Ultra High Frequency Radio Frequency Identification Research Articles

RFID Unpacked: A Case Study in Employing RFID Tags from Item to Pallet Level

As the use of passive ultra-high frequency (UHF) radio frequency identification (RFID) tags continues to surge in supply chain management, it becomes crucial to optimize their application at various levels of packaging to ensure reliability. These packaging levels play a pivotal role in achieving maximum readability and widespread adoption within the industry. This research paper aims to determine the most suitable passive UHF RFID tag for consumer goods filled with liquid and wrapped in foil packaging. In this study, two distinct RFID tags from separate manufacturers were evaluated. The research focused on critical factors such as reader height, distance, and item configuration across different packaging levels (item, case, and pallet). The results demonstrated that the packaging configuration impacts the readability of RFID tags at each packaging level. Through rigorous testing, it was found that achieving a tag readability rate higher than 99.7% is feasible and readability can be optimized by adjusting the reader position, packaging configuration, and tag design. The optimized configuration and testing platform developed in this study can be used for comparable products in other supply chains such as consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, and food. The results of this study emphasize RFID’s potential to revolutionize supply chain management.

Metasurface loaded twin-port microstrip antenna with circular polarization features for UHF RFID applications

Abstract This communication designs and investigates a twin-port microstrip antenna loaded with a metasurface (MS). The proposed MS works in two ways: (i) artificial ground plane for radiator and (ii) as an ideal absorber of normal incoming waves at the same time. A stair shaped slot is loaded on rectangular patch for creating circularly polarized wave in between 835–894 MHz. Antenna port slots oriented in a mirror manner increase isolation by 25 dB. To act as a validation tool, the suggested antenna was built and its executions in individually operating modes evaluated by statistical and experimental analysis. It is shown that combining the patch and absorber results in a well-matched antenna in between 710–980 MHz with improved gain (more than 3.0 dBi). The proposed antenna design effectively used for UHF (Ultra High Frequency)radio-frequency identification (RFID) applications, which is due to its ability to mitigate multipath reflection issues and incorrectRFID reading.

Transparent RFID tag wall enabled by artificial intelligence for assisted living

Current approaches to activity-assisted living (AAL) are complex, expensive, and intrusive, which reduces their practicality and end user acceptance. However, emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and wireless communications offer new opportunities to enhance AAL systems. These improvements could potentially lower healthcare costs and reduce hospitalisations by enabling more effective identification, monitoring, and localisation of hazardous activities, ensuring rapid response to emergencies. In response to these challenges, this paper introduces the TransparentRFIDTag Wall (TRT-Wall), a novel system taht utilises a passive ultra-high frequency (UHF) radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag array combined with deep learning for contactless human activity monitoring. The TRT-Wall is tested on five distinct activities: sitting, standing, walking (in both directions), and no-activity. Experimental results demonstrate that the TRT-Wall distinguishes these activities with an impressive average accuracy of 95.6%\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$95.6\\%$$\\end{document} under four distinct distances (2, 2.5, 3.5 and 4.5 m) by capturing the RSSI and phase information. This suggests that our proposed contactless AAL system possesses significant potential to enhance elderly patient-assisted living.

Performance of a UHF RFID Detection System to Assess Activity Levels and Lying Behaviour in Fattening Bulls

