Received: 5 February 2020

DOI: 10.1049/mia2.12064
- -Revised: 27 October 2020

O R I G I N A L R E S E A R C H PA P E R
Accepted: 23 November 2020

- IET Microwaves, Antennas & Propagation

Metamaterial‐based, miniaturised circularly polarised antennas

for RFID application

Zhan Wang1 | Yuandan Dong1 | Tatsuo Itoh2

1
School of Electronic Engineering, University of Abstract
Electronic Science and Technology of China,
Chengdu, China
Miniaturised circularly polarised (CP) antennas based on dispersion‐engineered meta-
2
material transmission lines (TLs) are proposed and developed for RFID applications. It is
Electrical Engineering Department, University of
California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, first studied and developed based on the equivalent circuit and dispersion curves of
USA composite right/left‐handed TL (CRLH‐TL), which is featured by a novel/low‐cost
double‐layered 3D structure, including metallic screws, one ground layer and metal‐
Correspondence insulator‐metal (MIM) capacitor loaded on the top layer. CP radiation is achieved by two
Yuandan Dong, School of Electronic Engineering, crossed CRLH‐TLs with a microstrip‐slot coupling excitation. One CP antenna and one
University of Electronic Science and Technology of
China, Chengdu, China. polarisation reconfigurable antenna, which utilise CRLH‐TLs are then implemented,
Email: ydong@uestc.edu.cn respectively. Compared with the conventional right‐handed (RH) TL‐based antennas
(positive resonance‐based antennas), miniaturisation is achieved by pushing down the
dispersion curve to a lower frequency using larger LH capacitance or/and inductance.
Negative‐order resonances could be successfully excited by cascading π‐type unit‐cells. It
shows similar radiation characteristics and additional size reduction as the positive
resonance‐based antennas. This antenna shows an electrical size of 0.24 λ0 � 0.24 λ0 �
0.03 λ0, a −10 dB bandwidth of 4.8%, and a peak gain of 4.2 dBic. It demonstrates
advantages in terms of flexible size reduction, low cost, easy manufacturing, and good
radiation performance, which are very suitable for 902–928 MHz UHF band RFID
application.

1 | INTRODUCTION resonant‐type antennas loaded with CRLH metamaterials

Engineering the dispersion curve to explore and utilise the
unusual and exotic electromagnetic properties has been a
research interest on metamaterials over the past two decades
[1–7]. Among all the approaches, transmission line (TL) theory
appears as one of the most useful tools to extract and analyse
the dispersion relation. Composite right/left‐handed (CRLH)
TL metamaterial with left‐handed (LH) passband in lower
band and right‐handed (RH) passband in higher band simul-
taneously was initially proposed in [1]. Metamaterials include
not only CRLH materials, but also other artificially engineered
structures showing novel features, such as negative or low
values of permittivity (ε), permeability (μ), or zero index media.
Metamaterial‐based/inspired antennas are one of the most
important applications currently being investigated, including
the resonant‐type small antennas, the TL type leaky‐wave an-
tennas and metasurface antennas [8–24]. For example, (1)
could inspire zeroth‐order resonance (ZOR) and negative‐
order resonance (NOR) modes. Meanwhile, their positive‐
order modes still exist which could also be shifted to lower
frequency. Miniaturisation or/and multi‐band operation could
be achieved [8–18]. (2) The leaky‐wave antennas using CRLH
metamaterials are able to realise full‐space beam scanning by
varying frequency [19, 20]. (3) For two‐dimensional meta‐
surface antennas, their surface field distribution could be
re‐engineered, leading to gain enhancement or beam steering
[21–24]. Many TL‐based metamaterial antennas have been
developed recently for different applications. Miniaturised
substrate‐integrated waveguide antennas based on NOR mode
were proposed in [14]. A NRI‐TL metamaterial‐loaded dipole
was implemented for multiband operation [25], which utilises
the first negative‐order, ZOR and +first‐order modes. A dual‐
mode antenna was proposed in [26] with one‐dimensional
periodical unit‐cells. Note that although the above works

-
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properly cited.
© 2021 The Authors. IET Microwaves, Antennas & Propagation published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Institution of Engineering and Technology.

IET Microw. Antennas Propag. 2021;15:547–559. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/mia2 547

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- WANG
realise size reduction, they suffer from narrow bandwidth and
poor radiation performance. The metasurface antennas with
wide bandwidth and high gain have been widely studied, and
they could be analysed and designed by dispersion curve [22],
equivalent circuit [23] and characteristic mode analysis (CMA)
[27]. However, they need a large planar dimension.
Circularly polarised (CP) antennas are widely used in the
radio frequency identification (RFID), satellite communication,
global positioning system (GPS), and wireless local area
network [28–31]. To meet the application demands of mini-
aturised devices and different scenarios in RFID application, a
compact CP UHF‐band RFID reader antenna with good
bandwidth and radiation performance, and low cost is urgently
needed [29, 30]. One wideband CP antenna with a two‐port
feeding network was proposed in [31], but it has a high profile
and extra feeding circuits. The work in [17, 32] proposed two
miniaturised metamaterial‐based CP antennas, respectively.
However, both suffer from a narrow bandwidth and large loss.
Therefore, it is a big challenge to design a miniaturised CP
antenna with good bandwidth and radiation performance for
RFID reader applications.
A novel miniaturised CP antenna for RFID applications is
presented herein. By engineering the dispersion curve of the
CRLH‐TL metamaterials, the –first‐order resonance mode is
implemented. The equivalent circuits and dispersion relations
of CRLH‐TLs are first analysed and discussed. The CP oper-
ation is achieved by applying two crossed CRLH‐TLs with
proper feeding. Their resonance frequencies are slightly sepa-
rated, leading to two orthogonal electric components with 90°
phase difference [28]. In addition, a CRLH‐TL‐based polar-
isation reconfigurable antenna is developed with four PIN
ET AL.
diodes applied on the two coupling slots. Miniaturisation could
be easily realised by using the negative‐order resonance mode
[14]. Moreover, the substrate of the antenna can be considered
as the quasi‐air substrate, which significantly reduces the
dielectric loss, resulting in good efficiency. Low cost is also
clearly achievable by using the standard metallic screws and
thin dielectric substrate.
2 | DISPERSION ANALYSIS
Figure 1 shows the equivalent circuits of five different forms of
TLs. The conventional RH‐TL is represented by a series RH
inductor (LR) and a shunt distributed capacitor (CR), as show
in Figure 1a. The equivalent circuit of LH‐TL is shown in
Figure 1b, which consists of a series LH capacitor (CL) and a
shunt LH inductor (LL), but the LH‐TL is only an ideal mode.
Figure 1c–e shows three forms of metamaterial TLs, namely
LH capacitor‐loaded TL (CL‐TL), LH inductor‐loaded TL
(IL‐TL) and CRLH‐TL, respectively.
The equivalent circuit of CL‐TL is featured as a π‐type
model, as shown in Figure 1c. For CL‐TL configuration, series
CL is inserted into the RH‐TL. Figure 2 shows the dispersion
curves for this form obtained from a circuit simulation with
ADS software. There is one ZOR frequency, which comes
from the series resonance of the equivalent circuit. It is defined
by the following equation [5]:
1
f se ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð1Þ
2π LR C L
F I G U R E 1 Equivalent circuit for different
transmission line (TL) unit‐cells: (a) right‐handed
(RH) TL, (b) left‐handed (LH) TL, (c) LH capacitor‐
loaded TL, (d) LH inductor‐loaded TL, and
(e) composite right/left‐handed (CRLH) TL
WANG ET AL.
The resonance frequencies of different‐order modes for an
N‐stages CL‐TL can be observed on the dispersion curve
when the following condition satisfies [5]
8
< θN ¼ βNp ¼ nπ
ð2Þ
: βp ¼ nπ= n ¼ 0; 1; :::; N
N
where p is defined as the length of periodic unit‐cell, and N is
the number of unit‐cells. By cascading more unit‐cells, the
+first‐order mode would shift to a lower frequency as
explained by Equation (2). When CL is increased, fse shifts to a
lower frequency, and the slope of this dispersion curve would
increase significantly. As a result, the bandwidth of the +first‐
order resonance becomes wider. Its resonance frequency (f+1)
also shifts to a lower region, as indicated by Figure 2. Note that
its miniaturisation is limited compared with CRLH‐TL. Thus,
here, an analysis is shown.
Figure 3 shows the dispersion curve of the LH IL‐TL,
which is shown in Figure 1d. For this IL‐TL configuration, the
F I G U R E 2 Different dispersion curves for the equivalent circuit
shown in Figure 1c: left‐handed capacitor‐loaded TL. The other circuit
parameters are: CR = 1.0 pF, CL = 10.0 pF, and LR = 4.0 nH
F I G U R E 3 Different dispersion curves for the equivalent circuit
shown in Figure 1d: LH inductor‐loaded transmission line. The other
circuit parameters are: CR = 1.5 pF, LL = 15.0 nH, and LR = 4.0 nH
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shunt LH inductor is loaded to the conventional RH‐TL.
Similarly, there is one ZOR frequency, which comes from the
shunt resonance, as defined by the following equation [5]:
1
f sh ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð3Þ
2π LL C R
when LL goes up, fsh is pushed down to a lower frequency.
Note that under this scenario the whole dispersion curve is
shifted down with a relatively stable slope rate. All the RH
resonances, including the +first‐order resonance frequency
(f+1), would decrease by increasing LL. Thus, miniaturisation
then could be achieved by using the +first‐order resonance
mode. Compared with the CRLH‐TL, the bandwidth of the
antenna would not increase. Therefore, only an analysis is
presented for this metamaterial TL.
Figure 4 shows a dispersion curve analysis for CRLH‐TL,
using the equivalent circuit shown in Figure 1e. For this
configuration, the series CL and shunt LL are both applied in
the conventional RH‐TL. There are two ZOR frequencies
given by the following equations which come from the series
and shunt resonant tanks, respectively [5]:
1 1
f se ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ; f sh ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð4Þ
2π LR C L 2π LL C R
In the balanced condition (fse = fsh), they equal each other
and the bandgap vanishes. This equivalent circuit belongs to
the π‐type model. The resulting resonance frequencies of
different modes for an N‐stage CRLH‐TL can be observed on
the dispersion curve when satisfying the following conditions
[5]:
8
< θN ¼ βNp ¼ nπ
ð5Þ
: βp ¼ nπ= n ¼ 0; ±1; :::; ±N
N
where p is defined as the length of periodic unit, and N is the
number of cascaded unit cells. The negative order resonance
(NOR) modes can be excited when the π‐type mode CRLH‐
TL is effectively built and driven. Note that the first‐order
resonance frequency ( f‐1) would shift to a lower region if more
periodic units are used (N > 1). The field distribution and
radiation character of the NOR modes are similar to their
corresponding positive‐order modes. As indicated by its
dispersion curve, when CL is increased, both fse and the LH
resonance frequencies would shift to lower frequency. The RH
resonance frequencies also move to the lower side. The f‐1
shifts to the lower region resulting in size miniaturisation.
Figure 4a shows that the slope of the dispersion curve in the
LH region becomes larger by increasing CL, therefore an an-
tenna based on the negative‐order resonance with a large CL
could not only achieve size reduction but also certain band-
width enhancement. When LL is increased, the ZOR frequency
( fsh) and the LH resonance frequencies would shift to a lower
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- WANG
frequency. So f‐1 would move to a lower region resulting in
miniaturisation, but the slope of the dispersion curve in the LH
region actually decreases, as shown in Figure 4b. Three
miniaturised antennas based on CRLH‐TL are proposed in
Section 3. They are implemented on –first‐order resonance
mode, with similar radiation properties of the conventional
half‐wavelength patch antennas.
3 | MINIATURISED ANTENNAS BASED
ON CRLH‐TLS
3.1 | LP CRLH‐TL metamaterial‐inspired
antenna
Figure 5 shows the configuration and geometry of the pro-
posed miniaturised LP antenna based on CRLH‐TL meta-
material. In the top layer, the metallic strips are printed on both
sides of the F4BM (εr = 2.2, tan δ = 0.001) substrate with a
ET AL.
F I G U R E 4 Dispersion curve for the equivalent
circuit of CRLH‐TL unit‐cell shown in Figure 1e by
(a) varying CL and (b) varying LL. The parameters
for the circuit model are: CL = 2.0 pF, LL = 15.0 pF,
CR = 1.0 pF and LR = 4.0 nH
thickness of 0.254 mm using PCB technology, which builds
series metal–insulator–metal (MIM) capacitors (CL). The MIM
capacitor works as an LH capacitor (CL) as well as a radiator.
The thickness of ground PCB board is 0.508 mm. Metallic
screws with a diameter of 3 mm are directly used to connect
the top PCB layer and the ground layer. The metallic screws
not only provide structural support but also work as a shunt
LH inductor (LL). Every unit‐cell is configured with two
screws, which could be used to obtain a suitable LL and a
balanced support. The coupled feeding is implemented by a
rectangle slot and a 50 Ω microstrip line in the ground layer.
Here, a multilayered 3D CRLH‐TL‐based antenna is realised
using the PCB technology and mechanical assembling method,
which not only has good performance but also provides a
novel design guideline/example for metamaterial application.
The CRLH‐TL is set to a bowtie shape to facilitate a
crossed RFID CP antenna design. Here, both CL and LL are
loaded onto the conventional RH‐TL, resulting in successful
implementation of a CRLH metamaterial TL. The –first‐order
WANG ET AL.
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F I G U R E 5 Configuration of the proposed LP antenna based on CRLH‐TL: (a) top view, (b) bottom view, and (c) side view. The size parameters are: l =
150 mm, l2 = 80 mm, l3 = 25.1 mm, l4 = 16.5 mm, l5 = 15 mm, w = 150 mm, w2 = 80 mm, w3 = 75 mm, w4 = 26 mm, w5 = 21.8 mm, p1 = 19 mm, p2 = 6 mm,
r = 1.5 mm, d1 = 30 mm, d2 = 18.8 mm, cs = 1.34 mm, ws = 1.6 mm, ls = 45 mm, c = 95 mm, and h = 10 mm

