Bending Effect Study of Flexible Fully Printed and

Late-Stage Codified Octagonal Chipless RFID Tag

Submitted in
Partial fulfilment of the requirements for

The degree of

Bachelor of Technology
in

Electronics and Communication Engineering

by

Menta Pavan Sri Harsha

Roll no.: 17EC8007

Under the supervision of

Prof. Rowdra Ghatak

Electronics and Communication

Engineering
National Institute of Technology, Durgapur
May 26, 2021

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 Certificate
This is to certify that the research work, which has been presented in this thesis
entitled Bending Effect Study of Flexible Fully Printed and Late-Stage Codified
Octagonal Chipless RFID Tag submitted by Menta Pavan Sri Harsha, Roll No. 17EC8007,
has been carried out under my supervision in the partial fulfilment of the requirements
for the degree of Bachelor of Technology in Electronics and Communication Engineering
during the session 2017-2021 in the Department of Electronics and Communication
Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Durgapur. No part of this thesis has been
submitted for the award of any degree in any university or institution.

Prof. Rowdra Ghatak

Date: 26-05-2021 Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering

Place: Palakol National Institute of Technology, Durgapur

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 Acknowledgement

Before diving into this report, I would like to thank and express my gratitude for few
personalities who have kept me supporting throughout the project, since its birth.
Without their support, guidance and encouragement this project could not have
happened.

First of all, I would like to thank my parents who supported me in everything since my
birth. I would be indebted to them for motivating me every time I felt low in these tough
times of COVID-19.

Secondly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude towards my project guide, Prof.
Rowdra Ghatak who has been not only my project guide but also my career guide.
Thanks for being with us every time we needed you and thanks a lot for you support
when I was ill.

Also, I would like to thank all the faculty of Department of Electronics and
Communication Engineering, NIT Durgapur for teaching us all the concepts in such a
way that we can understand them very easily and apply them in our real life and career
and for being the most co-operative ever.

Finally, all my fellow classmates and friends who have been supporting always and
being there to help me always.

Thanks for your Valuable Guidance and kind Support.

Menta Pavan Sri Harsha

Roll No.: 17EC8007

Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering

National Institute of Technology, Durgapur

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 Abstract
In this thesis, octagonal chipless RFID tags are introduced, and herein the design
development, the possible methods to fabricate the tags and the simulated results are
presented. The tags designed are based on the frequency selective surfaces and can be
produced by techniques like screen printing, inkjet printing etc., on low-cost flexible
materials like paper, plastic etc. A novel codification technique which can be useful to
complement the high yield manufacturing processes has been proposed. Through an
extensive simulation campaign, the functionality of an Octagonal chipless RFID tag is
proved. The simulated results include morphological characterisation, ID code
verification, and a complete study of the bending effects on the tag. All the simulations
were done using CST Studio Suite 2019 (commercial version).

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Contents
1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 6

1.1 Introduction to Chipless RFID ................................................................................................. 6

1.2 Motivation .................................................................................................................................... 9

1.3 Literature review and scope of work ..................................................................................... 9

1.4 Organization of the Thesis ........................................................................................................ 9

2 Octagonal chipless RFID tag .................................................................................................. 11

3 Working principle and coding .............................................................................................. 12

4 Late-stage codifying methodology ...................................................................................... 16

5 Bending effects of the tag........................................................................................................ 17

6 Conclusion.................................................................................................................................... 19

7 References ................................................................................................................................... 20

Appendix .......................................................................................................................................... 21

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1. Introduction
1.1 Introduction to Chipless RFID
In recent years the automatic identification procedures have become very popular in
many service industries, logistics, warehouse management, manufacturing companies,
retail industry etc. Automatic identification procedures exist to provide information
about people, animals, goods and products in transit. Over the years many relevant
technologies have been developed which include the omnipresent Barcode label, QR
code, Optical Character Recognition, Biometric identification, smart cards etc. Almost
everyone of use these technologies in our daily life with or without actual knowledge.
One of the latest technologies, that is rapidly replacing few of the foresaid techniques is
RFID, abbreviation for Radio Frequency Identification.

RFID systems are closely related to the smart cards[1]. Like smart card systems, data is
stored on an electronic data-carrying device – the transponder. However, unlike the
smart card, the power supply to the data-carrying device and the data exchange
between the data-carrying device and the reader are achieved without the use of
galvanic contacts, using instead magnetic or electromagnetic fields. The underlying
technical procedure is drawn from the fields of radio and radar engineering. The
abbreviation RFID stands for radio frequency identification, i.e., information carried by
radio waves. Due to the numerous advantages of RFID systems compared with other
identification systems, RFID systems are now beginning to conquer new mass markets.
One example of RFID system that most of the people can relate is the Fastag used for
collecting tolls at toll plazas (in India).

An RFID system is always made up of two components, the transponder and the reader
as shown in the Fig.1.1. The transponder is basically an RFID tag which is located on the
object to be identified and the reader or interrogator may be a read or read/write
device based on the design and technology used.

We can distinguish RFID tags, based on how the energy the energy supply of the
transponder/tag works, as Active and Passive transponders. Passive tags don’t have any
power supply. Through the transponder antenna, the magnetic or electromagnetic field
of the reader provides all the energy required for operating the transponder. Active

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transponders have their own energy supply, e.g., in form of a battery or a solar cell. In
this thesis our interest remains with Passive chipless tags.

Fig.1.1: The reader and transponder, the main components of every RFID system

The chipless RFID technology has received much attention in the recent years due to its
huge applicability potential which could reach to a wide market spectrum. Thereby, the
development efforts in this field are specially focused on applications related to item-
level tagging, sensing and security. However, despite high activity in this area, the
chipless RFID technology is far from being ready for commercialization and more
research efforts to bridge the gap between development and market are necessary. One
main challenge to adopt RFID is their cost. The design and fabrication of ASICs needed
for RFID are the major component of their cost, so removing ICs altogether can
significantly reduce its cost. Since a chipless RFID tag doesn’t have any IC in it, the
manufacturing cost significantly decreases. Therefore, chipless RFID tags with reduced
production costs as well as an acceptable functional performance are in strong demand.

In order to decrease the final tag cost, the first step would be to reduce the cost of
manufacturing maintaining functional performance. For this purpose, several
production techniques have been proposed like, lithographic techniques and inkjet
printing. However preferable technologies to dramatically reduce the production cost
are the roll-to-roll (R2R) printing technologies due to their high yield and cost
efficiency.

By choosing the R2R printing technology, despite the economical benefits, the use of
flexible materials like paper and plastic has received scarce attention in the literature.
So, little research on the effect of flexible properties of such materials on the
performance of the tags has been conducted. Hence basic deformations of a tag such as

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bending and folding need to be studied in order to understand the performance
limitations of the passive chipless RFID tags.

Besides many advantages of the chipless tags, one major potential drawback is
represented by the codification of the tags, which appears rather static. Usually, the
code of the tag is created during the production by patterning a particular shape. Once
the tags are printed, the code cannot be easily changed, which can be problematic for
many applications. Therefore, a more flexible codification would be desirable, which can
be applied independent from the utilized mass printing manufacturing technology.
However, the refinement of such an approach for a codification technique that
complements the mass printing manufacturing process, while being flexible enough to
be integrated in the end-users’ application environment, is still needed.

In this thesis, we shall discuss a novel octagonal chipless RFID tag. The octagonal
chipless RFID tag is a flexible, fully printable, and passive device, which contains neither
integrated circuit nor surface mount device on it. The materials used to simulate the
studied samples include paper(oil impregnated), which is thin, flexible, low cost and
compatible with mass-production techniques. The actual aspect of an octagonal chipless
RFID tag is shown in Fig.1.2.

Fig.1.2: Actual aspect of an octagonal chipless RFID tag

The octagonal chipless RFID tag uses the frequency-selective surfaces (FSSs)-based
design methodology, which assures a high radar cross section (RCS) response and
extended read ranges. Additional characteristics for instance, polarisation
independence, and a novel post fabrication encoding procedure are also included in this
design.

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1.2 Motivation
Most of us experience standing in long queues at a billing counter in a mall, a long delay
at a toll plaza due to heavy traffic in the route, inconvenience while shopping due to
misplacement of merchandise in a cloth store or arranging and identifying things in an
inventory and many more. All these problems can be solved with the use of RFID tags.
Using RFID tags multiple items can be billed at a time, toll can be paid without even
stopping at the toll plaza etc. This wide range of application in various fields motivates
the growing research in the field of RFID. As discussed in the introduction all the above
said applications can be fulfilled by a perfectly encoded chipless RFID tag.

The motivation to this thesis includes the reduction of manufacturing cost of the RFID
tags which can encourage people, companies and Government to use this cutting edge
technology.

1.3 Literature review and scope of the work

In [1], one can find a detailed information regarding the RFID technology which can be
useful for making new designs of tags with much efficient performance and flexibility in
coding.

In [3], a simulation engine named RFIDSim has been developed and explained which
can be useful to simulate a complete RFID system including the tag and the reader. This
even encourages to develop such simulators for much easier research.

In [4], fabrication of an RFID tag metal antenna on a paper substrate using inkjet
printing technology. This may help in choosing an effective technology for fabrication of
RFID tags.

1.4 Organisation of the thesis

The remaining work is organised as follows.

In chapter 2, more about the Octagonal chipless RFID tag has been discussed.

In chapter 3, the working principle and coding of the tag has been discussed.

In chapter 4, the late-stage coding methodology of the tag is discussed.

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In chapter 5, the simulated results of Bending effects of the tag are presented.

And finally, conclusions are drawn from the simulated results.

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2. Octagonal Chipless RFID Tag
The octagonal chipless RFID tags are designed to work within the ultrawideband (UWB)
frequencies, specifically from 3.1 to 10 GHz. Up to 5 bits can be encoded within the
available bandwidth and using the geometry and backscattering properties of the tag.

An octagon shape was chosen as a base for the design and in order to assure the
independence of the polarization feature. Similarly in case of circular or square shaped
tags reported in [5], [6], and [7], the symmetry exhibited by an octagon shape allows the
tag to be read independently of any rotation angle introduced. This feature may be
critical for the development of real-life applications where a stable tag position cannot
be guaranteed.

The tag design, as mentioned earlier, is based on the FSS design methodology. In this
methodology, the design effort mainly focuses on the definition of the physical
characteristics of a unit element. Once this unit element is designed, it is repeated
throughout the entire structure to create a periodic like surface. In the octagonal
chipless RFID tag, the unit element is a multi-octagonal ring structure. This structure
consists of six concentric octagon rings plus one additional solid octagon located at the
center. A complete octagonal chipless RFID tag is composed by several unit elements
arranged in a form. A unit element illustration with dimensions is shown in Fig. 2.1.
Specifically, for the results reported later, arrays of 1x1 and 2×3 unit elements were
used. The sizes of the tags are 26 mm×26 mm and 52 mm×78 mm, respectively.

Fig.2.1: Octagonal chipless RFID tag composed in an array of 5 × 5 elements (in the
background) and the unit element (in the foreground) and its dimensions.

The same dimensions of the octagonal rings shown in Fig.2.1 are used for simulation.

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3. Working principle and coding
In order to analyse the contribution of each component of the unit element structure on
the whole tag behaviour, a simplified version of the structure is analysed. Thereby, not
only the individual performance of each octagonal ring but also the joint effects of
several octagonal rings put together are contemplated. For further analysis, only the
first and second rings from the original tag unit element are considered, i.e., the ones
with a diameter of 22.4mm and 18.8mm as described in Fig.2.1.

With the purpose of studying the scattering mechanism in the octagonal chipless RFID
tag, the tag is illuminated by an incident field (Ei, Hi), launched from a transmitting
antenna as illustrated in Fig.3.1. When an incident field (Ei) impinges the structure
formed by just one ring, a surface current along the ring is induced. That surface current
(J) acts as an equivalent current source and produces a radiated field scattered from the
tag (Es). The numerical simulations for Es plotted against the frequency are shown in
Fig.3.2. The maximum E-field observed in far fields depends on the size of the octagonal
ring, and thus, the ring with a diameter of 22.4 mm has a maximum E-field near to
4.5GHz, while the smaller ring (18.8 mm in diameter) has a maximum E-field at 5.5GHz.

Fig.3.1: 5-b octagonal chipless RFID tag illuminated by a plane wave at 5.2 GHz.

