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CNT-RFID passive tag antenna for gas sensing in underground mine

Conference Paper · July 2015

DOI: 10.1109/APS.2015.7305268

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 CNT-RFID passive tag antenna for gas sensing in
underground mine
I. Gammoudi, B. Aissa and M. Nedil. M. M. Abdallah
Underground communications research laboratory Minia University, Faculty of Engineering, Electrical Dept
Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT) Electronics & Communication Section
675, 1ère avenue, Val d'Or, QC, J9P 1Y3, Qc, Canada

.
Abstract— In this paper, a RFID passive tag sensing antenna, procedure is briefly presented in section II and the results are
implemented in an LCP substrate integrated Carbon Nanotube provided in section III.
(CNT) composite, is designed. The proposed antenna uses CNT
to allow gas detection. The CNT conductivity variation, the
reflection coefficient, and the antenna impedance were carried II. DESIGN OF RFID PASSIVE SENSING TAG
out using Ansoft HFSS. The simulated results showed that the
proposed antenna exhibits a good performance especially in
The goal of this design is to integrate the CNT material
terms of frequency shifting due to the impedance variation. with a microstrip passive RFID tag antenna [9] on LCP
substrate. For this purpose, the LCP substrate that has as
Keywords-component: RFID passive tag, LCP, CNT. characteristics: dielectric constant of 4.8 with 0.006 of losses
was used and the whole structure is optimized using the EM
I. INTRODUCTION simulator HFSS [10]. In this work, the CNT acts as a load on
The outstanding growth of Radio frequency identification the conventional RFID passive tag [4]. In this design, the CNT
RFID technology requires special attention to improve its could be considered as a lossy metal. The CNT of (a×b)
performance in term of size, cost, and flexibility. Teamed with dimension was placed between the radiating body and the
other technology like sensors, RFID could be integrated in loop, as illustrated in Fig.1.
many domains. In fact, the sensor will not only ensure the
efficiency of RFID basic identification capabilities, although it
could integrate further applications such as environment
monitoring, food industry, medical system, and supply chain
[1]. Furthermore, the passive RFID sensing was well applied as
temperature sensing [2], battery-free wireless sensing [1],
human body sensing [3], and gas-detection [4, 5].
Currently, there is a high demand related to the need of
lightweight, low cost and reliable RFID sensor [6]. In this area,
the Carbon nanotubes CNT composites’ electrical conductance
is highly sensitive to small quantities of ammonia (NH3) and
other gases [4]. This makes them the best choice for RFID
passive sensing for gas detection.
Underground mines are potentially exposed to dangerous
gases such as ammonia (NH3), which presents serious risks on
miners’ health [7]. Besides, underground mines are very
humid environments where relative humidity can go up to
90% and/or above. However, the Liquid Crystal Polymer
(LCP) which is a promising thermoplastic organic material
[8], can be used as a low-cost dielectric material for high-
volume large-area processing methods that provide very
reliable high-performances circuits at low cost.
In this paper, a microstrip RFID passive tag antenna for gas
detection on LCP substrate is designed. The change in CNT Fig. 1: Layout of the antenna design
conductivity is based on CNT chemical reaction in the presence
of the NH3 gas. The CNT resistance is affected by this variation The dimensions of the proposed RFID passive sensing tag
in conductivity, and the tag responses at a certain frequency. on LCP substrate is illustrated in Table 1. The Impinj Monza®
The CNT sensor will be integrated as a link between the loop 3 chip with complex impedance 32 - j 216 ohms is used.
and the radiating body shown in Fig.1. The proposed design
 a b L W Ls Ws Lsub Wsub RESISTANCE REACTANCE
11 50.5 48.7 73.5 25.4 14.29 99.5 96.6 (ohm) (ohm)
40 250
Table 1: Dimension parameters of the antenna (mm)
200
III. RESULTS 30
150
The designed antenna’ resonant frequency is dependent
upon the conductivity of the CNT material. At 1.5 Siemens per 20 100
meter (s/m), the conductivity of the CNT is close to the air
with no presence of gas [4]. The predicted input impedance Zin 50
is equal to 35+j213 ohms at the resonating frequency of 915 10
MHz as seen in Fig. 2, where this impedance is close to match 12 345 12345
the chip impedance. As a result, the variation of the CONDUCTIVITY S/M CONDUCTIVITY S/M
conductivity will simulate the presence of different quantities
of gas. This variation will include a change in the impedance Fig. 4: Change of the input impedance of the RFID tag with
where the resistant part and the reactance part of the conductivity
impedance decrease as depicted in Fig. 4. Hence, the tag
antenna resonates at a frequency different from the usual 915 IV. CONCLUSION
MHz as seen in Fig. 3. This shifting in the tag’s resonating
frequency is analyzed by the reader. Thus, the presence of gas In order to protect workers in underground mines from the
is detected as a change in the resonating frequency. presence of dangerous gases, a CNT-RFID passive tag antenna
was designed using LCP substrate. The existence of gas was
S(1,1) plot HFSSDesign1 simulated by a change in the CNT conductivity. Hence,
-10.00
Curve Info through a change in the resonating frequency of the tag, the
-15.00
dB(S(1,1))
Setup1 : Sweep simulated presence of gas was successfully detected.
cond='1.5S_per_m'

-20.00
REFERENCES
[1] Li Yang; Orecchini, G.; Shaker, G.; Ho-Seon Lee; Tentzeris, M.M.,
dB(S(1,1))

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σC=urve Infos/m
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(1,1)) 2011.
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σ =: 5Sweep
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[7] http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/81-123/pdfs/0028-rev.pdf, 2014
[8] Anh-Vu H. Pham, M. J. , LCP for microwave and packages modules,
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0.80 0.83 0.85 0.88 0.90 0.93 0.95 0.98 1.00
Freq [GHz]
Fig. 3: Shifting in frequency for different value of conductivity

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