resonance mode is selected to achieve a maximum boresight four unit‐cells are used in this design to achieve a balance of
radiation. Due to the –first‐order resonance the mode moves miniaturisation and gain. It corresponds to an x‐axis value of
to higher frequency by cascading multiple unit‐cells, so only 0.25 on the dispersion curve shown in Figure 6 for this four‐
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- WANG ET AL.

F I G U R E 6 Dispersion curves for the unit‐cell

shown in Figure 10 and the equivalent circuit (π‐type
model) shown in Figure 1e. The circuit parameters
are: CL = 6.4 pF, LL = 17.85 pF, CR = 1.25 pF and
LR = 1.1 nH

F I G U R E 7 Simulated (a) reflection coefficient and boresight peak gain and (b) radiation patterns at 915 MHz for the proposed CRLH‐TL‐based antenna
shown in Figure 5

FIGURE 8 A parametric study for the CRLH‐TL‐based antenna shown in Figure 5 by (a) varying l3, and (b) varying r
WANG ET AL.
F I G U R E 9 Configurations of the proposed CP antenna based on
CRLH‐TL. (a) 3D view, (b) top view, (c) bottom view, and (d) fabricated
prototype and chamber measurement setup. The size parameters are: l =
150 mm, l2 = 80 mm, w = 150 mm, w2 = 80 mm, cs = 1.34 mm, ws1 =
1.6 mm, ws2 = 1.6 mm, ls = 45 mm, c = 65 mm, h = 10 mm, ls1 = 45 mm,
ls2 = 45 mm, c2 = 48.2 mm, c3 = 27.26 mm, r = 1.5 mm. TLA: l3 =
27.68 mm, l4 = 16.5 mm, l5 = 16.5 mm, w3 = 75 mm, w4 = 27.52 mm, w5
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stage (N = 4) CRLH‐TL. The electric size of this LP antenna is
0.24 λ0 � 0.24 λ0 � 0.03 λ0, where λ0 is the free‐space wave-
length at 900 MHz. It is clearly observed that this antenna is
much more compact than the conventional patch antenna. It is
noted that an NOR‐based antenna could be arbitrarily
miniaturised by engineering the dispersion curve through LL
and CL.
Figure 6 compares the dispersion curve of the proposed
CRLH‐TL unit‐cell obtained from the full‐wave and equivalent
circuit simulation. Both the circuit model and the simulated
physical structure of the unit‐cell belong to the 1‐stage π‐type
model, where both the +first‐ and –first‐order resonance
modes can be excited. The +first‐order resonance mode is
located around 2.85 GHz, while the –first‐order resonance
mode is at 700 MHz. By using a four‐stage CRLH‐TL, the –
first‐order resonance mode goes up to 0.89 GHz. The –first‐
order resonance frequency after optimisation is around
915 MHz and its −10 dB bandwidth is 903–927 MHz (2.62 %)
in Figure 7. Note that the simulated results agree with the
dispersion curve shown in Figures 6 and 7. The small differ-
ence results from the varied excitation and boundary condition,
as well as the small size difference. The simulated peak gain is
over 5 dBi across the passband region and its radiation patterns
are similar to the conventional patch antenna.
Figure 8 shows a parametric study for the proposed LP
antenna. When CL is increased, the resonance frequency shifts
to the lower frequency region and its bandwidth is slightly
enhanced, which agrees with the equivalent circuit analysis
shown in Figure 4a. When the diameter of the metallic screw is
increased, LL is reduced and the frequency of the proposed LP
antenna moves higher, with a relatively fixed bandwidth.
3.2 | RFID CP antenna based on CRLH‐TL
Figure 9 shows the configuration, geometrical parameters, and
a photograph of the fabricated CP antenna using CRLH‐TLs.
Based on a previously proposed LP antenna, two CRLH‐TLs
(TLA and TLB) are placed perpendicularly and a frequency
perturbation is introduced by adjusting either the series LH
capacitor or the shunt LH inductor. In practice, the screws'
position, quantity, and diameter could be adjusted to tune the
shunt LH inductance. However, it is relatively easier to adjust
the resonance frequency of negative‐order resonance modes by
controlling the LH capacitor. Two rectangular coupling slots
are orthogonally etched on the top layer of the ground board
and a 45° microstrip feeding line is printed on the other side of
the ground PCB board. They are used to excite the top TLs in
the related direction. The length of the feeding microstrip line
(c) is used to improve the matching. With ±45° phase delay
travelling along the opposite directions, 90° phase shift be-
tween the two crossed –first‐order modes could be obtained.
Therefore, two orthogonal electric field (E‐field) components
with 90° phase difference are obtained, resulting in a CP
4= 21.83 mm, p1 = 19 mm, p2 = 6 mm, d1 = 30 mm, d2 = 18.8 mm. TLB:
l3 = 27.52 mm, l4 = 15.5 mm, l5 = 16.5 mm, w3 = 75 mm, w4 = 27.68 mm,
w5 = 21.66 mm, p1 = 19 mm, p2 = 6 mm, d1 = 30 mm, d2 = 18.8 mm
554
- WANG ET AL.

F I G U R E 1 0 Simulated electric field distribution at two different stages: (a) phase = 0°, (b) phase = 90°, and (c) the 3D radiation pattern at 915 MHz for the
proposed CP antenna based on CRLH‐TLs

antenna configuration [28, 30]. To simplify the analysis and the passband, which are generated by the –first‐order reso-
design, the size of two crossed coupling slots is kept the same nance frequencies of the two crossed CRLH TLs. This CP
in this design. Note that the CP polarisation type could be antenna covers well the 902–928 MHz UHF band, which is
determined by the frequency perturbation. When the –first‐ suitable for RFID reader application. The measured frequency
mode resonance frequency of the TLA is slightly lower than response slightly shifts to the low‐frequency region, which is
that from TLB, LHCP radiation is observed. In contrast, mainly caused by the fabrication and assembling tolerance.
RHCP radiation could be realised when the LH capacitor of Figure 13 shows the measured and simulated LHCP peak
the TLA is slightly smaller than that of the TLB. A metallic gain and radiation efficiency. The measured peak gain and
frame (a thin aluminium sheet with a thickness of 1 mm) is also
applied for better assembling reasons. In Figure 9d, this CP
antenna shows a flexible method of packaging, which is easy to
widely manufacture.
Figure 10 shows the E‐field distribution and the 3D radi-
ation pattern for the CP antenna at 915 MHz. The E‐field is
mainly distributed around the capacitive gaps of CRLH TLs. A
left‐handed rotated field distribution can be observed in a full
cycle for two first‐order resonance modes. The radiation
pattern for this negative‐order resonance antenna is very
similar to the conventional patch antenna.
Figures 11 and 12 show the measured and simulated |S11|
and AR response. The measured −10 dB bandwidth and 3 dB
AR bandwidth are 4.81% (893–937 MHz) and 1.21% (902–
913 MHz), respectively. Two resonance modes are observed in FIGURE 11 Measured and simulated |S11| for the CP antenna
WANG ET AL.
radiation efficiency are 4.17 dBic and −1.60 dB (69.2%),
respectively. The difference between simulation and measure-
ment mainly comes from the loss of the stainless steel screws
and the SMA connector. Note that copper screws are selected
F I G U R E 1 2 Measured and simulated AR versus frequency for the
proposed CRLH‐TL based CP antenna
F I G U R E 1 3 Measured and simulated radiation gain and efficiency for
the proposed CP antenna
FIGURE 14 Measured and simulated patterns for CRLH‐TLs‐based CP antenna at 915 MHz in (a) XZ plane and (b) YZ plane
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in HFSS simulation, but replaced with stainless steel screws in
fabrication, so a larger conductor loss occurs. In practice, this
issue can be well solved by selecting the brass screw or
aluminium screw.
Figure 14 shows the measured and simulated radiation
patterns at 915 MHz. LHCP radiation is implemented and the
RHCP levels (cross polarisation levels) have been well sup-
pressed below −18 dB in the main radiation direction. In
addition, a wide beam‐width is also clearly observed, which
makes this CP antenna well suitable for RFID application with
the wide‐angle reading region.
3.3 | Polarisation reconfigurable antenna
based on CRLH‐TL
Figure 15 shows the configuration, geometrical parameters, and
a photograph of the fabricated polarisation reconfigurable
antenna using CRLH‐TLs. Based on the above‐proposed
CRLH‐TL CP antenna, four PIN diodes (SMP1345) are
soldered and applied across the two cross‐coupling slots (two
each). The switches are used to control the shorting/opening
states of the two coupling slots. Large‐value inductors (L = 82
nH) and capacitors (C = 100 pF) are used to isolate the RF signal
and DC source [33]. The resistors (R = 100 Ω) are used to limit
the current level of the bias circuits. The detailed circuit infor-
mation is presented in Figure 15b,c. To simplify the configura-
tion and avoid disturbance, the bias circuits of the four switches
are the same. The equivalent circuits of the PIN diode are shown
in Figure 15d, and are used in HFSS simulation.
Three polarisation states are achieved by switching the
diodes, namely LHCP, LP (in x‐axis), and LP (in y‐axis).
Table 1 shows the states of the switches with different polar-
isation types. When D1and D3 are ON and D2 and D4 are
OFF, the coupling slot in the y‐axis direction is shorted and the
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F I G U R E 1 5 Configuration of the proposed