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 Fig.3.2: Red, green line in the first pic represents the E-field(farfield) for 22.4mm,
18.8mm rings respectively; The second pic represents the E-field(farfield) for both the
rings combined and contact and not contacts are made between the rings; The third pic
represents the E-field(farfield) for both the rings combined and contact and not
contacts are made between the rings

Fig.3.3: The first pic represents the rings combined and no contacts are made between
the rings; The second pic represents both the rings combined and contacts are made
between the rings

When these two rings (as in Fig.3.3) are put together, a different response can be
observed as seen in the second and third pics of Fig.3.2. When this structure is impinged

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with Ei , a surface current Jout on the outer ring and Jin on the inner ring are induced. The
standing waves describing the current distribution, at 4.7GHz, are approximately equal
in magnitude but opposite in phase as illustrated in Fig. 3.4. Note that in far field, these
equivalent sources, i.e., the two rings, are close enough as to be considered the same
point. Therefore, by considering the scattered E-field created from these two sources to
be similarly polarized and with an odd multiple of π phase difference, we can conclude
that at boresight, these scattered waves seem to be destructively interfered in free
space, and thus no field is radiated at this frequency and the resonance as shown in
Fig.3.2 is created and thus there is a drastic fall in the electric field.

Now, by adding a set of short circuits/contacts (as shown in Fig.3.3) between the
adjacent rings, the distribution of the currents can be modified, and the far field
response at 4.7GHz changes. These short circuits (when applied symmetrically at four
points of the structure) force standing waves (Jin and Jout) to have a similar phase as
shown in Fig.3.4, and therefore, the radiated E-field produced from these equivalent
current sources is constructively interfered in free space, and subsequently, the
resonance is suppressed and thus no drastic fall in the electric field can be observed as
in the previous case.

Fig.3.4: E-field and surface currents distribution on a two-octagonal structure at 4.7GHz

By following this reasoning, the frequency signature for the complete tag, as shown in
Fig. 2.1, can be explained.

In this case, all the neighbouring rings composing the whole structure interact among
them and with the other rings to create a specific frequency response. Thus, the
interaction between neighbouring rings makes the apparition of several resonances
(notches) in the |RCS| response possible, as shown in Fig.3.5. In Fig.3.5, the five
expected resonances appearing at UWB frequency band are observed. Each frequency

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resonance is dependent on the diameter, width, and gap separation between the
neighbouring rings.

Fig.3.5 Notch-based codification for the octagonal chipless RFID tags. Coding is based on
the presence of notches in the frequency signature response of the tags. Simulated
response for the tag with code 11111 is given here

In order to introduce an ID code on the tag, the following methodology is applied. In an

initial step, a reference tag is defined. Usually, the reference tag is the one without short
circuits and showing all possible notches in the tag’s frequency signature. Therefore,
when no short circuits are present, a gap between neighbouring rings is associated with
a notch in the frequency signature, and this characteristic is digitalized by assigning a
logic 1. In a second step, a different code is created by printing a set of short circuits on
the structure, which suppress the resonance created for two neighbouring rings. Thus,
when short circuits are present, the frequency signature changes making the respective
notch disappear, and this change is digitalized by assigning a logic 0. In Fig. 3.6, the
encoding of an octagonal chipless RFID tag with code 01011 and 01111 are illustrated.
The most significant bit is related to the outer rings.

Fig.3.6: Simulated responses for tags with code 01011 and 01111

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 Fig3.7 Simulated tags for the codes 01011, 01111 and the reference 11111 tag
respectively

4. Late-stage coding methodology

A novel methodology for codifying the octagonal chipless RFID tags in a postproduction
stage is introduced next. In this methodology, the fully printed chipless RFID tag
fabrication process is split into both a mass-production process and a late codifying
stage.

In the mass-production stage, the mass manufacturing of the reference tag i.e., the tag
with no short circuits, included in its geometry, is focused. This tag is associated with
the code 11111. The late-stage codifying stage mainly involves the printing of short
circuits on the reference tag. For this purpose, a range of printing techniques can be
applied. Thus, at late stages, the tag can be processed in an individual fashion and at
lower speeds in accordance with the application scenario. Thereby, short circuits can be
printed at specific locations on the tag surface according to the desired code to be
created.

Fig.4.1: Left: actual aspect of a

reference tag produced using a mass
compatible technique. Right: code
introduced as a postproduction
stage.

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5. Bending effects of the tag
A bent tag is by adding a curvature to the tag’s surface. During simulations, the tag
curvature is fixed by adding a cylinder of vacuum of the required radius as a mould. For
obtaining these results, a tag of size 52mmx78mm with 2x3 array of unit elements with
code 11111 is used. The substrate in Paper(oil impregnated) and the material for the
tag is Copper(annealed).

The measured bent tags included the following radii: 100, 60, 30mm. These results were
obtained for bending in two different directions,

a) Horizontal bending (represented by Bent H) is bending the tag with an axis

parallel to V-axis.
b) Vertical bending (represented by Bent V) is bending the tag with an axis parallel
to U-axis.

