Response of UHF RFID tag on conductive and non-conductive surfaces

Abstract

The Passive RFID systems have drawn considerable attention due to their properties of long-read range, high data rates, and small antenna sizes. Despite their indisputable advantages, passive UHF RFID tags working in the ultra-high frequency band are sensitive to the host material and their performance is affected when attached to different materials. Although there are robust RFID tag designs, their fabrication expense is more. In this contribution, the design of a small antenna to tag various conductive and non-conductive surfaces is presented. It achieves a maximum read range of 27 meters and its dimensions are 17x 30 x 1.6 mm3 . The proposed design consists of a single-pole antenna with a folded inlay that has a layer of cross-linked polyethylene, which improves the dielectric constant and reduces interferences with other host materials. This study considers various conductive and non-conductive surfaces carriers as host materials and plots the behavior of the tag for the same. Measurements of the tag antenna were carried out in indoor scenarios with low and high reflections. The measured results agree reasonably well with the predicted ones. The tag antenna is proved competitive in perspective of simple structure, low cost, long reading distance, and tolerance on various background Materials.