polarisation reconfigurable antenna based on
CRLH‐TLs: (a) bottom view, (b) bias circuits for
PIN diodes, (c) the fabricated antenna, and
(d) equivalent circuits for PIN diode (SMP1345)
used in EM simulation. The size parameters are: l =
150 mm, l2 = 80 mm, w = 150 mm, w2 = 80 mm,
cs = 1.34 mm, ws1 = 1.6 mm, ws2 = 1.6 mm,
ls = 45 mm, c = 65 mm, h = 10 mm, ls1 = 45 mm,
ls2 = 45 mm, c2 = 48.2 mm, c3 = 27.26 mm, r =
1.5 mm. TLA: l3 = 27.68 mm, l4 = 16.5 mm,
l5 = 16.5 mm, w3 = 75 mm, w4 = 27.52 mm, w5 =
21.83 mm, p1 = 19 mm, p2 = 6 mm, d1 = 30 mm,
d2 = 18.8 mm. TLB: l3 = 27.52 mm, l4 = 15.5 mm,
l5 = 16.5 mm, w3 = 75 mm, w4 = 27.68 mm, w5 =
21.66 mm, p1 = 19 mm, p2 = 6 mm, d1 = 30 mm,
d2 = 18.8 mm

TA B L E 1 Switch status for different polarisation types

Polarisation type D1 and D3 D2 and D4

LP (x‐axis) ON OFF

LP (y‐axis) OFF ON

LHCP OFF OFF

F I G U R E 1 7 Measured and simulated AR versus frequency of the

proposed polarisation based on CRLH‐TLs in CP status.

polarisation of the antenna is LP along the x‐axis. In contrast,

LP along the y‐axis could be obtained by exchanging the
states of these switches. When all of the four switches are OFF,
two crossed coupling slots are all open and the LHCP is
obtained.
FIGURE 16 Measured and simulated |S11| for the reconfigurable Figure 16 shows the measured and simulated |S11|
antenna response for the three reconfigured states, including the lower
WANG ET AL.
F I G U R E 1 8 Measured and simulated peak gain for the proposed
polarisation reconfigurable antenna in three polarisation states
frequency band (LP along the y‐axis), the higher frequency
band (LP along the x‐axis) and the middle centred band with
two frequency poles (LHCP). The measured response slightly
shifts to the lower frequency region or the frequency band
becomes wider, which is caused by the fabrication tolerance
and the parasitic effect from the PIN diodes. The measured
3‐dB AR bandwidth for LHCP status is 900–910 MHz (1.1%)
in Figure 17.
The measured peak gains for different polarisation statuses
[LP ( y‐axis), LHCP, and LP (x‐axis)] are 4.40 dBi, 3.91 dBic
and 3.69 dBi, respectively, as shown in Figure 18. The
FIGURE 19 The RFID setup for reading range test using the authors’ proposed CP antenna
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reconfigurable antenna uses four PIN diodes, resulting in
additional loss from the parasitic resistance of the PIN diodes.
The radiation gain is therefore slightly lower than the proposed
CP antenna.
4 | RFID VALIDATION AND
COMPARISON
4.1 | RFID validation: reading range test
To validate the actual performance of a dispersion‐engineered
CP antenna for RFID reader application, a reading range test
was performed using the authors’ CP antenna and a typical
inlay RFID tag, as shown in Figure 19. All parameters in the
measurement setup and performance results, including the
calculated and measured reading distance (d ), are illustrated in
Table 2. The calculated distance is obtained from the Friis
transmission equation [28]. It demonstrates a good trans-
mitting range and radiation performance.
4.2 | Comparison with previous works
To highlight the advantages of the proposed RFID reader an-
tenna, a comparison with previous works is summarised in
Table 3. The antennas in [34–38] are all for RFID reader ap-
plications. In detail, a small CP patch antenna using a high‐εr
558
- WANG ET AL.

T A B L E 2 Reading range verification for

Transmitted Receiver Transmitted Polarisation miss
the CP antenna
Power Sensitivity Ant. gain Tag gain Match loss Cable loss
27 dBm −18 dBm 4.2 dBic −0.5 dBi 3 dB 1 dB

Meas. freq. Total path loss Calculated and measured reading range

915 MHz 51.5/49 dB 4.3 m/3.7 m

TA B L E 3 Comparison with the previous works (RFID readers and metamaterial‐based antennas)

AR‐ Gain/
Ref. Tech. Size/(λ03) Sub. BW/% BW/% dBic Feeding Remark
[34] CP patch ant.; 0.27 � 0.27 � 0.014 Ro. 4003C (εr = 3.38) 1.88 0.67 3.7 Single‐fed Low profile;
RFID ant. narrow BW