Animal welfare strongly influences the health and performance of cattle and is an important factor for consumer acceptance. One parameter for the quantification of health status is the lying duration, which can be deployed for the early detection of possible production-related illnesses. Usually, 3D-accelerometers are the tool to detect lying duration in cattle, but the handling of bulls sometimes has special requirements because frequent manipulation in daily farming routines is often not possible. An ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) radio-frequency identification (RFID) system was installed in a beef cattle barn in Germany to measure the activity and lying time of bulls. Such UHF RFID systems are typically used for estrus detection in dairy cows via activity level, but can also be considered, for instance, as an early detection for lameness or other diseases. The aim of the study was to determine whether the estimations of activity level and lying duration can also be traced in husbandry systems for fattening bulls. Two groups of bulls (Uckermärker cattle, n = 10 and n = 13) of the same age were equipped with passive UHF RFID ear transponders. Three cameras were installed to proof the system and to observe the behaviour of the animals (standing, lying, and moving). Furthermore, accelerometers were attached to the hind legs of the bulls to validate their activity and lying durations measured by the RFID system in the recorded area. Over a period of 20 days, position (UHF RFID) and accelerometer data were recorded. Videos were recorded over a period of five days. The UHF RFID system showed an overall specificity of 95.9%, a sensitivity of 97.05%, and an accuracy of 98.45%. However, the comparison of the RFID and accelerometer data revealed residuals (ԑ) of median lying time (in minutes per day) for each group of ԑGroup1 = 51.78 min/d (p < 0.001), ԑGroup2 = −120.63 min/d (p < 0.001), and ԑGroup1+2 = −34.43 min/d (p < 0.001). In conclusion, UHF RFID systems can provide reliable activity and lying durations in 60 min intervals, but accelerometer data are more accurate.

Exploring the correlation between drug formulation and radio frequency performance in RFID-enabled pharmaceutical products

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a burgeoning technology pivotal for optimizing intricate supply chains. Although its potential benefits in healthcare and pharmaceuticals are substantial, RFID implementation in these sectors has been slow-moving. Surprisingly, limited research has probed RFID performance on pharmaceutical products and their packaging. This study aims to explore the influence of diverse liquid drug formulations on RFID performance, utilizing a pre-optimized Ultra High Frequency (UHF) RFID tag. Five distinct drug formulations, encompassing water, saline, and lipids, were studied, alongside deionized (DI) water and empty vials as control subjects. The products were transferred to separate vials, each affixed with a pre-optimized UHF RFID tag. Performance evaluations, including Threshold Sweep, Orientation Sweep, and Population Analysis, were conducted to assess tag readability, focusing on sensitivity, backscatter, and theoretical read range. The results underscore how the composition of different pharmaceutical drug formulations significantly impact RFID tag readability in a controlled, reflection-free environment. These findings provide valuable insights for designing intelligent packaging to enhance the readability of RFID-tagged pharmaceutical products.

Life cycle assessment of plastic and paper-based ultra high frequency RFID tags

The aim of the work is to assess the environmental impacts of Ultra High Frequency RFID tags. Through a Life Cycle Assessment approach, two case studies have been investigated, namely a standard plastic and a paper-based tags. Primary data on tags’ components, manufacturing and transportation were collected, while secondary data for the raw materials processing and tags’ end of life were retrieved. The Recipe Midpoint method was used to evaluate the impacts. Results show that, for both tags, the greatest contributions to global warming, terrestrial acidification, mineral and fossil resource scarcity are due to raw material extraction (more than 50%) and manufacturing phase (30–50%), which resulted impactful also on the ionizing radiation (70%). Interestingly, the paper tag allows to save up to 23% of the greenhouse gas emissions and decreases the impact on the above-mentioned categories, resulting the eco-friendly option. The conclusion of the work contributes to update the scientific literature, still poor in RFID environmental evaluations, and are useful for researchers interested in comparing the traditional handling systems’ impacts to the RFID scenario. Furthermore, the outcomes will be used as input for subsequent research, aimed at developing a tool to measure the return on the environment of RFID deployments.

