A Small Dual Purpouse UHF RFID Antenna: A
Simulation Results
Date: 10 , May 2019
Colcha Alexander (1240) Yugsin Henry (1256)
ANTENNA AND PROPAGATION ANTENNA AND PROPAGATION
ESPOCH-FIE-EITR ESPOCH-FIE-EITR
RIOBAMBA, ECUADOR RIOBAMBA, ECUADOR
luis.colchag@espoch.edu.ec henry.yugsin@espoch.edu.ec
Abstract—In this paper, designs and development of a small
dual purpose UHF RFID planar antenna and an RFID tag
antenna for small wireless application devices are presented. The
planar antenna resonates at both the European and US RFID
bands. With a reasonable gain on both RFID bands with an
omni-directional radiation pattern. The RFID antenna is designed
for the European UHF RFID band. Experimental results for
radiation pattern, input impedance reflection coefficient, and tag
antenna realized gain confirmed the validity of the designs based
on numerical simulations.
Keywords—Antenna, dual band antennas, microstrip, minia-
turized, planar, reader antenna, RFID, tag antenna.
I. I NTRODUCTION
TThe growing demand for small compact wireless devices
has increased the need for small antennas that can be integrated
while providing acceptable overall performance. Apart from
the size of the antenna and the wireless device, the cost is
one of the most important aspects to consider in developing
a wireless system. Thus, small low-cost antenna models are
needed. The European RFID band (865 MHz - 868 MHz)
and the US RFID band (902 MHz - 928 MHz) can also be
used for small wireless applications. This includes various
wireless sensor networks and other small indoor consumer
electronic systems. Throughout the antenna design process in
this paper, the main objective was to develop a low cost small
antenna model, with reasonable performance, for the UHF
RFID European and US bands. The current antenna design
can be useful for developing reader antennas, as well as RFID
tags [1].
Directionality of the antenna is a result of the patch part of
the antenna which radiates more than the rest of the antenna
components. Since the antenna operates for both European
RFID and US RFID bands, it becomes a good candidate for
use in low-cost global wireless devices. It is small in size
and can be embedded and integrated in several small wireless
units[2].
Similarly, the same antenna design can be utilized to operate
as a tag antenna, with an omnidirectional radiation pattern and
reasonable gain. The antenna is designed by mirroring the top
Velasco Santiago (1251)
ANTENNA AND PROPAGATION
ESPOCH-FIE-EITR
RIOBAMBA, ECUADOR
smvalvarez28@gmail.com
part of the planar antenna and eliminating the ground plane,
leading to a symmetric dipole type structure. The antenna is
designed to operate at the European UHF RFID band.
The antenna can also be tuned to work on other frequency
bands, as well as multiple frequency bands, by changing
some of its configuration parameters. Planar antenna design
techniques are utilizing the same design to make a UHF
RFID tag antenna. This is followed by the simulation and
measurement process and results of the planar antenna and
the RFID tag antenna in Section IV. Section V discusses the
sensitivity of the RFID tag antenna relative to its geometrical
parameters.
This is followed by the conclusions in Section IV.
II. A NTENNA D ESIGN
TThe antenna is designed and simulated with the help of
Ansoft Designer 3.5v [3]. A 1.6[mm] thick FR-4 double-sided
substrate with a relative dielectric constant of 4.1 is used.
The outer dimension of the antenna is 42[mm] in height and
30[mm] in width. The patch or lower part of the antenna has
copper on both sides of the substrate, whereas the upper part
of the antenna has no copper under the substrate. The feed
of the antenna (using SMA connector) is connected between
the feeding block of width ‘a’ and height ‘b’ and the ground
plane as shown in Fig. 2. The antenna structure is fabricated
on a low cost FR4 substrate to provide a low-cost solution.
Various miniaturization techniques were used to tune the
microstrip antenna design to the desired frequency [4]. Extra
lumped components, such as capacitors and inductors were
avoided in order to reduce the anticipated gain and efficiency
losses from these elements. This also simplifies the manufac-
turing process and reduces the cost of the antenna production.
The antenna design uses the miniaturization technique of
shorting the antenna structure with the ground plane, similar
to PIFA designs presented in [5]. The shorted antenna models
have a great dependency on the ground plane, which itself
works as part of an asymmetrical dipole structure.
Therefore, designing a small shorted antenna model, with a
small ground plane, makes the ground plane a more effective
radiator. This fact is exploited in the design to achieve an
antenna that radiates more on one of its poles towards the
negative ‘y’ axis. The upper part of the antenna, along the
positive ‘y’ axis, which consists of microstrip lines, helps in
matching the antenna to the desired operating frequencies [6].
For example, line ‘k’, is divided into two microstrip lines ‘m1’
and ‘m2’, enabling the antenna to resonate at two different
frequency bands.
The design of this antenna allows us to have two frequencies
due to the structure that owns it, as k is divided into two lines
m1, and m2 the planar antenna can work at two frequencies,
in the order of the GHZ.

Fig 2. Fabricated antenna model.

III. R ESULTS
The results of the antenna can be obtained by means of the
simulation with the help of the software Ansoft Designer. The
radiation pattern, gain and other antenna parameters will be
measured with these software. As we can see in the Figure 3
the graph the simulation of the gain of the antenna in their
respective resonance frequencies. The profit of our antenna is
good because in the one band (867 MHz) exceeds 30 db, while
in the other band (907 MHz) exceeds 10 db.
Fig 1. Antenna configuration. In the same way we can simulate the impedance of the
antenna both in its real part (resistance) and in its imaginary
part (ballast). In the following graph we can see how in the
TABLE I resonance frequency the imaginary part tends to zero and the
T HE GEOMETRICAL DIMENSIONS OF THE ANTENNA IN F IG .1 resistance reaches an approximate value of 50 ohm.
Line Length(mm) Figures 5 and 6 show the radiation diagrams of the gain
a 4.00 of the plane E (x-y) of the antenna, for operating frequencies
b 3.00 of 867MHz and 907MHz respectively. There are variations
c 1.75 between these two graphs and it is normal because the first
d 2.00 one has a gain that exceeds 30 db, while the second has a gain
e 8.00 that barely exceeds 10 db.
f 3.45 As we can see below in Figure 7 and 8 the radiation pattern
g1 2.00 of our antenna is omni-directional , that is to say it radiates
g2 0.9 the same everywhere, as expected the values vary depending
h1 25.00 on the frequency of operation, however the radiation pattern
h2 21.50
remains omni-directional for both cases.
k 14.60
m1 24.00
m2 22.95
n1 20.50
n2 18.30
n3 17.00
o1 5.50
o2 6.70
o3 5.00
w 41.00
w1 0.50
w2 1.00

Fig 3. Simulated and measured S11[dB] of the planar antenna.

 Fig 4. Simulated antenna impedances
Fig 5. Gain in Plane E (dB) of the flat antenna to 867MHz.
Fig 6. Gain in Plane E (dB) of the flat antenna to 907MHz.
Fig 7. Simulation of the radiation pattern of the 3-D gain (dB) of the plane
antenna to 867MHz.
Fig 8. Simulation of the radiation pattern of the 3-D gain (dB) of the plane
antenna to 907MHz.
A. ANTENNA SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS:
In this type of antennas the dimensions must be exact
since a minimum variation in the lengths of these vary the
frequency of the antenna and other important factors such
as the reflection coefficient and even the same impedances.
Several parameters are useful for adjusting the antenna to
the desired frequency. Some of these are the thickness of the
substrate and the tuning lines ’f’, ’m1’ and ’m2’. In Fig. 19, it
is possible to observe the resonance change of the antenna, due
to the different thicknesses of the substrate ’gmm’. According
to the figure, the reduction in the thickness of the substrate
makes our profit decrease considerably, instead of increasing
the thickness the gain also decreases but in this case the central
band changes. As we observe the green figure is the one that
has the best gain in the two desired frequencies.
In Fig.10 , we can observe how the dimensions of the
line ’m1’ significantly affect the resonance frequency, likewise
directly affects the reflection coefficient changing abruptly, so
the optimum value for our desired frequencies are those of the
green graphic.
Similarly, the length ’m2’ of the lines directly affects the
frequencies of our antenna, a slight change in the value of
this affects in a considerable way to our antenna. This effect
is shown in Fig.11 , where resonance frequencies change
considerably, so the optimum value for our desired frequencies
are those of the green graphic.
Fig 9. Simulated power reflection coefficient of the antenna, due to the
different thicknesses of the substrate.

Fig 10. Simulated change of the reflection coefficient of the antenna power,
due to the different lengths of the tuning line ’m1’.
Fig 11. Reflection coefficient of the simulated power of the antenna, due to
several lengths of the line ”m2”.
The length of the line ’f’ can also be very useful for a fine
adjustment in the tuning of the antenna. In Fig.12 , it shows the
effect of several lengths of the line at the resonance frequency
of the antenna. . According to the figure, a slight change in
the length of the line ’f’, directly influences the inductance
and therefore affects the resonance of the antenna. As we can
see the most useful graphic is the green color because it has
an acceptable gain in the two desired frequencies.
The previous results show us how the antenna lengths
vary their different parameters, in some cases the variation
is minimal but in others a slight change in the dimensions
abruptly alter the parameters of our antenna. This kind of
variations in the measurements of our antenna help us to be
able to modify the frequency to our own liking. However,
such antennas exhibit narrow-band characteristics and become
sensitive to structural changes.
Fig 12. Simulated power reflection coefficient of the antenna, due to several
lengths of lines ’f’.
IV. C ONCLUSION
In this document, a small dual purpose planar RFID antenna
design was made. The same antenna design is used as a
shorted planar antenna, and as an RFID tag antenna.The
planar shorted antenna works on both European and US RFID
bands. Different miniaturization techniques helped to reduce
the resonance frequency of the antennas. In the flat antenna
model, the short-circuit technique and close coupled lines
helped to reduce the size of the antenna. This indicates that
the antenna structure can be reduced with the help of narrowly
coupled fine lines. However, it makes the antenna narrower
and more responsive. The sensitivity of the antenna to the
structural deformations can be used for various applications as
for example we can get a change in your resonance frequency,
but in turn we must be very careful with the dimensions of our
antenna, because by making a minimum change in the value
of any of these will affect directly to parameter of our antenna
as for example to the gain of the antenna.
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