A Compact Dipole UHF-RFID Tag Antenna
N.M.Faudzi, M.T.Ali, I.Ismail, H.Jumaat, N.H.M.Sukaimi
Antenna Research Group (ARG), Microwave Technology Centre (MTC), Faculty of Electrical Engineering (FKE)
Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), Shah Alam
Selangor, Malaysia
najwa_nmf@yahoo.com, mizi732002@yahoo.com, ismarani@salam.uitm.edu.my, jumaathadi@gmail.com,
nurhidayahmohdsukaimi@yahoo.com
Abstract— This paper presents a novel design of a compact
dipole UHF-RFID tag antenna for the Malaysia frequency band
(919 - 921 MHz). The design of the proposed tag antenna
included meandering technique and capacitive-tip loading
structure to reduce the size of the tag antenna. The overall
dimension of the antenna is 43 x 26 x 0.787 mm
3
. The tag is
composed of copper layer traces, SOT1122 chip from NXP
Semiconductor and Rogers 5880 substrate with the relative
permittivity
of 2.2. The performance of the proposed tag antenna
was analyzed in terms of matched impedance, return loss,
antenna gain and tag reading range through CST simulation
software. The tag reading range was also experimentally
measured and the result was compared with the simulation
result. The tag antenna has a long read range of 9.6 m in a
direction normal to the reader.
Keywords — compact, RFID, tag antenna, meandering,
capacitive tip-loading
I. INTRODUCTION
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is grouped under a
broad category of automated identification which also includes
barcode systems and smart cards. RFID is a system which
transmits the identity of an object wirelessly using radio
waves. The RFID system can operate in several frequencies,
but the most common frequency bands for RFID system is low
frequency (LF), high frequency (HF) and ultra high frequency
(UHF). For UHF-RFID, each country has its own allocated
frequency range. For example in Malaysia, the allocated
frequency range is between 919 - 923 MHz, while in Europe
and Japan, the frequency allocation is between 866-869 MHz
and 950-956 respectively [1-2].
The basic components in RFID system are computer host,
reader, reader antenna, tag and communication network
(fig. 1). The RFID tag, which is composed of an antenna and
an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chip, will be
attached to the objects that need to be identified i.e. Box,
pallet, book or pharmaceutical item. There are two types of
RFID tags: passive (without battery) and active (with battery).
Passive tags are highly demanded due to their low cost and
easy fabrication [3].
The working principle of passive RFID system starts with
the communication between the reader and the tag through the
transmission of electromagnetic wave from the reader antenna
to the tag antenna. The radio frequency (RF) voltage induced
on the tag antenna will activate the chip. The chip will then
respond by sending back the information to the reader through
the alteration of the antenna impedance state, thus modulates
the data [4].
Fig. 1 Basic components in RFID system
In this paper, a novel design of a compact dipole UHF-
RFID tag antenna is proposed. The label-type dipole antenna
was chosen due to its simple structure, acceptable gain, low
cost and omnidirectional radiation pattern. The tag antenna
was designed with the combination of three structures which
are meandering, capacitive tip loading and a T-matching
network. Those structures were implemented in the design in
order to reduce the size of the tag antenna as well as to easily
match the chip impedance and the antenna impedance for
maximum power transfer. The antenna was designed to
operate in Malaysia at the center frequency of 921 MHz.
The rest of the paper is conducted as follows: Section II
describes the antenna design, Section III and IV explain the
simulation and measurement results respectively and finally
conclusions and future works are summarized in Section V.
II. A
NTENNA DESIGN
The configuration of the proposed tag antenna is shown in
fig. 2. At the center of the compact tag antenna, a G2XM
SOT1122 chip from NXP Semiconductor was attached. The
chip is highly capacitive with the impedance of 18.6 – j169.4
Ω at 921 MHz [5]. In order to obtain maximum power transfer
from the tag antenna to the chip, the tag antenna needs to be
highly inductive (conjugate impedance match) [6-7]. The
copper traces with the thickness of 0.035 mm were printed on
Rogers 5880 substrate (
E
r
= 2.2, tan δ = 0.0009, thickness t =
2013 IEEE International RF and Microwave Conference (RFM2013), December 09-11, 2013 - Penang, Malaysia
978-1-4799-2214-7/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE 314