Innovative Use of UHF-RFID Wireless Sensors for Monitoring Cultural Heritage Structures

This paper reports a novel investigation in applying commercial Ultra High-Frequency RFID tags (UHF-RFID tags), which are widely used in logistics as sensing elements in civil engineering structures, particularly for monitoring out-of-plane displacements of brick masonry walls. Both laboratory tests and in situ experimental tests assessed the feasibility of the proposed application. Laboratory tests showed a very satisfactory response while the in situ experiments showed a weaker response. Nevertheless, the potential reliability of the proposed technique can be stated. The authors traced back the causes of the performance decrease to environmental interference, mainly due to the extensive presence of a rigid steel frame surrounding the out-of-plane loaded panels. Measurements of displacements, in fact, are obtained indirectly from the phase of UHF-RFID signals that strongly suffer from multipath generated by metallic surfaces. Despite some limitations, the proposed measurement technique permits a reliable and sustainable approach to the monitoring of structures. The use of commercial UHF-RFID wireless tags, in fact, assures easy and fast installation operations and assures the possibility of placing a large number of sensors over the structure with very low maintenance costs with respect to the more traditional monitoring techniques. Moreover, using very thin and small commercial UHR-RFID tags on cultural heritage structures can represent an opportunity for sustainable long-time monitoring with reduced costs. Overall, the results of this study are sufficiently satisfactory to be considered as the opening of new possible scenarios in wireless structural monitoring in the civil engineering field. The authors propose as future work to use UHF-RFID tags for the real-time monitoring of an existing masonry facade that, not being characterized by the presence of a steel frame, can potentially assure an adequate response and properly transmit the electromagnetic signal.

RETRACTED: Contactless human activity and sport action identification based on UHF RFID tag wall and AI

The existing approaches to activity assisted living(AAL) are complex, expensive, and intrusive, which reduce theirpracticality and end-user acceptance. However, advancements inconcomitant technology, such as artificial intelligence and wirelesscommunications, can be leveraged to improvise advanced AALsystems that can reduce healthcare costs and hospitalisations. Such systems can identify, monitor, and localize hazardousactivities to respond swiftly to unforeseen events. To addressthese issues, we present a Transparent RFID Tag Wall (TRTWall) that utilizes a passive ultra-high frequency (UHF) arrayof radio frequency identification (RFID) tags and deep learningbasedpredictive analytics for contactless human physical activitymonitoring. Specifically, we consider five different activities thatinclude sitting, standing, walking (in both directions), and noactivity. Our experimental results demonstrate that TRT-Wallcan accurately differentiate among five distinct activities withan average accuracy is 95.6%. This suggests that our proposedcontactless AAL system possesses the significant potential toenhance elderly patient-assisted living.

Effect of Beverage Composition on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Performance Using Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Bottles for Smart Food Packaging Applications.

Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is crucial in revolutionizing the food supply chain and combating global food waste. However, this technology faces challenges in full integration due to disruptive effects on tags caused by the dielectric properties of food and beverage ingredients, chemical constituents, and their packaging. This paper aims to demonstrate the effect of packaging and beverage contents on RFID tag performance. Three commercially available ultra-high frequency (UHF) RFID tags with different designs were tested on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, measuring tag performance through sensitivity, backscatter, and read range in the presence of various water-based solutions and commercially available beverages. The results highlight the substantial impact of the beverage type and tag design on RFID performance. The results of this study showed that tag 3 was the most consistent and readable tag amongst those tested in the presence of different beverage contents. Tag 3 resulted in a sensitivity ranging from -0.49 to -2.01 dBm, backscatter from -38.16 to 43.59 dBm, and read range from 1.58 to 1.88 m, while tag 1 performed the best in the presence of an empty PET bottle resulting in a sensitivity of -20.78 dBm, backscatter of -23.65 dBm, and read range of 16.34 m. The results of this study can be used for further investigations to develop a mathematical model that predicts the RFID tag performance based on the food composition. This model will be helpful for the design of the tags while facilitating the adoption of smart packaging for food traceability.

