on a car windscreen offers approximately 900 MHz bandwidth over the frequency range from 1.8 GHz to 2.7 GHz with an average gain of 1.23 dBi at the frequency to be used of 2.4 GHz microwave RFID band. The radiation is an omnidirectional pattern. The proposed graphene-sheet rectangular-shape monopole antenna is compact, low-cost, and bendable to fit into the windscreen of a car while retaining excellent wave propagation capabilities. These findings illustrate the suggested antenna's potential as an RFID tag antenna in a vehicular smart border pass system.

Laser-Induced Graphene, Fused Filament Fabrication, and Aerosol Jet Printing for Realizing Conductive Elements of UHF RFID Antennas

In this work, three promising Additive Manufacturing (AM)/3D-printing technologies, able to realize conductive elements, are adopted in the realization of antennas. The selected techniques are Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF), Aerosol Jet Printing (AJP), and Laser-Induced Graphene (LIG), which have been compared by measuring the performance of an ultrahigh (UHF) radiofrequency identification (RFID) tag, specifically designed, and realized for the scope. Results have also been analyzed against to data obtained by a reference sample realized in Aluminum. The FFF tag has been manufactured by extruding the Electrifi conductive filament over an ABS printed substrate, used also for the AJP-made antenna. Conversely, the LIG tag has been produced by laser-burning a Kapton polyimide sheet. All the tested technologies, each one with its pros and cons, allowed to realize working prototypes, even if, as expected, with performance lower than the comparison sample. An electroplating process has been also adopted to increase conductivity, with improvements in the FFF prototype. The obtained results are quite satisfactory. Those related to LIG technology do not yet guarantee performance comparable to the other techniques. Nevertheless, the prospect of creating “green” and cost-effective antennas pushes towards further studies, already underway, which include the study of antenna shapes more suitable for the specific technique as well as process optimizations to increase conductivity.