The simulated tags are as follows,

Fig.5.1: 2x3 Tag with no bending

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 Fig.5.2: 2x3 Tag bent horizontally with Rbend=100,60,30mm respectively

Fig.5.3: 2x3 Tag bent vertically with Rbend=100,60,30mm respectively

The simulated |RCS| (dB(m2)) for the vertically bent tags are as follows,

Fig.5.4: |RCS| results for the 2x3 tag bent vertically at different radii

The simulated |RCS| (dB(m2)) for the horizontally bent tags are as follows,

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 Fig.5.5: |RCS| results for the 2x3 tag bent vertically at different radii

It is notable that independent of the applied curvature, the |RCS| peaks and notches
remain recognizable for all the reported cases. Furthermore, there is no degradation of
signal observed but an expected reduction on the backscattered power. Therefore, it is
concluded that the information stored on a bent tag can be successfully recovered. It can
be observed that tags bent vertically worked much better, than the tags bent
horizontally especially at Rbend=100mm, 60mm. This might be due to light curvature and
tag’s axis alignment.

6. Conclusion
In this paper a fully printable octagonal chipless RFID tag was presented. This tag was
designed to be compatible with mass-production techniques and can be late-stage
codified. Consequently, flexible and low-cost materials like PET and paper can be
chosen for the manufacturing process. The tags were simulated with Paper (oil
impregnated) as substrate and Copper(annealed) as the material of the Octagonal rings.
Furthermore, a late-stage codification technique is proposed. A complete study of the
behaviour of the tag has been done with various codes like, 11111, 01011 and 01111.
Also, the performance of the tag is studied when it is bent at different radii. By using
periodic like structure units (like same unit in 2x3 array) increases the read range of the
tag.

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7. References
[1] Klaus Finkenzellar, ’RFID Handbook’, John Wiley & Sons Ltd.,2010

[2] Diego Betancourt, Katherina Haase, Arved Hübler, and Frank Ellinger, Senior Member, IEEE ,
‘Bending and Folding Effect Study of Flexible Fully Printed and Late-Stage Codified Octagonal
Chipless RFID Tags’, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 64, NO. 7, JULY
2016

[3] Christian Floerkemeier and Sanjay Sarma, ‘RFIDSim—A Physical and Logical Layer Simulation
Engine for Passive RFID’, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON AUTOMATION SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, VOL. 6,
NO. 1, JANUARY 2009

[4] Yan Wang, Chuan Yan, Si-Yuan Cheng, Zhao-Quan Xu, Xuping Sun, You-He Xu, Jin-Ju Chen, Zhi
Jiang, Kun Liang, and Zhe-Sheng Feng, ‘Flexible RFID Tag Metal Antenna on Paper-Based Substrate by
Inkjet Printing Technology’, Adv. Funct. Mater. 2019, 29, 1902579, © 2019 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH
& Co. KGaA, Weinheim

[5] D. Betancourt et al., “Square-shape fully printed chipless RFID tag and its applications in
evacuation procedures,” in Proc. 9th EUCAP, Lisbon, Portugal, May 2015, pp. 1–5.

[6] F. Costa, S. Genovesi, and A. Monorchio, “Chipless RFIDs for metallic objects by using cross
polarization encoding,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 62, no. 8, pp. 4402–4407, Aug. 2014.

[7] A. Vena, E. Perret, and S. Tedjini, “High-capacity chipless RFID tag insensitive to the polarization,”
IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 60, no. 10, pp. 4509–4515, Oct. 2012.

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Appendix
This appendix gives a little idea on how to measure |RCS| analytically and how to
estimate the read range from it.

The RCS (σtag) of the chipless RFID tag is estimated (at boresight) using the following
equation:

𝑡𝑎𝑔 𝑛𝑜 2
𝑆21 − 𝑆21 𝑡𝑎𝑔
𝜎 𝑡𝑎𝑔 = ( 𝑟𝑒𝑓 𝑛𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑔 ) 𝜎 𝑟𝑒𝑓
𝑆21 − 𝑆21

This is done experimentally.

The read range of the tag can be estimated from the RCS using the following equation:

4 𝐺𝑇 𝐺𝑅 𝜆2 𝜎𝑡𝑎𝑔 𝑃𝑇
𝑅=√
(4𝜋)3 𝑃𝑚𝑖𝑛

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