Polycaprolactone‐Based Zinc Ink for High Conductivity Transient Printed Electronics and Antennas

AbstractDistributed sensors and electronics can be used in agriculture to optimize crop management and improve environmental outcomes. Electronic devices in these outdoor spaces require medium to long range (>1m) wireless communication of data over several weeks or months, which in turn requires high conductivity (1 × 105 Sm−1) antennas. Printed bioinert or ecoresorbable conductors, comprising carbon, magnesium, or zinc fillers, typically exhibit conductivity on the order of 10–1000 Sm−1 and lifetimes from a few hours to a few days. A print‐based fabrication process for chemically treated zinc traces, which achieves conductivity of up to 6 × 105 Sm−1 is reported here. The ink formulation uses a non‐water‐soluble soil biodegradable polycaprolactone binder. The ink and printing processes reported here led to stable conductive traces that are used in ultra high frequency radio frequency identification (UHF‐RFID) folded dipole antennas operating at 915 MHz. The conductivity of the printed traces is maintained for over 70 days in ambient environments when traces are protected by a biodegradable beeswax encapsulation layer.

Ultra-high Frequency RFID Tag Based on Functional Nanomaterials and Its Application in Smart Library

Ultra-high Frequency RFID Tag Based on Functional Nanomaterials and Its Application in Smart Library

Nature-inspired spider web shaped UHF RFID reader antenna for IoT and healthcare applications

This paper proposes a nature-inspired spider web-shaped ultra-high frequency (UHF) radio frequency identification (RFID) reader antenna and battery-free sensor-based system for healthcare applications. This antenna design consists of eight concentric decagons of various sizes and five straight microstrip lines.These lines are connected to the ground using 50 Omega resistors from both ends, except for one microstrip line that is reserved for connecting a feeding port. The reader antenna design features fairly strong and uniform electric and magnetic field characteristics. It also exhibits wideband characteristics, covering whole UHF RFID band (860–960 MHz) and providing a tag reading volume of 200 times 200 times 20 mm{^3}. Additionally, it has low gain characteristics, which are necessary for the majority of nearfield applications to prevent the misreading of other tags. Moreover, the current distribution in this design is symmetric throughout the structure, effectively resolving orientation sensitivity issues commonly encountered in low-cost linearly polarized tag antennas. The measurement results show that the reader antenna can read medicine pills tagged using low-cost passive/battery-free RFID tags, tagged expensive jewelry, intervenes solution, and blood bags positioned in various orientations. As a result, the proposed reader antenna-based system is a strong contender for near-field RFID, healthcare, and IoT applications.

Read Range Investigation of RFID Tag on Human Chest

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology for automatic identification, tracking, and monitoring of human is in great demand by the healthcare industry. The existence of passive tag with proximity to human body in general, represents an intrinsic challenge because of the high losses of body tissues A commercial passive ultra-high frequency (UHF) RFID tag with 860 MHz-960 MHz operating frequency range is modelled to study and analyze the effect on the read range parameter by placing the RFID tag in proximity to human body model (the chest) with respect to the placement of pocket position of any shirt The body model of the chest is consisting of three layers which are skin, fat and muscle. The commercial RFID tag that has been used for this study was INLAY-9662. The measurement is done on the commercial tag prior to modelling and simulation in the CST. Furthermore, the simulation was carried on two conditions: (1) in free-space, and (2) in proximity to human body. In addition, 1 mm, 3 mm and 10 mm have been set as the gap between the modelled tag and the chest model to examine the impacted read range at different distances. The results obtained have shown some variations when the distances are varied from the human chest. The read range were achieved at 0.5 m, 1.3 m and 2.4 m for 1 mm, 3 mm and 10 mm respectively. This study has shown the capabilities of human body to reduce the efficiency of the read range whenever RFID tags are placed in proximity to human body.

