High gain long-read range AMC-backed tag antenna for european UHF RFID applications

摘要

A high gain long-read range metamaterial tag antenna for European UHF RFID applications is proposed and analyzed. It consists of a meander dipole tag antenna backed by a spiral shaped artificial magnetic conductor to increase the tag gain and hence its reading distance. A realized gain of 6.39 dB is achieved, with a total efficiency of 90% at 868 MHz. The overall structure size is (0.59(0) mm x 0.289 (0) mm x 0.065 (0) mm). Three measurement scenarios are considered: in an anechoic chamber, laboratory corridor, and outdoor. A maximum reading range of 35 m is achieved outdoor and up to 46 m in corridor with no degradation when mounted onto a metal sheet. Moreover, the minimum activation power of the tag when attached to the metal surface is half the one when mounted alone. Furthermore, the via-less structure is low cost and easy to fabricate. It is suitable for applications where the tag profile is not a critical parameter such as moving vehicles, road tolls, railroad cars, parking garages, aircraft, and cargo containers. (c) 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 58:2944-2948, 2016