Master’s Program – Electrical and Microsystems Engineering

SAW as RFID Tags

Presented for Block Course: Application of Surface Acoustic Waves

Course Taken by: Dr. Jens Ebbecke
Presented On: 19 / 12 / 2019

Prepared By

Name Matriculation No.

Rashed Uddin Ripon

3238369

Imtiaj Ahmed Shakil 3213508

Md Ezaz Al Mahmud 3168314

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Abstract

RFID also known as Radio Frequency Identification tags are playing an important role in our

modern lifestyle. Implementing surface acoustic wave in the production of RFID tags has made

them more feasible to commercially produce and use them in consumer level market. SAW enabled

RFID tags use less power and are more robust which helped to be used in different fields. First

invention of this type of tags is more than 40 years old but recent improvements of production

capability (optical lithography), availability of internet and powerful computation technology has

made SAW tags more useful recently. This report will discuss about their construction, working

principle, the coding methodology and some modern use cases.

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Contents

1 Introduction.......................................................................................................................... 4
2 History of RFID Development .............................................................................................. 5
3 Types of RFID tags ............................................................................................................... 5
3.1 Active Tags.................................................................................................................... 6
3.2 Passive Tags .................................................................................................................. 6
4 SAW on RFID...................................................................................................................... 7
4.1 What is SAW? ............................................................................................................... 7
4.2 Use of SAW in RFID tags .............................................................................................. 8
5 Principle of Operation ........................................................................................................... 8
5.1 Construction .................................................................................................................. 8
5.2 Working Principle ........................................................................................................ 10
6 Development and Commercial Improvement of SAW Tags .................................................. 11
7 Data Capacity ..................................................................................................................... 13
8 Encoding ............................................................................................................................ 13
8.2 What is SAW RFID Tags Encoding & Why ................................................................. 15
8.3 Time position encoding ................................................................................................ 16
8.4 Phase encoding ............................................................................................................ 17
8.5 Size and Loss reduction of SAW tags ............................................................................ 18
9 Application ......................................................................................................................... 19
9.1 History of SAW RF ID in Railway .................................................................................... 19
9.2 Train Identification ........................................................................................................... 19
10 SAW RFID Tag as sensor ................................................................................................ 20
10.1 Delay line ....................................................................................................................... 21
10.2 Resonator ....................................................................................................................... 22
11 Technical challenges ........................................................................................................ 24
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 25
References ................................................................................................................................. 26

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1 Introduction

In this report we will discuss about the radio frequency identification tags based on SAW as a

sensing technology. Our main goal will to review the construction and use case of SAW based RFID

which includes the optical lithography and encoding methodology used to identify or transmit a

given code from reader to the tag.

Modern RFID systems were built first during the World War II as an airplane identification system.

After nearly 40 years the technical advancement has enabled the use of RFID in commercial

applications. To be specific the two main obstacle in the tag mechanism are the number of different

codes that can be written on the tag and the capability of transferring data in a given distance and

time. As the production of semiconductor industry has boomed in recent years, now we can produce

highly sophisticated small chips with low cost. The lithographic technology enables us to make

micro and nanometer level fabrication. The smaller we can make these tags the more useful they

become. Also, the smaller tags are useful to use them in high frequency bands.

The advancement of internet, powerful computers, cloud computing and faster communication

technology (4G, 5G) is helping RFID tags to be more multipurpose and powerful. High frequency

with wide frequency bands allow for millions of code combinations to be written and read at a very

smaller time interval.

We can use RFID tags in identification of containers, luggage in airports, inventory management,

traffic control, wildlife tracking, access to parking, flats and numerous other fields.

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2 History of RFID Development

Between the era of 1600s and 1800s significant exploration of observational knowledge in electricity,

magnetism happened with the advancement in mathematical observations. The 1800s is considered

as the introductory century for electromagnetic energy. At first Micheal Farady’s proposed that both

light and radio wave inherits electromagnetic energy, later James Clerk Maxwell published a theory

for electromagnetics which was confirmed by German physicist Heinrich Rudolf Hertz [13].

Fast forward to twentieth century, the first transmission and generation of radio waves was

demonstrated by Ernst F.W. Alexanderson. This leads to the invention of Radar which played an

important role in Second World War and radio broadcasting technology [13]. One of the famous

pioneering applications was in 1939 when the British army developed an identification system that

was called Identify Friend or Foe (IFF) system to recognize the aircrafts of a friend or a foe [14].

The primary vision of modern RFID was introduced from Harry Stockman’s paper

“Communication by Means of Reflected Power” published in 1948. In late 1970s the Los Alamos

Scientific Laboratory started using RFID for animal and vehicle tracking and factory automation.

From 1980s commercial use of RFID has become a norm in transportation industry and railroads.

Since then people from all over the world has showed significant interest in its tracking abilities [13].

3 Types of RFID tags

RFID tags can be categorized in terms of their construction and working principles. The two major

types are IC (integrated circuit) and SAW based RFID tags.

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Figure 1: Basics of RFID tags [1]

We can divide the IC based tags into 2 subcategories:

3.1 Active Tags:

These types of tags include an on-board battery (DC batteries). The inclusion of batteries increases

the cost of the device, limits its lifetime, and, moreover adds the risk of environmental pollution.

Battery in an active tag is charged by the electromagnetic field of the reader and is used in order to

increase the range.

3.2 Passive Tags:

Passive tags do not use any kind of battery or internal energy source and work only using the signal

energy from the external reader.

Another kind of a RFID tag could also be added; which is Battery Assisted Passive RFID tag. This

kind of tag is equipped with a battery, but the battery is activated only when being in presence of a

RFID reader.

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 Figure 2: a. Passive Tags b. Semi-active Tags c. Active Tags [2]

Now when it comes to SAW tags, they do not fall directly in either of these categories. SAW tags do

not need any kind of internal power supply which its best feature. SAW tag simply reflect the

interrogation signal (signal that is transmitting from the reader) and carries the identification

information. To identify the difference between the transmitted signal and reflected signal SAW tags

use the SAW delay mechanism.

4 SAW on RFID

4.1 What is SAW?

SAW is a wave that propagates on the surface of a

solid, elastic materials revealing the exponential
decay with the depth of the material.
The fundamental physical phenomenon lying
behind SAW devices is piezoelectricity.
Piezoelectricity is accumulation of an electric
charge as a result of putting mechanical stress to
the material.

This increases the passiveness of a device as it only reflects the interrogation signal, which can be
much smaller than for the tags with integrated circuits.

The reflected signal that comes back to the reader carries the information read from the tag.

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4.2 Use of SAW in RFID tags

The main idea behind the SAW based RFID tags is based on piezoelectricity. Which means when

an electrical force is applied on the dielectric crystal with surface acoustic property (i.e. LiNbO3) it

will provide you a response in mechanical stress. This mechanical distortion is the key component to

detect and transmit a given code through the tag. The same response can be achieved by applying

mechanical stress and getting an electrical response.

The interrogation signal requires for the SAW tags can be 100 times smaller than the IC based tags

[1]. SAW tags can be fabricated single metal layer photolithographic technology and the standard

tool in current IC fabrication helps to produce devices for about 0.3μm wide electrode [1]. These

smaller sizes enable the SAW tag to be working at 2.4Ghz range.

Electromagnetic waves are fast (almost the speed of light) so tracking the signals (transmission and

reflection) is hard. Because of the delay property of SAW materials which transform the EM waves

to be 100,000 times slower in surface acoustic waves [1]. So, they are perfect to provide the

necessary delay to separate the signals identifying time. This delay can be controlled with a small

substrate length in the tag device.

5 Principle of Operation

5.1 Construction

A SAW based RFID tag system consists of these items:

• A Reader/Transmitter
• Antenna
• Interdigital Transducer – IDT
• Substrate – made of piezoelectric material
• Code reflectors

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We will concentrate on tag itself so we will not discuss about the reader here. Now to start with the

construction of the tag we can reference to the figure no. 3 [1]

Figure 3 Parts of a RFID tag

At first, we have the antenna which is directly connected with the IDT.

Figure 4: IDT [3]

IDT is made of two interlocking metallic electrodes deposited on the surface of a piezoelectric
substrate. It can include from one to a few thousand pairs of electrodes. Usually the gap
between electrodes is λ=4, where λ is a length of a surface acoustic wave.

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 Code reflectors are parallel strips, usually
made of Aluminum, situated on the
surface of the piezoelectric. The
positioning of the strips must be very
precise, because the answer of the tag and
thus the whole sent information is based
on it.
Figure 5: Code reflectors

5.2 Working Principle [1]

A RFID reader emits a request pulse and that is received by the tag antenna connected with the

IDT. As the IDT is directly added on top of the SAW substrate it performs the transformation of

electrical signal into a Nano-scale surface acoustic wave. This is the mechanical displacement of

particles SAW substrate usually shows when an electrical signal is applied on it. This generated

pulse is propagated along the surface of the substrate.

