Bio-inspired circular polarized UHF RFID tag design using characteristic mode analysis

Sharif, A., Kumar, R., Althobaiti, T., Alotaibi, A. A., Safi, L., Ramzan, N., Imran, M. A. and Abbasi, Q. H. (2023) Bio-inspired circular polarized UHF RFID tag design using characteristic mode analysis. IEEE Sensors Journal, 23(10), pp. 10847-10855. (doi: 10.1109/JSEN.2023.3262323)

Abstract

This paper presents a bio-inspired circularly polarized ultra-high frequency (UHF) radio frequency identification (RFID) tag antenna for metallic and low-permittivity substances. This tag design is based on a leaf-shaped radiator, two shorting stubs and slots etched on F4B substrate. Initially, the tag antenna is designed using characteristics mode analysis (CMA) by analyzing the first six CM modes and characteristic angles. The width of orthogonal slots is varied to get the resonance of CM modes in the required US RFID band. Moreover, the edges are blended to get orthogonal current distribution, which is necessary for circular polarization. Additionally, the proposed tag design is optimized further using CST Microwave studio and an RFID chip is exploited as a capacitive coupling element (CCE) to run CM modes with the orthogonal current pattern. This tag can also be tunable to European RFID (EU) band (866 – 868 MHz) by changing the length of shorter diagonal slot. The tag design offers a read range of 7 m and 4.5 m on 100 × 100 mm 2 metals plate and low-permittivity substrates, respectively (for 902 – 928 MHz band). In EU band, the corresponding read ranges are 5.7 m and 3.5 m above metal and low-permittivity objects, respectively. This circularly polarized tag antenna is advantageous in terms of cost, circular polarization feature, and ease of fabrication due to the absence of vias, shorting pins, and matching circuits. Therefore, this tag design is suitable for labeling various low-permittivity objects, industrial conveyer belt applications, baggage handling systems, and IoT applications.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: The authors extend their appreciation to the Deputyship for Research & Innovation, Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia for funding this research work through the project number (IF_2020_NBU_201) and in part by the Taif University, Taif, Saudi Arabia, through the Taif University Research Grant under Project TURSP-2020/277.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Imran, Professor Muhammad and Sharif, Dr Abu Bakar and Abbasi, Professor Qammer
• Authors: Sharif, A., Kumar, R., Althobaiti, T., Alotaibi, A. A., Safi, L., Ramzan, N., Imran, M. A., and Abbasi, Q. H.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Electronics and Nanoscale Engineering; College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Systems Power and Energy
• Journal Name: IEEE Sensors Journal
• Publisher: IEEE
• ISSN: 1530-437X
• ISSN (Online): 1558-1748
• Published Online: 03 April 2023
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 IEEE
• First Published: First published in IEEE Sensors Journal 23(10): 10847-10855
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy