designfeature By Peter Sorrells, Microchip Technology Inc

DETERMINING AND IMPROVING THE READ RANGE OF RFID

TAGS IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT AS THESE TAGS BECOME
MORE COMMONPLACE.

Optimizing read range

in RFID systems
ncreasingly available, low-cost RFID (radio- to arrive at the baseband clock rate. In asynchronous

I frequency identification) tags can track and tag systems, you derive the data clock from an on-chip
just about any object you can think of. Costs have oscillator. In read/write systems, the reader transmits
come down, and performance has risen to the point amplitude-modulated data as well, so the tagging IC
that tagging applications that were out of reach only must also peak-detect (or gap-detect in 100%-mod-
two years ago are now common. But one of the most ulation systems) the signal to extract the envelope
basic questions is how far away the reader can read that contains the command or data (“command de-
data from these tags. tector” in Figure 2b).
This article provides a brief tutorial on the fac- Inductively coupled systems, as all passive 125-
tors affecting read range and a real-time, real-life de- kHz and 13.56-MHz systems are, behave much like
sign example. The tutorial and design example are loosely coupled transformers (Figure 3). The mag-
based on passive, 125-kHz to 13.56-MHz, induc- netic coupling between the primary winding (read-
tively coupled RFID systems. The article focuses pri- er antenna coil) and secondary winding (tag anten-
marily on the interface between tag and reader, be- na coil) conveys power from reader to tag. You use
cause a detailed discussion of reader-datapath tuned LC circuits at these frequencies to maximize
designs could fill an entire textbook—or at least an- coupling between the primary and secondary wind-
other article. ing, because you cannot use an iron core when read-
In contact systems, such as reading the data from ing at a distance.
a serial EEPROM over a two-wire (I2C) or three-wire A time-variant H-field from the reader, which
SPI or Microwire bus, the power, clock, and data current I1 generates and the tag coil intercepts, in-
lines are connected separately (Figure 1). Passive duces current I2 and voltage across the tag coil. The
RFID devices also use a serial bus, but the power,
clock, and data are all in the same signal (Fig- VCC

ure 2a). But, other than separating these F i g u r e 1

components into their separate uses on the tagging
IC, the principles are much the same. You need dc CLOCK

power to bias the CMOS circuits, and binary data DATA IN

SERIAL
in a memory is clocked out to the communication EEPROM
DATA OUT
bus serially.
The carrier is separated into usable signals in the
tagging IC (Figure 2b). For dc power, you rectify the
reader’s carrier signal using any of a number of com-
mon rectifier circuits, usually incorporating one or
more diodes inside the IC. In synchronous systems,
you derive the data clock by dividing the carrier A traditional EEPROM IC requires two contacts for power
down through several stages of divide-by-2 blocks and ground and three contacts for data and control.

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designfeature Read range in RFID tags

mere presence of a tuned circuit causes

a slight dip in p-p voltage at Node
Figure 2
A, just as loading the secondary of
CLOCK MEMORY
a transformer causes a resulting effect in POWER, CLOCK, AND DATA
its primary. If you place a switch across
the tag coil and close it, then the tag coil DC
is shorted, and it is no longer resonant
and is no longer loading the reader’s coil.
COMMAND ENCODE
Therefore, the voltage at Node A again PASSIVE
DETECTOR
RFID TAG
increases to its prior level. In an RFID
tagging IC, the switch is a transistor (Fig-
ure 4). Modulation of the switch on and MODULATION MODULATION
off then provides a corresponding AM SWITCH ALGORITHM
envelope at Point A, which circuitry can
extract via analog or digital means. After
filtering and squaring, the pulse train at (a) (b)