Code reflectors partially reflect the incoming surface acoustic wave and partially transmit it. The

reflectors are placed according to the code they are supposed to hold along with them. As the

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reflectors strips returns a SAW pulse back to the IDT with the code the IDT again converts the wave

response into an electrical response which then transmitted via the antenna to the reader.

From this working method we can deduct the fact that SAW based RFID tags are used in wireless

operation and they do not need to be in sight with the reader to be detected. Whereas barcodes are

meant to be in sight with the reader. Hence the use of RFID is much more convenient than the

regular barcode-based identification system.

6 Development and Commercial Improvement of SAW Tags

Till now we have discussed about the reflector-based IDTs but there are some other forms of

construction which was adapted by several industry. [1]

A. IDT based SAW tags

SAW tags made with transducers normally consist of a large transducer (usually known as

input transducer) including some coding transducers. Both are parallelly connected. When a

signal is sensed all IDT produce surface acoustic wave. As the forward and reverse transfer

function is equal in SAW devices, the input and output attenuation will be same. This results

in spurious signal at first. If the delay between the initial code and signal with the original

code is enough then the original code signal is not overlapped by the spurious signal. For

best results we need best amplitude uniformity of the signal which can be achieved by an

equal distribution of signal to all code IDTs. Similarly, we need to provide equal signal

distribution to the input IDTs which will help to get minimum insertion attenuation.

B. Micro Design/Epcos tags

First commercial operations of SAW tags RFID systems were used in late 1980s by a

Norwegian company Micro Design AS. They were produced by SAWTEK. Installed in the

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 Oslo highway toll ring and airport feeder to identify the cars which was moving at a speed of

100 km/h without a stop.

The system used an ASK coding scheme (signal at a certain time slot = on; no signal = off)

with 32 symbols in a Norwegian 856-MHz ISM band. The readers were fabricated by Micro

Design. The tags were designed by B. Fleischmann (at that time with Epcos) and fabricated

by Epcos. He used a programmable wafer stepper for direct exposure of photoresist on the

wafer for manufacturing of the IDT and all reflectors. Each tag got an individual part of the

step program. The reflectors were placed in 2 tracks situated on one side of the IDT.

C. Siemens SAW Tags

To be compatible with the international ISM band at 2.45 GHz Siemens developed 20- and

31-bit RFID tags. First ASK modulation scheme was used with reflective and non-reflective

structures. The 33 reflectors were distributed in 4 tracks and to compensate attenuation

difference among the groups they were weighted with different apertures.

Munich subway and local train systems used 20-bit code space. They were mounted to the

both sides of the railway vehicles. The readers were attached near the lines and connected

with a central database. The tags could have been identified up to 350 km/h moving train.

D. BaumerIdent Tags

TAGIX, a small Swiss company introduced this type of tags. They used 2.4Ghz ISM band

with split finger IDT. 3rd harmonic was used with 5 open circuit having λ/2 width wide

reflectors. Time positioning coding helped to made 10,000 different codes.

E. Hartmann’s Global Tag

A significant step toward practically infinite numbers of codes was made by C. Hartmann

[3], [19]–[23]. In his coding scheme, the time position is used, but time slots for the position

of the center of a pulse are radically reduced due to prescribing to each slot some phase

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 which is systematically growing along the array of slots inside a given group of slots. Code

capacity of 256 bits was predicted and 128 bits was already prototyped.

7 Data Capacity

The number of unique codes we can write on the RFID tags is determined by the BT product.

Where B = frequency bandwidth we are dealing with and T = coding/delay time. This follows the

Shannon’s formula [2] –

The delay is related to the propagation distance of 8 and 16 mm. To accommodate 32 bits a

frequency band of 16MHz is needed. We can only achieve that within relatively high frequency

band ranging from 2400 to 2483 Mhz. Local communication systems like Bluetooth, WLAN,

Wireless mouse etc. use this bands extensively. [1]

Hence 2.45GHz range is most desired and this results in line width of 0.3 to 0.4 µm during

photolithography tools.

8 Encoding

8.1 What does Encoding mean?

Encoding is the process of converting data into a format required for a number of information

processing needs [5].