Evaluation of landfill leachate biodegradability using IOT through geotracking sensor based drone surveying

In specific this work focuses on designing and developing a trial model first of its kind which is chemically non reactive using Urea Formaldehyde (UF) and a value added flat board that is to be prepared from solid waste. The display setup is to be monitored by Arduino Controller which incorporates the assessment of numerical factors and measurable compositions in the board. The compilation of manufactured goods from organic waste is a course of development network that is centrally operated by Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tools. Preservation of database from the organic fraction is managed through software guidelines, the fifth generation radio technology with lower economic can cover communication over a larger radio spectrum with the support of ultra high frequency RFID Tags and systems, which assure the most favourable management of valuable products from the storage unit. Sensors attached with board and cloud platform supports collection of data from the huge solid waste yard. The current leachate management has a desire to suggest a strong resolution in handling solid waste that is elaborated with a novel methodology, where we suggest the radiofrequency identification of leachate monitoring by the use of modern versions of unmanned aerial vehicle the drones. At some stage in neutralizing the toxic waste the risk of life may be eliminated and accumulated waste were identified and with the support of advanced techniques and instruments like drones are used in managing wastes.

Review of Wireless RFID Strain Sensing Technology in Structural Health Monitoring.

Strain-based condition evaluation has garnered as a crucial method for the structural health monitoring (SHM) of large-scale engineering structures. The use of traditional wired strain sensors becomes tedious and time-consuming due to their complex wiring operation, more workload, and instrumentation cost to collect sufficient data for condition state evaluation, especially for large-scale engineering structures. The advent of wireless and passive RFID technologies with high efficiency and inexpensive hardware equipment has brought a new era of next-generation intelligent strain monitoring systems for engineering structures. Thus, this study systematically summarizes the recent research progress of cutting-edge RFID strain sensing technologies. Firstly, this study introduces the importance of structural health monitoring and strain sensing. Then, RFID technology is demonstrated including RFID technology's basic working principle and system component composition. Further, the design and application of various kinds of RFID strain sensors in SHM are presented including passive RFID strain sensing technology, active RFID strain sensing technology, semi-passive RFID strain sensing technology, Ultra High-frequency RFID strain sensing technology, chipless RFID strain sensing technology, and wireless strain sensing based on multi-sensory RFID system, etc., expounding their advantages, disadvantages, and application status. To the authors' knowledge, the study initially provides a systematic comprehensive review of a suite of RFID strain sensing technology that has been developed in recent years within the context of structural health monitoring.

Mechano- and solvato-fluorochromic chalcone and its water-based flexo-ink for anticounterfeit applications

Pigments with unique optical features are always sought after in realizing superior security features to protect authentic documents/products against forgery. The present study reports the synthesis of triphenylamine-naphthalene chalcone (TPA-NC) with fascinating optical features: solvato-fluorochromism, mechano-fluorochromism, and aggregation-induced emission. The flexo print obtained on UV dull paper using water-based eco-friendly UV fluorescent ink with TPA-NC as pigment displayed good adhesion, resistance to abrasion, light fastness, and favourable electrical parameter values, which could be well utilized in security documents and developing OTFTs in banknotes to prevent them from being forged. Moreover, the printed paper samples could impart superior features including solvent fugitiveness, penetrating fluorescence, and mechanical stimuli responsive variations in emission color for achieving multilevel security. The security ink prepared using the thermally stable and biocompatible TPA derivative could generate a robust platform for tamper-detection, validation of genuine documents/products and in marking technology. Moreover, an ultra-high radio frequency identification (RFID) antenna is designed to resonate at 2.35 GHz. The hybrid arrangement has steady radiation characteristics for electronic anticounterfeiting applications.

Secure UHF RFID Authentication With Smart Devices

Commodity ultra-high-frequency (UHF) RFID authentication systems only provide weak user authentication, as RFID tags can be easily stolen, lost, or cloned by attackers. This paper presents the design and evaluation of SmartRFID, a novel UHF RFID authentication system to promote commodity crypto-less UHF RFID tags for security-sensitive applications. SmartRFID explores extremely popular smart devices and requires a legitimate user to enroll his smart device along with his RFID tag. Besides authenticating the RFID tag as usual, SmartRFID verifies whether the user simultaneously possesses the associated smart device with both feature-based machine learning and deep learning techniques. The user is considered authentic if and only if passing the dual verifications. Comprehensive user experiments on commodity smartwatches and RFID devices confirmed the high security and usability of SmartRFID. In particular, SmartRFID achieves a true acceptance rate of above 97.5% and a false acceptance rate of less than 0.7% based on deep learning. In addition, SmartRFID can achieve an average authentication latency of less than 2.21 s, which is comparable to inputting a PIN on a door keypad or smartphone.