[35] Dual band metal. ant.; 0.197 � 0.197 � 0.068 Air 1.9 1.9 4.9 Rotated feed Compact size;
net.
UHF reader narrow BW

[36] CP PIFA‐like ant.; 0.26 � 0.22 � 0.05 Air 7.2 1.1 3.8 Single‐fed High profile;
RFID reader narrow AR‐BW

[37] LP patch and slot ant.; 0.84 � 0.80 � 0.10 Ro. 5880 (εr = 2.2) and 1.9, 49.8 ‐ 9.0 Two ports Larger size;
air feed net.
RFID reader ant. wideband

[38] CP hybrid mode ant.; 0.62 � 0.62 � 0.05 Ro. 5880 (εr = 2.2) and 2.7, 54.5 0.9, 53.7 9.0 Quadruple Large dimension;
air feed net.
UHF RFID reader narrow AR‐BW

[39] Reactive impedance 2.39 � 2.20 � 0.08 F4BM (εr = 2.2) 37 16.3 15.3 4�4 CP Large size;
surface ant.; CP ant. array
complex feeding

[40] Metasurface‐based ant.; 0.58 � 0.58 � 0.04 Ro. 4003C (εr = 3.38) 22.0 8.5 6.5 Single‐fed Large size;
CP ant. thick substrate

[32] Metamaterial‐based ant.; 0.15 � 0.15 � 0.04 Ro. 5880 (εr = 2.2) 0.56 0.13 0.2 Single‐fed Narrow BW;
dual‐band CP
large loss

Prop.‐CP CRLH‐TL‐based ant.; 0.24 � 0.24 � 0.03 Air and thin F4BM 4.81 1.21 4.17 Single‐fed Miniaturisation;
ant.
UHF RFID reader good BW and gain

Abbreviations: Ant, antenna; CP, circularly polarized; LP, linearly Polarized; PIFA, planar inverted F antenna; RFID, radio frequency identification.

substrate was proposed in [34], but it suffers from a narrow 5 | CONCLUSIONS

bandwidth and large dielectric loss. In [35, 36], two RFID reader
antennas with an air substrate were developed using a PIFA‐type
structure, but their profile is higher. Two shared‐aperture LP and
CP UHF reader antennas using a hybrid mode structure were
implemented in [37, 38], respectively. However, they have large
dimensions and complex structures. The metamaterial‐based
antennas using reactive impedance surface [39] and metasurface
[40] are able to achieve a wideband operation, but they have a
large size and high cost. A compact CP antenna loaded with LH
structures was studied in [32]. However, its radiation perfor-
mance was not very good and its bandwidth was narrower.
Overall, the authors’ proposed metamaterial‐based CP
antenna demonstrates good potential in UHF RFID reader
applications and other Internet of Things (IoTs) devices
because of its promising features such as compact size, low
profile, low cost and low loss, good radiation performance, and
impedance bandwidth.
A miniaturised metamaterial‐based CP antenna with an electric
size of 0.24 λ0 � 0.24 λ0 � 0.03 λ0 and a polarisation reconfig-
urable antenna for RFID applications is proposed and devel-
oped herein. For the CRLH‐TL‐based antenna, the –first‐order
resonance mode is excited. Its resonance frequency is much
smaller than the frequency of its corresponding +first‐order
resonance mode, especially with larger value LH components
(CL and LL). Compared with the conventional half‐wavelength
patch antennas, it shows similar radiation characteristics, but
exhibits a much more compact size. By using the metallic screws
and a thin substrate, low loss and low cost are realised simulta-
neously. Compact size, broad bandwidth, and excellent radiation
performance make them good candidates for RFID application
and other IoT systems. Besides, a good engineering application
example for dispersion‐guided, high‐performance meta-
material‐based antennas has been demonstrated.
WANG ET AL.
OR CID
Yuandan Dong https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9988-4920
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How to cite this article: Wang Z, Dong Y, Itoh T.
Metamaterial‐based, miniaturised circularly polarised
antennas for RFID application. IET Microw. Antennas
Propag. 2021;15:547–559. https://doi.org/10.1049/
mia2.12064