[e.g.-Data transmission, storage and compression or decompression]

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Encoding can have two meanings:

➢ 1. In computer technology: - encoding is the process of applying a specific code such as

letters, symbols and numbers to data for conversion.

➢ 2. In electronics: - encoding refers to analog to digital conversion.

In computer technology, the encoding procedure is used widely for storage large file and data. The

variety of media files are often encoded to save very small megabyte of disk space like Audio, Video,

image files etc. By encoding digital audio, video, and image files, they can be saved in a more

efficient, compressed format. After completing data encoding, the file does not change from its

actual quality and originality but have much smaller file sizes. For example, a WAVE (.WAV) audio

file that is converted to an MP3 (.MP3) file may be 1/10 the size of the original WAVE file.

Similarly, an MPEG (.MPG) compressed video file may only require a fraction of the disk space as

the original digital video (. DV) file [5].

In communication technology, encoding is the great process for transmitting analog to digital data in

communication systems where communication analog signal is converted to a digital data by 0 and

1.The encoder uses a ‘medium’ to send the message — a phone call, email, text message, face-to-

face meeting, or other communication tool [5]. During the encoding of any communication device,

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the encoder should also consider any ‘noise’ that might interfere with their message, such as other

messages, distractions, or influences.

8.2 What is SAW RF ID Tags Encoding & Why

Surface acoustic wave (SAW) radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags are encoded according to

partial reflections of an interrogation signal by short metal reflectors [1].

➢ Easier to design a SAW tag.

➢ uniform amplitudes of response signals.

➢ Increasing accuracy of phase values.

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Designing a SAW tag perfectly needs accurate encoding which is mostly helping to implement by

using a bidirectional inter digital transducer (IDT). First, IDT receives transmitted signal from

outside of the device then this signal is transmitted through the piezoelectric material to reflector. It

is occurred very efficiently and precisely by IDT, and the signal is encoded in reflector site. During

the signal encoding, the amplitudes of signal are become uniform and equal to each other where the

signal phase values are also same [7].

8.3 Time position encoding

Time position encoding is used widely in commercial sector like grocery shop, fashion house,

transportation ticket etc. It is most straightforward way of data encoding process in SAW tags.

During time position encoding, the total time delay is divided into slots of certain duration, each of

which has got the same duration.

This slot width is roughly equal to the time width Δt of the pulses, that is, Δ t = 1/B, where B is the

frequency band of the overall system. Total 2.45 GHz band capacity, only 40 MHz capacity can be

used a band in the time position encoding where each slots width will be 25ns [1]. The slots form

groups of, for example, five slots. Between this grouping, one of the first four slots of each group is

occupied by a reflector while the fifth one is empty, and the empty slot is called guard slot. The

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important specialty of time position encoding is reflector position. Each reflector takes four possible

position during encoding where the total number of different realizable codes is 4n for a tag having n

reflectors. If the reflector is become ten code capacity, then code will be generated 10^6.

8.4 Phase encoding

Phase encoding does not have commercial familiarity yet. In this encoding method, a reflector is

slightly shifted in the area of one slot where phase shift is obtained 90 degree. On the other hand, the

principle of introducing phase shifts of 90° by shifting reflector positions by multiples of λ /8.Each

reflector can have 4 phase positions, which adds 2 additional bits to time position encoding [1].

In according to phase encoding, ten code reflectors will have 2^40 variants of code, 40 bits or 10^12

different codes. Phase coding can be combined with time position encoding in a cleverer way instead

of keeping time slots unchanged and introducing phase modulation of the reflectors. Keeping time

slots unchanged and radically increase the number of slots in a group. Besides, phase of reflected

responses depends on the signal-to-noise ratio.

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8.5 Size and Loss reduction of SAW tags

The size of chip is most important for designing SAW tags device where both bidirectional and

unidirectional IDT are used precisely. On the other hand, bidirectional transducer is normally

designed to have their reflectors on both sides of the transducer. For reducing chip size, two mirrors

are used inside the device. Consequently, the distance between mirror and SPUDT are very small.

After receiving outside signal by SPUDT, the signal is transmitted to nearest mirror where signal is

reflected by mirror. Putting two mirrors on the chip area allows to use it more efficiently by folding

the channel and placing code reflectors closer the transducer, and the whole chip will be smaller. On

the other hand, using unidirectional transducers and it is possible to get rid of one side, which results

in decreasing the length of the device. Else, Unidirectional transducers could offer a loss reduction of

about 30 % that means, use a bidirectional IDT, have a loss level on the order of -55 dB for 10 000

codes. This will be reduced to about -40 dB for SAW tags with a unidirectional transducer [1].

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9 Application

9.1 History of SAW RF ID in Railway

One of the first commercial successes of Surface acoustic wave (SAW) tags was on the Norwegian

highway in Oslo in 1980. Starting in the 1980’s with RFID’s extension into vehicle identification

and tolling, auto-identification of vehicles and assets became the solitary focus of certain sectors in

the transportation industry [8]. The idea that vehicles can be identified not only from a bigger

distance than with barcodes, but also traveling at high speeds, seemed to be the golden ticket for the

railroad industry. Across the world, in countries like Republic of Finland, Sweden, African Nations,

Germany, the United States [8]. for example, railways are becoming increasingly streamlined and

smarter with the utilize of auto-ID. Benefits do not stop at companies that own railways or rail cars,

but extend to people and companies that rely on railways for safe and economical travel for

themselves or their goods and supplies [8].

9.2 Train Identification

SAW RFID tags have since been used for identification in several areas. They have been used to

identify trains, such as the ones in the Munich subway. Live identification in trains is difficult due to

the high energy; wideband interference caused by motors and alternators as well as the presence of

large moving metal obstacles, and thus cannot be feasibly done using traditional RFID [9]. Here two

tags are mounted on each railcar, one on the left side, and one for the right [8].

It is extremely vital that the tag designated as the Left tag be mounted on the left side of the railcar

and the Right-designated tag on the right side. If they are not mounted on the correct sides, the

reader will report the railcar’s orientation incorrectly [10].

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 Figure-1 : SAW RFID use in train

The sides of a railcar are defined by their location relative to the handbrake end of the railcar.

Imagine standing on the track and looking directly in the handbrake. The left side of the car will be

on left, and the right side of the car will be on right [10]. An operating frequency of 2.45 GHz and a

20-bit amplitude shift-keying scheme is used. The tags work without failure at train velocities of 350

km/h and at an ambient temperature of 400°C, something that could also not be achieved with IC

RFID [9].

10 SAW RF ID Tag as sensor

Surface acoustic wave technology has many benefits over its counterparts. the technology behind

conventional RFID tags, the response of SAW reflectors can be modified in field by the

surroundings. This inherently allows SAW RFID tags to be used as sensors. SAW RFID tag are

capable of inherently processing temperature sensing function since SAW is highly sensitive and

perfectly linear to temperature that affects phase velocity of surface acoustic waves propagating on

piezoelectric substrate. The choice of the piezoelectric substrate, which is an essential part of SAW

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devices, is one of the challenges to face to realize such sensors [11]. Indeed, there are very few

piezoelectric materials capable of withstanding high temperatures above 600°C. Piezoelectric

materials conventionally used in SAW industry are limited in elevated temperatures because of

various physical phenomena including:

• Phase transition that lead to a change and instability of piezoelectric properties with

temperature.

• Electrical resistivity that decreases strongly with temperature leading to increase the acoustic

propagation losses. Two configurations, described below, can be considered to use SAW

devices as wireless sensor.

• Temperature dependence of electromechanical properties.

As example of piezoelectric materials widely used but limited in evaluated temperature, we can cite,

the quartz and lithium tantalite (LiTaO3) limited by their Curie temperature (Tc), respectively equal

to 570 and 602 °C. Concerning the lithium niobate (LiNbO3) that exhibits a high Tc (1150°C) and

excellent piezoelectric properties at room temperature, its low electrical resistivity limits its

applications below 600°C. This limitation is below 300 °C if we consider the depleted oxygen

LiNbO3 (also called black or yellow LiNbO3) and largely used in SAW industry thanks to its

pyroelectricity. This suggests that the increase of defects enhance the conductivity of crystal and then

increase the propagation losses [11]. Consequently, we can speculate that stoichiometric LiNbO3

will be capable of withstand higher temperature. However, the problem is the unavailability of

physical phenomenon of crystal with an affordable price. Two factors are describing below, can

considered the use of SAW devices as wireless sensor [11].

10.1 Delay line

The operating principle of such a sensor system is sketched in figure below. The reader unit (local

radar transceiver) sends out a radio frequency (RF) electromagnetic read-out signal. This read-out

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signal is picked up by the antenna of the passive SAW transponder and conducted to an IDT [11].

