Design and Development of SRR based Metal Mountable UHF RFID Tag

This chapter presents the design and development of Metal Mountable

UHF RFID tag and its performance analysis in Metallic surfaces. This
chapter begins with a brief description of the performance degradation of
RFID tags attached to metallic and high impedance objects. In this
chapter a design of low profile SRR based UHF RFID tag structures
with a metallic ground plane, which is connected to the tag section by
shorting strips for operation on metallic/ high dielectric constant
objects is presented. Even though the model is designed for the platform
independent operation in European UHF RFID band of 866 MHz, it
is also suitable for all other UHF RFID bands. A detailed study of the
designed metal mountable UHF RFID tag is performed by analyzing
the simulated values of input impedance, S11 and the measured values of
the read range.

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The performance degradation of the conventional UHF RFID tag, when

it is attached to metallic objects is a major drawback which limits the
widespread deployment of these tags to many applications [1]. All the tags
presented in the previous chapters were evaluated for the read range
performance on metal plates and it is observed that the read range drastically
decreases. The read range of the tag becomes zero when the distance of
separation between the tag and metallic plate is very small. Many researchers
tried to overcome this performance degradation by employing inverted F
antennas and microtrip antenna structures etc. This chapter presents the design
and development of metal mountable UHF RFID tag, which consists of a
square SRR based dipole antenna with a shorting strips to the ground plane.

6.1 Degradation of UHF RFID tag on metallic surfaces

Passive UHF RFID tags works on the energy harvested from the
electromagnetic field produced by the reader antenna. The energy is harvested
by the tag antenna is used for powering up the chip connected at the antenna
terminals. [2]. If the received energy is insufficient to power up the chip, the
tags will not be enabled for reading. When the tag is placed on metallic
surface, there are only normal component of the electric field, and tangential
component of the magnetic field, to the metallic surface. The RFID tag that
depends on either the tangential component of the electric field or the normal
component of the magnetic field, will suffer from serious performance
degradation when it is attached directly to or very close to metallic surfaces. In
addition to this antenna parameters such as input impedance, directivity,
radiation pattern and the efficiency are drastically altered when the tag is
placed on or very near to a metallic surface [3]. The changes in tag antenna
impedance will lead to two issues:

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1. Deviation of resonant frequency of the RFID tag

2. Impedance mismatch between the tag antenna and chip.

The resonant frequency of a tag antenna can be expressed as

6.1
√

Where „L‟ and C are the Inductance and capacitance of the tag antenna
respectively. From the equation it is clear that any change of the reactive part
of the antenna impedance will change its resonant frequency. Hence when the
tag is attached to a metallic surface, the tag antenna impedance will change
and which then affects the resonant frequency of the antenna. This results in
detuning and the read range of the tag will be degraded [4].

For maximum power transfer and hence for proper functioning of RFID
tag, the antenna impedance is made close to the complex conjugate impedance
of the microchip. When the tag is placed on metallic object, tag antenna
impedance changes, which results in impedance mismatching between the
microchip and the tag antenna. Hence the amount of power that is transferred
from the tag antenna to the microchip will be reduced which inturn will reduce
the read range of the RFID tag. The presence of metallic object also causes
changes in other antenna parameters such as the directivity and the radiation
pattern. The reflection caused by the metallic plate change the concentration of
the electromagnetic fields and hence, will lead to a change of directivity. The
variation in the radiation pattern and directivity depend on the shape and size
of the metallic object and also the distance of separation of the antenna from
the object.

These are the main changes that affect the RFID tag antennas when
operated on metallic structures. So tag antennas for a metallic objects must be

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designed to enable RFID tags to function on conductive surfaces without

performance degradation. One clear solution for metallic object tagging is to
use microstrip type with a ground plane. As the ground plane is a portion of
the antenna design, this type of antennas will not be affected too much after
they are attached to metallic objects [4]. Another candidate for platform
independent UHF RFID tag antenna design is inverted F structure [5]. Inverted
F structures reduce the size of the antenna and highly capacitive reactance and
low resistance. However due to the presence of ground plane such models are
suitable for platform tolerant RFID applications.

6.1.1 SRR based Metal mountable UHF RFID Tag

6.1.1.1 Geometry

The SRR based Metal mountable RFID tag working in the UHF band is
described in this section. The geometrical design of the SRR based metal
mountable UHF RFID tag is shown in Fig 6.1. It consists of a square SRR
loaded structure, with a short circuited strip is connected between the SRRs on
the top layer. The metallic bottom ground plane is connected to the top section
by with the help of shorting strips..

Fig 6.1 Geometry of the Square SRR based Metal mountable UHF RFID Tag (a)
Front view (b) Side view (c) Slanted view

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 Design and Development of SRR based Metal Mountable UHF RFID Tag

Commercially available RFID chip, Alien Higgs-3 has an impedance of

27-j211Ω at 866 MHz and has a threshold power of −18 dBm (16 µW) working
in the UHF band is connected to the terminals of the tag antenna. Overall size of
the metal backed UHF RFID tag is 61.51 x17.55 x 1.6 mm3. A metal mountable
structure is fabricated followed by the simulation and optimization of the
design. The detailed analysis of the design is based on the input impedance,
S11 variation and radiation pattern.

6.1.1.2 Simulation and Optimization

The design and simulation of the SRR based metal mountable UHF
RFID tag antenna is performed in CST Microwave Studio to get the
optimized design parameters. The length, width, gap between the rings and gap
in the rings of the square SRRs are so chosen with parametric analysis for
miniaturization and impedance matching. A short circuited strip between the
two SRRs is used for the impedance matching purpose. The optimized
parameter values of the metal mountable UHF RFID tag are given in table 6.1.
This optimized parameter values are incorporated in to the design to get the
metal mountable square SRR based RFID Tag.

Table 6.1 Parametric values of the Rectangular SRR arrays loaded dipole structure
L1 L2 L3 L4 L5 L6 L7
55mm 17.16mm 16mm 9mm 12mm 5mm 6.51mm
W1 W2 W3 W4 G1 G2 G3
1.55mm 1.25mm 1mm 1mm 1.5mm 2.5mm 1.5mm
The simulated real and imaginary part input impedance values along with
that of the RFID chip impedance with frequency is shown in figure 6.2. It can be
seen from the graph, that the real part of the antenna impedance at 866 MHz is 24
ohms and imaginary part of the antenna impedance at 866 MHz is 299 ohms
which is close to the conjugate impedance of the RFID chip at 866 MHz.

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Fig.6.2 Simulated variations of the resistance and reactance with frequency for the metal
mountable RFID tag antenna and the RFID chip
The Fig 6.3 shows the variation S11with frequency for the tag antenna,
when a complex load of impedance 27-j211Ω is attached to the terminals of
the tag antenna. The plot shows a-3dB bandwidth begins at 884 MHz and it
extends upto 920MHz.

Fig.6.3 Simulated variations of the return loss with frequency for the metal
mountable RFID tag antenna

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 Design and Development of SRR based Metal Mountable UHF RFID Tag

Fig. 6.4 Simulated radiation pattern of the SRR based metal mountable UHF RFID
tag antenna at 866MHz
The simulated radiation pattern of the metallic UHF RFID tag antenna at
866 MHz with port impedance equal to the chip impedance are shown in Fig
6.4. From the figure which shows a gain of 2.64 dBi when an impedance of 27-
j211Ω is applied at the antenna terminals. The proposed UHF RFID model is
fabricated on an FR-4 substrate of thickness 1.6 mm, dielectric constant εr=4.4
and a loss tangent of 0.01 with a conducting ground plane. The photograph of
the fabricated metal mountable tag is shown in Fig. 6.5.

(a) (b)
Fig 6.5 Photograph of the fabricated SRR loaded metal mountable UHF RFID tag (a)
front view and (b) back view
6.1.1.3 Read range Measurements

The measured variations of read range of the UHF RFID tag for
elevation and azimuth angular ranges ranges are illustrated in Fig 6.6. The

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RFID reader STA IR0507E with an EIRP of 30 dBm Watts and reader
sensitivity of -80dBm is used in this work for the tag identification and read
range measurements. The graph 6 (a) shows that the read range is 4.2 m and
remains almost constant throughout the elevation angular ranges from -900 t0
+900. Fig 6 (b) shows the variation of read range with azimuth angle, which
shows that read range is maximum with a value of 4.2 meter over a limited
angular range and slightly decreases on either side of the bore sight reaching a
minimum of 2.2 meter.

(a) (b)
Fig 6.6 Measured read range in meters of the Metal mountable RFID tag in the
elevation and azimuth angular range at 866 MHz
Fig 6.7 shows the variations of the read range of the tag with frequency,
from which it is clear that the read range is 4.2 meter at 866 MHz and falls off
to 2 m at 930 MHz. It is evident from the figure that the proposed tag exhibits
appreciable read range in the entire UHF RFID band, which makes the
proposed tag to be use globally in different RFID bands.

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 Design and Development of SRR based Metal Mountable UHF RFID Tag

Fig 6.7 Measured variations of read range with frequency

6.1.1.4 Effect of Metallic plate on the performance on the metal

mountable UHF RFID tag

In this section the performance of the designed metal mountable UHF

RFID tag on metallic plates are measured and analyzed. The read range
measurement is carried out with the RFID tag attached to metallic plates of
different sizes and also by varying the distance of separation between tag and
metal plate.

6.1.1.4.1 Effect of different metallic plate size on the performance of the

metal mountable UHF RFID tag

The performance analysis of the designed metal mountable UHF RFID

tag on metallic plate of different sizes is discussed in this section. Fig
6.8shows the measured variation of read range with frequency along the
boresight of the designed metal mountable UHF RFID tag on metallic plate of
different sizes. It can be seen that the measured read range increases and
shifted a little to the lower side of the frequency, when the tag is attached on

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metallic surface. It can be also seen that the size of the metal surface has
negligible effect on the read range of the designed metal mountable UHF
RFID tag. So the designed metal mountable tag doesn‟t have any performance
degradation while it is connected to metallic surfaces.

Fig 6.8 Measured read range variations for the designed platform independent
UHF RFID tag with different sizes of the metallic surfaces where the tag
is attached
6.1.1.4.2 Effect of a metallic plate placed in different positions on the
performance of the metal mountable UHF RFID tag

The measured read range variations of the designed metal mountable

UHF RFID tag backed with another metal plate is shown in figure 6.9. The
metal plate of dimension 120 x 60 mm is placed behind the tag at different
positions and corresponding read range variation is measured. In the first case
metal plate is placed very close to the metal mountable RFID tag. After the
first case the position of the metal plate is changed to 1cm and measured the
read range. The process is continued till when the metal plate is placed 14 cm
distance away from the tag. From the graph, it can be seen that there is only

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very little in the measured read range when the metal plate is placed behind
the tag. So the performance of the designed metal mountable tag not degraded
when the metal plate is placed behind the tag at different distances.

Fig 6.9 Measured variations of read range with distance from metallic plate for the
designed metal mountable UHF RFID tag
6.1.2 Summary

A SRR based UHF RFID tag for a metal mountable operation is

presented in this chapter. The designed tag is compact in size and good
performance in the European UHF RFID band. The models have considerable
read range over the entire UHF RFID bands of 860-960 MHz.

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Reference

[1] P. Raumonen, L. Sydanheimo, L. Ukkonen, M. Keskilammi, and M.

Kivikoski, “Folded dipole antenna near metal plate,” in IEEE
Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium Digest
Held in conjunction with USNCCNCURSI North American Radio Sci
Meeting Cat No03CH37450, 2003.

[2] W. Choi, H. W. Son, J. H. Bae, G. Y. Choi, C. S. Pyo, and J. S. Chae,

“An RFID tag using a planar inverted-f antenna capable of being
stuck to metallic objects,” ETRI J., 2006.

[3] H. Nakano and K. Nakayama, “A curved spiral antenna above a

conducting cylinder,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., 1999.

[4] K. V. S. Rao, S. F. Lam, and P. V. Nikitin, “UHF RFID tag for metal
containers,” 2010 Asia-Pacific Microw. Conf., 2010.

[5] W. C. and G.-Y. C. J.-S. Kim, “UHF RFID tag antenna using two
PIFAs embedded in metallic objects,” Trans. Korean Inst. Electr.
Eng., vol. 57, no. 6, pp. 982–984, 2008.

[6] W. C. W. Choi, J.-S. K. J.-S. Kim, J.-H. B. J.-H. Bae, G.-Y. C. G.-Y.
Choi, and J.-S. C. J.-S. Chae, “Small RFID tag antenna for metallic
surface,” 2008 Asia-Pacific Microw. Conf., 2008.

[7] W. Choi, J. Kim, J. H. Bae, and G. Choi, “A small RFID tag antenna
to identify metallic objects,” in 2008 IEEE International Symposium
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Science Meeting, APSURSI, 2008.

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