Node B looks exactly like the one clocked

out of the tag memory at Node C.
An RFID tag must accomplish the EEPROM interface using just one signal path (a). A typical RFID IC
PRIMARY FACTORS AFFECTING READ RANGE encompasses a significant array of functional blocks plus power-recovery functions (b).
With all these ideas in mind, then,
what factors would you expect to con- In PSK and FSK systems,
tribute or detract from read highs and lows in the AM
range? First, consider power. The Figure 3 READER TAG modulation do not represent
reader must generate energy in a manner AIR
binary data. Instead, in PSK
I2
that meets government limits, such as the systems, 08 or 1808 phase shift
I1 A
FCC (Federal Communications Com- represents a binary bit (1 or 0)
mission) in the United States, the ETSI during the entire bit time; in
(European Telecommunications Stan- FSK systems, two different
dards Institute) in Europe, and the MPT subcarrier frequencies repre-
(Ministry for Post and Telecommunica- The transfer of signals and power between the reader and sent 1 or 0. However, in a pas-
tions) in Japan. This energy must be cou- tag and vice versa is conceptually similar to the simple case sive system, the tag does not
pled from the reader to the tag, and the of a pair of loosely coupled transformer windings. transmit anything, so there is
tag must use it efficiently. Therefore, no true subcarrier, only vari-
maximum reader power output, the cou- sumption, the tag’s quality factor (Q), the ations of AM. Therefore, your use of
pling of the energy from reader to tag, tag’s tuning, the reader’s antenna aper- checksums or CRCs and the range factors
and tag power consumption are all im- ture, and the tag’s antenna aperture. Sec- mentioned affect read range so dramat-
portant factors of the design. At these ondary considerations include the tag’s ically that any benefit you gain by using
carrier frequencies, available voltage is modulation depth, the reader’s SNR, the FSK or PSK is usually insignificant.
falling off as 1/r3 (inverse cube of the dis- tag’s power-conversion efficiency, the The application environment can also
tance from the reader), and power is reader’s antenna tuning and carrier ac- affect read range. Key factors include the
falling off as 1/r6 (Figure 5). curacy, the reader’s filter quality, how well proximity of the metal to the tag or
Next, the tag must “speak” loudly the reader’s driver matches the antenna, reader antennas, the presence of in-
enough for the reader to “hear” it. Al- the microcontroller’s speed and code ef- band noise sources, whether the tag and
though this factor relates to modulation ficiency, and the tag’s data rate. reader are stationary or moving, and the
depth, it also depends on the amount of Sometimes, the modulation type also angle of the tag with regard to the read-
perturbation the tag can cause in the affects read range. PSK (phase-shift-key- er’s H-field. Another environmental fac-
reader’s local magnetic field. The pertur- ing) and FSK (frequency-shift-keying) tor is whether the system is enclosed; a
bation is related to coupling of energy be- systems are inherently more immune to system in a shielded tunnel, for exam-
tween the two coils, which the antenna noise than ASK (amplitude-shift-keying) ple, can use more power than one in the
aperture (diameter) and Q affect. Final- systems, because PSK and FSK systems open air.
ly, the reader must “listen” well. This fac- use a subcarrier that noise cannot easily
tor relates to the quality of the reader’s duplicate. In ASK systems, any suffi- DEVICE SELECTION ALSO CRITICAL
noise rejection, SNR, filtering, and pro- ciently wide noise spike can look like data Tag power consumption, turn-on volt-
cessing. and corrupt a bit, so you must use check- age, and modulation depth vary dramat-
When designing for optimum read sums, parity schemes, or CRC (cyclic-re- ically from model to model and manu-
range, you should primarily consider the dundancy checking) to counteract the facturer to manufacturer. For example,
reader’s power, the tag’s power con- noise. the 13.56-MHz MCRF355 and MCRF-

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designfeature Read range in RFID tags

450 RFID tagging devices from

Microchip Technology
Figure 4
Inc power-up at 4V p-p RFID READER RFID TAG
and typically draw 7 mA, where-
as the company’s 125- to 134- POWER CLOCK MEMORY
kHz MCRF200 powers up at 9V OSCILLATOR AMPLIFIER
p-p and draws 10 mA. C
Power-consumption differs
A
widely for systems operating at mC DC ENCODE
13.56 MHz, because CMOS de-
vices consume more current B

proportionally as their clocking FILTERING, PEAK

frequency increases. This fre- AMPLIFYING, DETECTOR MODULATION
SHAPING
quency-dependent consump- ALGORITHM

tion is not a problem in syn-

chronous tags operating at 125 MODULATION FET
kHz; however, a tag that is de-
riving its clock from a 13.56-
MHz carrier has at least one gate An on/off switch, built from a MOSFET, acts as the amplitude-modulating element in an RFID tagging IC.
that consumes 100 times more
current than its counterpart in the 125- quirements are also important; some ap- does not necessarily double the read
kHz tag. The rest of the divider chain plications require only a few inches or range. You can see this by modeling the
draws as much or more than the fastest centimeters, whereas others may need flux lines around the reader’s antenna
gate. 3m. Designers should also decide coil (Figure 6). The smaller the aperture,
You can see the result in two similar whether signal directivity or maximum the shorter the flux lines, because they
13.56-MHz devices. The MCRF450 con- reading volume is more important in an wrap back around the coil. A larger di-
sumes 16.7 mW from dc through the VCC application because increasing one de- ameter allows the flux lines to extend fur-
pin and 28 mW p-p through its coil pads. creases the other. ther in the Z direction before wrapping
A competitive device consumes 200 mW; Regulatory agencies express limits in around, providing both distance and
documentation does not specify whether power or voltage levels at distances of more flux density for the tag’s antenna to
this figure is p-p or dc. tens of meters from the source, and pas- intercept.
The power-consumption advantage of sive tags in this frequency range general- This approach also has limits, because
the MCRF355 translates into a read- ly can be read at a distance of only 1 to beyond a certain diameter, the flux lines
range improvement of at least 30%, 2m. This difference exists because the are no longer additive. This situation oc-
which third parties tested using similar regulatory limits relate to the electric- curs when the flux density in the center
tag apertures and reading on the same field component of the generated EM of the coil and its projection into the tag’s
third-party multiprotocol reader. Be- carrier, whereas the inductively coupled antenna aperture decrease; therefore,
cause the device has an asynchronous de- tag requires a significant magnetic field. range also decreases. At this point, in-
sign, its low-power, on-chip oscillator has Some reader manufacturers use creative creased power may enhance read range.
to switch only at the baseband frequen- design techniques to maximize the mag- A good rule of thumb is that the max-
cy of 70 kHz instead of 13.56 MHz. Such netic field near the reader while cancel- imum read range in a low-frequency, in-
switching at 1/200th the frequency ing the electrical field farther away to op- ductively coupled, passive, back-scatter
means that at least a few gates consume timize read range in the near field but RFID system is one to two times the read-
1/200th the current. minimize emissions in the far field. er antenna’s diameter. Exceptions to this
Within these limits, you can enhance rule can occur with clever design tech-
READER CONSIDERATIONS ALSO COUNT the range by increasing the power, which niques, antenna shape, or signal process-
Reader designs are as diverse as the requires increasing the current drive into ing, but a basic reader has these limits.
items they tag. Prices for readers range the tuned LC circuit and improving the One way to increase range in a space-
from less than $100 for a short-range, impedance match between the driver and constrained application requiring a small
low-performance unit to more than antenna. But there is a limit to the im- reader antenna is to wind the reader an-
$1000 for long-range, high-speed ver- provement you can achieve in this way, tenna around a ferrite rod. This approach
sions. RFID-reader designers must con- because the aperture, or diameter, of the makes the reader more directional but
sider the regulatory agencies’ maximum reader antenna coil and the quality of the increases its range along the axis of the
allowable limits on radiated energy. They detection circuit affect range more than ferrite by concentrating the magnetic
should also consider physical constraints, reader power level does. flux in one direction.
including dimensions, weight, and pow- For example, doubling the aperture di- Once you select a device, you still must
er source—whether an ac line or a 9V ameter of the tag or reader can double design the tag antenna for your applica-
battery, for example. Read-range re- the read range, but doubling the power tion. The primary factors you must con-

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designfeature Read range in RFID tags

sider are aperture, Q, and tuning.

You may also need to consider oth- 931023
er issues, such as flexibility, me-
chanical robustness, thinness, per- 831023

meability to water or 731023

chemicals, shape, and size, Figure 5
631023
but those requirements affect read
range only if they affect aperture, POWER 5310
23

Q, or tuning.
The tag’s antenna aperture re- 431023

lates to read range almost linearly. 331023

In other words, doubling the tag’s
coil diameter may double read 231023

range to as much as twice the read- 131023

er’s antenna diameter, as noted pre-
viously, as long as Q and conduc- 0
50 cm 60 cm 70 cm 80 cm 90 cm 1m
tor surface area remain relatively
RANGE
constant. However, if you use the
same wire gauge for a 4-in. (10-
cm)-diameter tag as for a 2-in. (5- Available RF power rapidly falls off with the tag-to-reader distance, proportional to the inverse sixth-
cm)-diameter tag, the Q suffers be- power of the distance between them.
cause of increased resistance of the
windings. You should use a larger diam- is in line with the reader’s antenna axis. even stacked on top of one another. Op-
eter wire to keep Q constant or even im- Quality factor, Q, is the ratio of stored timizing read range in that application,
prove it. Similarly, a tag implementation energy to dissipated energy. It is also re- then, involves controlling, not maximiz-
using conductive traces rather than wire actance divided by resistance, so a high- ing, the read range. By intentionally lim-
has the same problem. The traces need to er resistance of the coil winding corre- iting the Q of the tags, you effectively lim-
be wider to maintain the same Q when sponds to a lower quality factor. Q also it each tag’s read range. However, you also
you expand a tag to a larger diameter. relates to the 3-dB corners of the transfer limit their effect on one another by lim-
Increasing the tag’s antenna diameter function of the LC circuit in the tag. It is iting the amount of power loss due to
increases read range because a larger di- therefore a double-edged sword: The tuning shift caused by the proximity of
ameter allows the tag to intercept more higher the Q of the tag’s tank circuit, the other inductors.
lines of flux from the reader’s antenna; longer the read range, because the high- Some applications require the tagging
these intercepted lines develop current in er Q allows the extraction and storage of of metallic objects, which can be a prob-
the tag coil. Note that at these frequen- more energy from the reader’s field. But, lem for any passive tag at any frequency
cies, you are using a tuned-LC circuit, not because high Q also means a narrower if you don’t know about the metal be-
a fractional-wavelength antenna. transfer function, it causes the tag to be forehand. Metal causes detuning due to
For applications that require tags with more sensitive to changes in tuning. eddy currents in the case of the ferrous
less than 1/2-in. (1-cm) aperture, you These changes can result from manu- metal.You cannot enclose a passive tag or
must wind the tag antenna around a fer- facturing tolerances on the coil and ca- any other RF device with which you want
rite rod. This approach concentrates the pacitor or the tag’s environment, such as to communicate inside an enclosed con-
available lines of flux into the tag’s an- a tag that is directly on top of another tag ductive container; no electromagnetic
tenna, effectively magnifying or focusing or near a metallic surface. The environ- energy can enter or leave such a contain-
the lines of flux through the coil so that mental changes result when the two in- er or Faraday shield.
they can generate current in the coil. This ductors in close proximity to each other Depending on the orientation of the
situation highlights the fact that power- create a mutual inductance LM which tag to the reader and their orientation to
ing up the tag is the primary barrier to causes the tuned frequency of both tags the metallic objects to be tagged, you can
maximizing read range. to shift. Even a metallic surface can cause control or compensate for the resulting
Such rods are available in many com- a tuning shift because the resulting eddy effects. If you know the objects to be
binations of length, diameter, and per- currents also look like a nearby inductor. tagged beforehand, you can pretune the
meability m and are common in 125- The tuning shift is the same for low Q and tags such that their open-air tuning is off-
kHz tags used for animal tagging and high Q tags but results in dramatic dif- set from the carrier frequency, yet their
key-fob applications. You can also use ferences in the resulting received power tuned frequency, when attached to the
ferrite rods for 13.56-MHz systems, but and, therefore, the read range for each metallic objects, is precisely centered on
you must choose them with the carrier tag. (Figure 7). the carrier. If you do not know the ob-
frequency in mind. A winding around a Some applications do not require a jects, then you must solve the problem
ferrite rod makes the tag directional, long read range but may need to read with more reader power, perhaps in a
with its best range where the ferrite’s axis many tags in close proximity, possibly shielded tunnel, and reduce the Q of the

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designfeature Read range in RFID tags

tags to minimize the power drop due to

frequency shift.
A DESIGN EXAMPLE ILLUSTRATES CONCEPTS
There is no “typical” item-level tagging d2

application, and each application has dif-

ferent—sometimes dramatically differ-
ent—requirements. A medium-range ap-
d1
plication shows how you might approach
the problem if the requirements were dif-
ferent. This sample application
Figure 6
requires a tag measuring 2.5 cm in
diameter and 25 mm thick and a reader
measuring 2032034 cm. The required
read range is 40 cm, and the application d1
requires 760 bits of rewritable memory.
Only 25 tags can be in the reader’s field
at any time, and the application involves _ UP TO
NOTE: RANGE OF USABLE POWER~d
water and chemicals, but no metal. 2d, WHERE d=APERTURE DIAMETER. d2

Because the read range is twice the

maximum aperture for the reader an- A model of the field-flux lines shows how antenna aperture (diameter) is directly related to poten-
tenna and the tag diameter is small, a tial read range.
high-Q tag is the best choice. It is easier
to manufacture a high-Q tag at 13.56 several available conductive inks rather tries in which either 13.56-MHz noise is
MHz than 125 kHz, because a 13.56 MHz than metal windings for the antenna. present or government regulations sig-
a tag requires only four to five windings Conductive inks have much higher re- nificantly limit radiated power in this
compared with 200 to 300 windings for sistance and, therefore, low Q. You could band, you can use the MCRF355 and
125 kHz. The high bit count and need to also make the devices into low-Q tags by MCRF450 at another carrier frequency,
update information further limit your se- using small-diameter wire in the wind- such as 3, 6, or 22 MHz. Their asynchro-
lection. One device, the MCRF450, holds ings or by connecting a discrete or thick- nous design means that the device uses
as much as 1 kbit of data, some of which film resistor across the LC circuit. the carrier only for power, not for timing.
are in its unique ID Code and other con- This example does not specify read As long as the LC-circuit is tuned for the
trol registers, but still leaving 864 bits of speed. For applications requiring high new frequency, both devices operate cor-
user-rewritable, user-write-protectable speed, such as a conveyor belt moving at rectly. The trade-off, though, is that if you
memory. Because the role of the 760 bits 400 ft (130m)/minute, a TTF (Tag-Talk- use a lower frequency, you may need to
is unspecified, the engineer may have in- First) device, such as the MCRF355, use more windings to achieve the higher
tended to include a serial number in might be necessary, but the memory re- inductance the tag requires, or you may
these bits. If that were the case, it would quirement would have to decrease be- need to use a larger capacitor.
reduce the required number of user bits. cause the MCRF355 has only 154 bits of The requirements for this design ex-
The MCRF450 also includes an advanced user space. This difference highlights ample do not specify tag spacing. If the
anticollision algorithm, which enables it what is essentially a trade-off between the 25 tags in the reader field are lateral with
to address more than the required 25 tags “central-database” and the “distributed- respect to one another or spaced at least
in the reader field. database” schools of thought. The one diameter apart in any direction, then
You have several options. For example, MCRF355 holds a serial number and so a high-Q tag would work. But if the tags
you could use a 125-kHz device if you acts as a pointer, similar to a bar code, are stacked on top of each other, then us-
could make its Q high enough and turn- into a central database; the MCRF450 has ing a high-Q tag would be a detriment
on power levels sufficient for reading at much deeper memory, so you can use it due to detuning, or mutual-inductance,
40 cm. If the tags were to come in contact as a distributed database. effects. In that case, consider a low-Q de-
with a lot of metal surfaces in this appli- You could use a printed bar code for sign, which you can implement by mov-
cation, 125 kHz might be a better choice less nasty environmental conditions re- ing to 125 kHz or by using one of the
than 13.56 MHz, because of their lower quiring the reader to read the tags one at techniques mentioned. Note that reduc-
Q which makes them a little more im- a time. A 2-D bar code holds plenty of in- ing Q also reduces read range, because
pervious to tuning shift. formation for a distributed database. The trade-offs always exist.
In that case, however, the read-range design example has no cost require-
requirement would have to decrease be- ments, but a ruggedized and protected PACKAGING
cause a low Q would be mandatory. In- industrial bar code can meet the needs of Due to the rather harsh environment,
cidentally, you can make 13.56-MHz de- lists with severe cost requirements. you cannot use an open, label-type tag in
vices into low-Q tags by using one of For installations in regions or coun- this application. Instead it requires a wa-