Circular Polarized Antenna with Rotationally Positioned Microstrip Structures For UHF RFID Applications

With the use of wireless communication and the industry 4.0 revolution, RFID technology integration in production has increased. The large-scale preference of RFID systems is both cost-effective and significantly increasing production. It is an innovation that provides convenience for large production facilities such as product control, in-plant tracking, storage, inventory operations. In this paper, a compact circularly polarized (CP) reader antenna is presented for ultra-high frequency (UHF) radio frequency identification (RFID) applications. The proposed antenna consists of a circularly slotted ground plane and folded plus-shaped structures with vertical and horizontal positions. Microstrip line feeding technique is used in the vertically folded plus-shaped structure positioned on the front surface. The antenna has a 10 dB return loss bandwidth of 80 MHz (840-920) and a 3 dB axial ratio bandwidth of 20 MHz (855-875). Theproposed antenna has dimensions of 75 × 75 × 1.6 mm3 . The size advantage of the single-layer and singlefed structure enables its applicability in portable systems.

Design of Meat Product Safety Information Chain Traceability System Based on UHF RFID.

As a result of the current imperfection of the meat traceability system, there have been numerous food safety events with serious consequences. In this paper, a meat product information traceability system is designed to efficiently prevent such problems. This system develops an identification tag information reader based on ultra-high frequency (UHF) Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). It is compatible with LoRa wireless, USB serial port, RS485, and RJ45 Ethernet connection. Among them, the efficiency analysis of the Q-value algorithm finds that the recognition rate of the system reaches a maximum of about 0.367 when the number of tags n is about the frame length. The multi-tag anti-collision algorithm design based on the algorithm improves the efficiency of information collection in production and distribution links. The traceability code identification scheme is designed to effectively match various links, and the platform of system is built using LabVIEW2014 software, which has five sub-modules including user management, farm management, slaughter management, logistics management, and sales management. The system uses MySQL databases to store traceability information so that users can complete their queries by entering the traceability code on the system platform. The system not only has a low cost and a broad range of applications, but it also realizes the tracking record of meat product traceability information from breeding to selling, completes the function from information collection to information inquiry, and solves the problem of the incomplete traceability information chain. In addition, the system not only enhances the informational transparency of meat products in the product supply chain but also provides information for the regulatory authorities to effectively monitor safety.

ESPAR array design for the UHF RFID wireless sensor communication system

SummaryIn this paper, in order to improve the received signal strength (RSS) and signal quality, three arrays of electronically steerable parasitic array radiator (ESPAR) antennas are suggested for the ultra‐high frequency (UHF) radio frequency identification (RFID) communication and sensing system applications. Instead of the single antenna, the array antennas have recently been widely used in many communication systems because of their peak gains, better radiation patterns, and higher radiation efficiency. Also, there are some important issues to use the antenna array like high data rates in wireless communication systems and to better understand the many targets or sensors. In this article, a wireless sensor network (WSN) is being investigated to overcome multipath fading and interference by antenna nulling technology that can be achieved through beam control ESPAR array antennas. The proposed ESPAR array antennas exhibit higher gains like 9.63, 10.2, and 12 dBi and proper radiation patterns from one array to another. Moreover, we investigate the mutual coupling effect on the performance of array antennas with different spacing (0.5λ, 0.75λ, λ) and configurations. It is found that the worst mutual coupling reduced by −28 to −34 dB for 2 × 2 array, −3 to −43 dB for 2 × 3 array, and finally −42 dB to −51 dB due to the antenna spacing from 0.5λ to λ. Thus, these suggested antennas could effectively be applied in the WSN communication systems, internet of things (IoT) networks, and massive wireless and backscatter communication systems.