Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium Proceedings, Moscow, Russia, August 1821, 2009 535

Near Field Coupling with Small RFID Objects

Arnaud Vena and Pascal Roux
R&D Department, ACS Solutions France SAS, France
Abstract This paper presents a study on the coupling between a reader and a contactless
object in order to dene some good working rules to deal with objects with small antennas (NFC
mobile phones, key fobs. . . ). We will dene a model representing the magnetically coupled system
composed of the reader and the RFID object in order to introduce the coupling factor which is
the key parameter. The coupling factor variation according to reading distance and antennas
shapes is a must to predict the overall system performance.
1. INTRODUCTION
Today, the working group in charge of ISO/IEC 14443 standard [1] is dening new contactless
objects antenna classes smaller than the very popular Class 1 card format. We will study such
classes and analyze their compatibility with existing readers. In transportation sector, contactless
validators use antennas with a typical size of 10 cm by 10 cm to assure a good communication
range. But with smaller classes of contactless objects, the magnetic coupling factor (and therefore
the reading range) tends to reduce. To calculate the coupling factor, we have to dene each antenna
loop self inductance and the mutual inductance between them. The calculation of coaxial loops
self inductances and mutual inductance can be done with analytical formulas for usual shapes. In
all other cases, we can use numerical methods like Finite elements or PEEC method [2]. In near
eld RFID, antennas are usually closed loops which can be approximated by laments loops. In
this case the numerical Neumann method is an alternative simple way to obtain accurate values of
mutual inductance and even self inductance with minimal computation eorts. With this method
we will calculate the coupling factor in free space in several cases, for common readers and various
RFID object antennas in order to determine the operating volume in each situation. The theoretical
values will be compared to experimental coupling factor measurements.
2. MODEL OF THE SYSTEM
In near eld RFID [3], we can assimilate the system composed of a reader and an RFID object
with an RF transformer. The corresponding electrical model is shown in Figure 1.
The main dierence is about the magnetic coupling factor k value which is much lower. In
proximity card systems operating at 13.56 MHz, k is usually comprised between 0.03 and 0.3. To
transmit power with such low values, the transformer primary and secondary circuits must be tuned
close to operating frequency. The transformer primary circuit represents the reader source with
matching circuit and antenna. The transformer secondary circuit represents the RFID object with
its antenna associated with C
2
capacitor to make a resonant circuit with a frequency generally
comprised between 13.56 and 19 MHz. The RFID object antenna inductance is chosen to get the
maximum power which means several turns. For Class 1 reference card [1], the number of turns is
4 and the inductance is about 2300 nH. The resistance Rload represents the IC current consumption
and also allows the load modulation of the operating eld. The expression of the transfer function
Figure 1: Electrical model of a coupled system composed of a reader and an RFID object.
536 PIERS Proceedings, Moscow, Russia, August 1821, 2009
to obtain the voltage gain at load is the following (1):
H
1
=
V
2
V
1
=
Z
out
jM
(Z
0
jC
1
+1)(jM)
2
(Z
0
+ (Z
0
jC
1
+1)ZL
1
)(Z
out
+ZL
2
)
(1)
with Z
0
= R
0
+
1
jC
0
, ZL
1
= R
1
+jL
1
, ZL
2
= R
2
+jL
2
and Z
out
=
1
jC
2
+
1
Rload
The power transmitted to the load is simply V
2
2
/ Rload. In this system, the resistive load Rload
is variable to modulate the current I
2
and by the way the voltage at the transformer primary with
a value in function of both the mutual inductance and the carrier frequency (2).
V BackEMF = jMI
2
(2)
The power transmitted to the RFID object and the level of its response mainly depend on the
mutual inductance, therefore on the coupling factor. The frequency tuning of the secondary coil
between 13.56 and 19 MHz doesnt inuence a lot the results. The expression of the transfer function
is independent from the object antenna shape thanks to the coupling factor value. So we can say
that if we keep the same self inductance value for the new smaller classes then the operating limit
will be identically determined by the same minimum coupling factor. The formula (3) gives the
coupling factor value in function of both the mutual and the two self inductances:
k =
M