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designfeature Read range in RFID tags

ter-tight, chemical-re-
sistant seal, such as an LOW Q HIGH Q
epoxy, PVC, or
plastic disk. A Figure 7
number of manufac-
turers provide this SMALL CHANGE IN
type of packaging in a RECEIVED POWER DRAMATIC CHANGE
variety of shapes and IN RECEIVED POWER

sizes, such as Cross

Technology, Amatech
USA, MC Davis, and
Checkpoint Systems.
You can make the FC
FC
windings inside the
tag using on air-
wound copper coil, Q factor causes a trade-off. Although higher Q improves energy recovery and read range, it makes the system more sen-
etched aluminum or sitive to manufacturing tolerances and to external factors, such as proximity to metallic surfaces.
copper, or deposited
conductive ink. Because this read range you would use a parallel LC circuit be- you make a simple, single-loop antenna
requires high Q, you should use heavy- cause its impedance goes to infinity at which can be etched on the reader’s pc
gauge copper wire or etched copper in- resonance. You achieve tuning for both board. In this case you choose the in-
let in this application. circuits by: ductor’s dimensions before you choose
If the environmental conditions would the capacitor.
allow, you could use a less expensive la- 1 To maximize the read range, you must
f= . (1)
bel-type tag. In this approach, you etch 2 π LC use all the available circumference on the
or deposit a four- or five-turn coil onto reader’s pc board. Once you solve for L
a thin, flexible dielectric. Both single- and For the tag, it is usually best to start using Equation 3, you calculate C using
double-sided processes result in paper- with a readily available production val- Equation 1. The equation for this sim-
thin, flexible “inlets,” which you can bond ue of C and then calculate and wind L ac- pler antenna is more complex than Equa-
inside a human-readable label or bar- cording to this equation. For this exam- tion 2, which you use for a multiturn,
code label or attach directly to an object. ple, you choose 100 pF for the capacitor. wire-wound inductor.
Manufacturers of this type of inlet in- Solving for L yields L=1/(22 p2Cf2)51.38
L50.0467aN2(log10(2a2/(t1w))2
clude Checkpoint Systems, Poly Flex, mH.
log10(2.414a))10.02032aN2 (3)
Leema Pharmed and Cool Tech. Winding a spiral inductor, you use:
(0.9141((0.2235/a)(t1w))),
If read range were not an issue and the
size constraints were more severe, you (aN)2 (2) where a is the length of one side of the
could use a glass-encapsulated tag the L = . square loop in inches, t is the thickness of
(8a + 11b)
size of a grain of rice. This would include the material in inches, N is the number
a wound-ferrite core antenna, which can where a is the distance from the center of turns, w is the width of the trace in
work with 125-kHz and 13.56-MHz sys- of the coil to the center of the windings inches, and L is in microhenries.
tems. in centimeters, b is the width of the wind- Using the dimensions of your pc
ings in centimeters, N is the number of board and assuming some margin for
LC-CIRCUIT DESIGN turns, and L is in microhenries. the case, use a57 in., w50.25 in.,
All inductively coupled, passive RFID Solving for N using a51 cm and t50.002 in. (2-mil-copper-clad board),
tagging systems need good coupling and b50.5 cm, which will fit the tag-dimen- and N51. Then solving for L, L50.576
maximum energy transfer from reader to sion limits, you find that N54.3 turns. mH. Solving for C in Equation 1, you
tag. For these reasons, they use parallel This equation changes when you use a find C5239 pF. Note that 220 pF is a
LC-circuits in the tag antenna and series flat conductor, such as an etched or de- standard capacitor value; adding 22 pF
LC circuits in the reader antenna. To gen- posited inlet. The antenna almost always in parallel gives 242 pF total, which, solv-
erate the maximum H field from the involves some trial and error due to the ing for f, yields 13.48 MHz, close to your
reader, the design should achieve maxi- spacing of the windings, and it is diffi- target of 13.56 MHz. L is not exactly ac-
mum coil current at the resonant fre- cult to make the last turn equal 0.3 turn, curate because of the inductance of con-
quency, because current through a coil but this equation is a good starting nection points, detours around assembly
generates the magnetic field, which is the point. bosses, separation of the two connection
reason you use a series LC circuit, whose The reader design often involves some points, and tolerance in manufacturing,
impedance is zero at resonance. Con- special techniques to maximize local so you often need a variable capacitor or
versely, you want to maximize the volt- magnetic field and minimize electrical- selected value of capacitor for tuning in
age gain at resonance in the tag. Thus, field emissions at 30m. In this example, production.

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designfeature Read range in RFID tags
You could use a flat rather than a
wound inductor for the tag coil. In this
case, you would use Equation 3 for a
square inductor or Equation 2 for a
round one. Alternatively, you could use
a wire-wound coil for the reader anten-
na instead of a copper trace on the pc
board. Because of the inductance and
resistance of a large loop of wire, this
frequency still usually limits you to us-
ing only one turn. Equation 4 repre-
sents a single-turn, circular-loop
antenna:
L50.01257a(2.303log10(16a/d-2)), (4)
where a is the mean radius of the loop
in centimeters, d is the wire diameter
in centimeters, and L is in microhenries.
Note that Equation 4 does not calcu-
late Q for coil and capacitor values, be-
cause resistivity, which controls Q, is in-
dependent of the reactive parameters in
the tuning equations. However, the ma-
terials you select for the windings dra-
matically affect Q, because every mate-
rial has a characteristic resistance per unit
184 edn | December 7, 2000
WHEN USING AN RFID
TAG AND READER,
OPTIMIZING FOR READ
RANGE IS A SYSTEM ISSUE.
length. For this reason, you must care-
fully choose the material, considering all
the application requirements.
STEP BACK AND REASSESS
When designing an RFID tag and
reader, remember that optimizing for
read range is a system issue; no single
component determines the entire read
range. A tagging IC has no read range; it
can only maximize or minimize its part
of the system. Only a total system can
have a read range. Also, keep in mind the
different semiconductor devices, materi-
als, and techniques available for use in
RFID tags and systems, because careful
selection by application is critical. And,
although optimizing read range is more
complicated than you imagine, optimiz-
ing read range is simpler than you imag-
ine if you use these hints, guidelines, and
equations.k
References
1. “13.56 MHz RFID System Design
Guide,” DS 21299, Microchip Technolo-
gy Inc.
2. “125 kHz RFID System Design
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Author’s bio graphy
Peter Sorrells is marketing manager for
Memory and RFID products at Microchip
Technology’s Microperipheral Products Di-
vision (Chandler, AZ), where he has
worked for more than eight years. He re-
ceived a BSEE from the University of Ari-
zona (Tucson, AZ). His spare-time inter-
ests include playing the guitar and raising
three boys.
www.ednmag.com