The IDT converts the received signal into a SAW signal by the converse piezoelectric effect. The

SAW propagates towards several reflectors distributed in a characteristic pattern. A small part of the

wave is reflected at each reflector. The micro acoustic wave packets now returning to the IDT are

reconverted into electrical signals by the IDT and retransmitted to the radar [11].

Figure: SAW wireless sensor in delay line configuration.

The measured (temperature, pressure, strain) affects both, the velocity of the acoustic wave and its

path length so that the delay between echoes is changed. The valuation of the overall time-domain

response in the radar unit thus allows to the determination of the environmental temperature or

pressure of the passive SAW transponder. The same system could be also used as RFID Tag leading

to identify the relevant sensor among many [11].

10.2 Resonator

The technological advances in the field of SAW have allowed the attainment of resonators with a

high-quality factor (Q) which allows the design sensor-based SAW resonator (SAWR) with high

sensitivity, accuracy, long-term stability and the opportunity of storing electromagnetic energy. A

SAW resonator consists of a piezoelectric substrate, an interdigital transducer (IDT), and two

reflectors in the direction of the propagating wave in the figure below. The IDT is connected to an

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antenna. It receives the energy for the excitation of SAW by an electromagnetic wave coming from

the interrogation unit [11]. The IDT converts electrical energy to mechanical energy of the surface

acoustic wave. The two reflector gratings form a resonating cavity in which a standing wave is

generated in the case of resonance [11].

Figure: SAW wireless sensor in one port resonator configuration.

Advantages

There are many applications and uses of SAW RFID technology.

• They do not require any DC input. This means that no wasteful power circuitry needs to be

included onboard to rectify the request signal and bias the device [9].

• They thus use at least 100 times less power than their equivalent counterparts [9].

• They inherently avoid echoes, again minimizing environmental placement and design.

• They inherently avoid echoes, again minimizing environmental placement and design.

• They inherently avoid echoes, again minimizing environmental placement and design.

• Signals reflected from these tags and sensors show better penetration through metal and

liquid.

• They show promise of becoming easier to manufacture than their IC counterparts [9].

• Increased Customer Service, Visibility

• Decreased Quantity of Lost/Stolen Items [8].

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 • Decreased Fraud, Human Error, Logistic delay, Operating Cost.

11 Technical challenges

Together with the progress of SAW RFID sensing methods and like any newly developed

technologies, some intrinsic challenges that hinder its further developments and applications exist,

which are summarized as follows:

Calibration for accurate measurement

As is the case with any electromagnetic sensors, the RFID sensor is sensitive to ambient

environment and object under test, such as temperature, ambient metal and electromagnetic

radiation, and size and shape of object under test, which interrelate with reflection, refraction and

scattering of radio waves. Suffering from the environmental affects is frequent to resonance based

electromagnetic sensors. Therefore, the calibration is an necessary but complicated step to achieve

desired accuracy in measurement [12].

Sparsely and noise of RFID sensing

RFID sensors can execute the real-time measurement for static and low speed variations. Data

stream from RFID sensors is characterized by sparsely and noise due to the inherent attributes of

RFID reading, which makes streaming based high-speed continuous measurement a challenging

task [12].

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Electromagnetic coupling in RFID sensor array

RFID array is a way to extend the spatial dimension of RFID sensor measurement, and it is a low-

cost solution for 2D electromagnetic measurement. However, the electromagnetic coupling between

tags results in cross sensitivity, which harms the accuracy of measurement [12].

Security for some use cases

For many sensor occasions such as healthcare assisted diagnosis, and smart home, the parameters

measured might be sensitive and confidential for users. Thus, the data protection for these use

scenarios is a critical issue for the systems. Since RFID sensors work in remoteness, the security of

data is an issue to be careful about some applications. Corresponding solutions to overcome the

technical challenges are being investigated and the open issues are major concerns of future studies

in the related areas [12].

Conclusion

The rapid improvement of SAW RFID sensors has created tremendous opportunities for wireless

measurement in a variety of sectors. Applications that utilize a SAW RFID tag as a sensor become

common and some novel applications for different use cases appear tremendously. Especially due to

the strengths of cheap cost, easy to use, and convenient integration, RFID sensors will play a vital

role in pervasive IoT applications in the near future. The comprehensive summary of the innovative

studies and reported in this work will be of interest for academic and industrial communities in

investigating, developing, and applying SAW RFID for measurement purposes in various fields.

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