L
1
L
2
(3)
In this equation, we can see that the coupling factor value is not inuenced by the number of turns
if the radius of each loop is identical. Only the geometrical antenna shape inuences this value.
The smaller the object antenna size, the closer the distance to the reader for the same coupling
factor. We will evaluate the reading range in function of the object antenna size keeping usual
reader antenna shapes.
3. DEFINITION OF THE MINIMUM COUPLING FACTOR
The minimum coupling factor is determined by minimal power transfer from reader to RFID ob-
ject and by minimum signal response from RFID object to reader. A proximity card as dened
in ISO/IEC 14443 operates with minimum eld strength of 1.5 A/m. While this eld produces
sucient power in Class 1 cards it produces a lower power in smaller objects because the received
ux is lower and the IC embedded on such objects must works with less power. Another important
point is the signal sent by the object and received by the reader. The mutual inductance depends
on the object area and when this area is smaller, the signal received by the reader is smaller. By
experimental measurements we determined that the minimum coupling factor with usual cards is
about k = 0.03 and corresponds to eld strength of 1.5 A/m. Such a coupling factor value with a
smaller RFID object is found at closer distance and therefore with higher eld strength. This fact
pushes us to say that the coupling factor parameter is more representative than the eld strength
value. The only way to enhance reading range or at least to keep the one that we get with Class 1
format is to have a more sensitive reader and an object which need less power. In this way, the
usual coupling factor limit of k = 0.03 will decrease.
4. MAGNETIC COUPLING FACTOR CALCULATION METHOD
The method used to calculate the coupling factor is based on Neumann Formula (4). The analytical
equation is computed with a numerical algorithm to get value of the mutual and the self inductances
of approximated laments closed loops.
M =

0
4

C
1

C
2
dr

1 dr

1 r

(4)
This method presents an interest for the simplicity of its implementation in any kind of program-
ming language or dedicated numerical calculation software [4] and for its performances in terms of
computation eorts. To validate the numerical Neumann method we will compare its results with
the analytical formulas ones. We will use several value of discretization step to build loop antenna
Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium Proceedings, Moscow, Russia, August 1821, 2009 537
paths in order to dene a rule for choosing this parameter. A very small discretization step will
increase the result accuracy but the computation time will also increase a lot. So we have to nd
a compromise between accuracy and computation time. The analytic expression of the Neumann
equation can be transposed into the following numerical expression (5):
M
num
=

0
4
k=N
1
1

k=1
l=N
2
1

l=1
r
1x
(k)r
2x
(l) + r
1y
(k)r
2y
(l) + r
1z
(k)r
2z
(l)

(r
1
x
(k) r
2
x
(l))
2
+

r
1
y
(k) r
2
y
(l)

2
+ (r
1
z
(k) r
2
z
(l))
2
(5)
In this expression, r
1
and r
2
represent the two loops, dened in Cartesian coordinates as a discretized
parametric equation. We have N
1
elements to compose C
1
path and N
2
elements to compose C
2
path. The value represents the discretization step and is determined in order to obtain a good
approximation of the mutual or self inductance value. To get a self inductance value with this
method we have to take C
2
= C
1
+ Z [5]; this means that C
2
path is located on the wire
boundary to avoid any singularities. If the wire is round, Z will be equal to the wire radius a. If
the wire is rectangular, we have rstly to approximate it by a round wire with the same perimeter
as dened by the expression (6):
a =
(e +w)

(6)
with e, the wire thickness and w, its width.
In this way, the external surface of this equivalent round conductor will be equal to the initial
rectangular conductor one. Therefore the current density will be nearly equivalent if we consider
that the current mainly ows in the conductor surface because of the skin eect. To be more
accurate, the intrinsic inductance value must be taken into account. It only depends on the loop
length, i.e., the perimeter in case of closed loop. Finally the analytical equation becomes (7):
L =

0
4

d
2
+

C
1

C
2
dr

1 dr

1 r

(7)
with d, the path length
And using the expression of mutual inductance (5), the equivalent numerical expression be-
comes (8):
L
num
=

0
4
1
2
k=N
1
1

k=1

(r
1x
(k))
2
+

r
1y
(k)

2
+ (r
1z
(k))
2
+M
num
(8)
In order to evaluate this method we use the analytical expression described by T. Thompson [6] as
a reference. We nd that to get an accurate value of the round wire self inductance for any shape,
we have to dene a discretization step equal to the wire radius. In the same way, to get an accurate
value of the mutual inductance between two loops, the discretization step must be less than or
equal to minimum distance between the two loops. Obviously the step has to be small enough to
describe the geometrical shape with precision. In case of a circular shape, the discretization step
has to be much smaller than the loop radius.
5. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
In this section, we evaluate the communication capability with usual readers in function of the
object antenna size and shape. We measure the coupling factor in free space taking the following
coupling factor expression (9):
k =
V L
2
V L
1

