Application Of Radio Frequency Identification Tags Research Articles

Environmentally Friendly, Semi-transparent, Screen Printed Antenna for RFID Tag Applications

Wireless communication employing radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags is progressively more widespread in a variety of industrial and commercial sectors. Aspects as demanding specific needs regarding reading distance, production cost, and processability are requested for commercial applications. Nowadays, printing of optical barcodes is the most economically technology for short distance (up to ~30 cm) reading applications. However, the large-scale and low-cost printing of RFID tags would be a competitive alternative to barcode technology because it allows quicker identification with much less reading errors. Here we demonstrate a semi-transparent, screen printed RFID antennas using a non-metallic and environmentally friendly conductive paste. The variation of the film thickness (from 2.5 up to 15 µm) permitted the fabrication of antennas with reading range (0.84–3.29 m), sheet resistance (6.2–36 Ω/sq), and optical transmittance (0–32.3%), which are compatible to commercial or industrial applications aiming short to moderate reading distances.

Linearly tapered meander line cross dipole circularly polarized antenna for UHF RFID tag applications

In this article, a circularly polarized antenna for ultra-high frequency radio frequency identification (RFID) tag is presented. The circular polarization is realized by two orthogonal, unequal length linearly tapered meander line cross dipoles. The meander structure with capacitive tip loading is used for size miniaturization of the antenna. A modified T-match network is employed to feed the cross dipole structure. The measured 10-dB return loss bandwidth of the cross dipole antenna is 17 MHz (908-923 MHz) and the corresponding 3-dB axial ratio bandwidth is 6 MHz (912-918 MHz). The overall size of the proposed antenna is 0.17λ0 × 0.17λ0 at 915 MHz. The maximum read range between the reader and the tag with the proposed antenna is 4.7 m larger than the analogous linearly polarized tag antenna due to the reduction in polarization loss between the tag and reader antennas. Thus, a maximum read range of 15.66 m with the gain of 1.28 dBic is achieved at 915 MHz.

Application of Gbest-guided artificial bee colony algorithm to passive UHF RFID tag design

In this paper, new planar spiral antennas with meander lines and loads for passive Radiofrequency identification tag application at ultra-high-frequency band are designed and optimized using the global best (gbest)-guided Artificial Bee Colony (GABC) algorithm. The GABC is an improved Artificial Bee Colony algorithm, which includes gbest solution information into the search equation to improve the exploitation. The optimization goals are antenna size minimization, gain maximization, and conjugate matching. The antenna dimensions were optimized and evaluated in conjunction with commercial software FEKO. GABC is compared with other popular algorithms. The optimization results produced show that GABC is a powerful optimization algorithm that can be efficiently applied to tag antenna design problems.

Nanowatt-Scale Power Management for On-Chip Photovoltaic Energy Harvesting Beacons

A power-management architecture is presented for bulk-CMOS indoor beacons powered by on-chip photovoltaic energy conversion and storage. The extremely restrictive power and form-factor constraints of indoor operation are met by adopting an asynchronous transmit-only functionality, a distributed power-supply network of dual-supply converters, and a minimalist approach at the topological level of design. Architectural functionality is demonstrated on a radio-frequency identification tag application integrated in a 0.18- μm CMOS technology with deep n-well option. Load voltage is boosted to 1.9 V, stored across a 240-pF on-chip capacitor, and let drop by 0.6 V to release 230-pJ energy for transmitting a 16-bit codeword in each beacon interval. The measured value of beacon interval is 2.7 s at the lower limit 20 μW/cm 2 of indoor irradiance, and 25.6 ms at the higher limit 2 mW/cm 2 . The electrical power consumed in the entire system varies from less than 2 nW to 250 nW between these limits. Duty cycle of transmission is relatively insensitive to irradiance, and remains below 0.2% over the entire range. Storage-capacitor and converter footprints are 0.07 mm 2 and 0.35 mm 2 , respectively. Upgrading to 64-b codeword and 920-nJ transmission energy quadruples the footprint of the capacitor and triples that of the converters.

A Miniature Antenna for 2.45 GHz RFID Tag

On the basic of fractal theory and folded technique, a miniature antenna for 2.45 GHz radio frequency identification (RFID) tag applications is designed and analyzed in the present paper. In order to realize the miniaturization of tag antenna, a Hilbert fractal structure is used. Impedance matching between antenna and IC chip is of great importance for improving tag performances. A folded technique is employed to achieve impedance matching flexibly. The value of input impedance of tag antenna can be varied readily only by tuning the high of folded line. The dimensions for the designed tag antenna at 2.45GHz are 23.32mm×7.66mm, and its return loss, bandwidth, and gain are analyzed by HFSS. The detection distance is estimated by Friis transfer theory. Analysis results demonstrate that the tag antenna designed in this paper may satisfy the requirements of RFID tag applications.

Two Layered Embedded Encryption for Multiple Frequency RFID Tags

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is an automatic identification system. The data storage and retrieval on special devices are carried by RFID tags or transponders. RFID tag applications include enterprise supply chain management to improve the efficiency of inventory tracking and management. These replace bar codes and other low cost remote sensors earlier in use.

Application of PUF-Enabled RFID Tags in Electronic Banking

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags have a variety of applications in e-banking. For effective utilization of the technology, this should be reinforced toward security holes and attacks. One of the common attacks on RFID systems is RFID tags cloning. In this paper we review cloning attacks in ebanking. We propose solutions based on physical unclonable functions (PUF) and provide a suitable security protocol for tag authentication in off-line environments.

Radio-Frequency Identification and Human Tagging

Technological innovation continually shifts boundaries of possibilities and at the same time challenges ethical dimensions. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology challenges both what is possible and what is ethical. On this basis, this paper incorporates an analysis of RFID development and provides penetrating insight concerning the ethical issues society faces and will face. Attention is given to the burgeoning and challenging field of human-centred RFID technology and its impact on the individual’s privacy, safety, civil liberty and on society in general. The paper briefly outlines the history of RFID and identifies three broad themes concerning the application of RFID tags for the purpose of human “branding”. In particular, the social rights impact of implants in humans, the potential and actual damage of implants to the physical health of the person, and the ownership, use and miss-use of information collected through implant technology, act as the central themes. In conclusion, the authors identify the critical areas surrounding human branding that require research and public deliberation.