L
1
L
2
(9)
Knowing values of L
1
and L
2
, we have just to measure the voltage at any coil. For our study we
have dened two new smaller classes, the Class S
1
(e.g., for key fobs) and the Class S
2
(e.g., for
mobile phones) with new dimensions as shown in Figure 2. The usual Class 1 dimensions of 72 mm
by 42 mm are given for reference.
We have realized measurements with two dierent reader antennas and for each one with Class 1,
Class S
1
and Class S
2
RFID objects. For each reader antenna we have made several measures,
538 PIERS Proceedings, Moscow, Russia, August 1821, 2009
varying Z distance to get k values while keeping loops coaxial and therefore parallel to each other.
In Figure 3, we can see the coupling factor evolution in function of Z distance respectively with
a circular loop reader antenna and with a rectangular loop reader antenna for each dened RFID
object class. With the circular loop, we can see that the maximum range which correspond to
a coupling factor k = 0.03 is respectively 37 mm for Class S
1
and 5 mm for Class S
2
. With the
rectangular reader antenna, results are similar and the maximum range for Class S
1
is 43 mm and
5 mm for class S
2
. In comparison, the Class 1 antenna range is greater than 50 mm with the two
reader antennas.
The theoretical values are close to the experimental results. We notice an error of approximately
10%, probably due to imperfection in voltage V L
1
measurement and position of RFID object. The
Class S1
Class S2
72 mm
36 mm
42 mm
24 mm
Class 1
Figure 2: Dimensions of usual Class 1 and smaller classes S
1
and S
2
used for experiments.
Coupling factor with circular loop reader antenna
0,00
0,01
0,02
0,03
0,04
0,05
0,06
0,07
0,08
0,09
0,10
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
Z (mm)
K
Class 1 Meas.
Class 1 Theo.
Class S1 Meas.
Class S1 Theo.
Class S2 Meas.
Class S2 Theo.
K limit
Coupling factor with rectangular loop reader antenna
0,00
0,01
0,02
0,03
0,04
0,05
0,06
0,07
0,08
0,09
0,10
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
Z (mm)
K
Class 1 Meas.
Class 1 Theo.
Class S1 Meas.
Class S1 Theo.
Class S2 Meas.
Class S2 Theo.
K limit
(a) (b)
Figure 3: Coupling factor as a function of Z distance when loops are coaxial. (a) With a 6.5 cm radius
circular reader loop, (b) with a 12 cm by 13 cm rectangular loop. Dashed lines are the theoretical values and
plain lines are measured values.
(a) (b)
Figure 4: coupling factor 2D map at a distance Z of 5 mm, between RFID object Class S
2
(bold blue loop)
and reader antenna (bold green loop). (a) 12 cm by 13 cm rectangular reader antenna, (b) 13 cm by 9 cm
oval reader antenna. Note: The coupling factor is maximal in the red zone.
Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium Proceedings, Moscow, Russia, August 1821, 2009 539
theoretical and measured curves shapes are very similar. The major diculty in the measurement
method is to get the real value of V L
1
voltage because with a high Q antenna the voltage can
reach 100 V and the matching is very sensitive to the probe capacity. This is why we set a high
impedance resistive voltage divisor in parallel of the antenna and we use a dierential active probe
to realize the measurement. Another way consists in measuring the reader antenna current loop to
deduce voltage V L
1
. The main interest of this calculation method is to gain time in determining
if any shape of new RFID object is able to work with a usual reader antenna. The must is to
determine the communication volume by representing the coupling map in 2D at any Z distance.
With experimental measurements this task is very long and dicult. In Figure 4(a), we can see
the calculated coupling factor 2D map between the rectangular loop reader antenna and the RFID
object Class S
2
.
We notice that the maximum coupling is obtained when the RFID object is in a corner of the
reader antenna. And this was experimentally veried. In Figure 4(b), the calculation method is
applied for an unusual shape like a 13 cm by 9 cm oval loop reader antenna. This last antenna
is better for smaller Class S
2
thanks to its smaller size. Further simulations with various reader
antennas conrm that smaller class RFID objects benet from a smaller reader antenna size.
6. CONCLUSION
The numerical Neumann method is very ecient to calculate the coupling factor in every position
and for every shape. The experimental measurements have validated theoretical values with an
error of 10%. The results show that new smaller classes of card have a loss in range at center of
antennas of 40% for Class S
1
and 90% for Class S
2
with usual reader antennas. Globally, such
new classes of RFID object need smaller reader antennas and interoperability with usual readers
is not guaranteed. A way to increase interoperability with these small objects is to develop reader
antennas which combine both a good reading range with present cards, e.g., by keeping their usual
size, and a zone of high coupling for smaller RFID objects, e.g., in a corner of a rectangular loop.
REFERENCES
1. ISO/IEC 14443-1, 2008.
2. Reinhold, C., P. Scholz, W. John, and U. Hilleringmann, Ecient antenna design of inductive
coupled rd-systems with high power demand, Journal of Communications, Vol. 2, No. 6,
November 2007.
3. Finkenzeller, K., RFID Handbook: Fundamentals and Applications in Contactless Smart Cards
and Identication, Wiley, April 2003.
4. Kiusalaas, J., Numerical Method in Engineering with Matlab, Cambridge University Press,
2005.
5. Gardiol, F., Traite delectricite, Electromagnetisme, T3, Presses Polytechniques et Universi-
taires Romandes, 2001.
6. Thompson, T. and M. Phd, Inductance calculation technique, Part II: Approximations and
handbook methods, Power Control and Intelligent Motion, December 1999.