IEEE AP MAGAZINE, 2014
RFID-based Book Finder
Aapo Oksman, Aapo Vienamo, Mikko Heino and Jalmari Toivanen
Abstract—This paper introduces a solution to a problematic
scenario of the library of Aalto University School of Electrical
Engineering. The library has thousands of books which are
permanently stored in offices, lounges and meeting rooms outside
the main library. As a consequence, these books are often difficult
to locate. The suggested approach facilitates the use of RFID
technology for relocating and inventorying the books. The main
components of the solution are the passive RFID tags and reader.
A new wideband and robust tag design is introduced which is
tuned and ensured to perform well within varying paper materials
and book sizes. The presented reader is implemented using off-
the-shelf components and represents the ease which customers
presently have in building their own embedded systems. The
introduced system is low cost, easily reproducible and could be
adapted for other similar applications requiring item tracking
and locating.
Keywords—2014 IEEE AP-S Student Design Contest, antenna
design, embedded RFID reader, hybrid RFID tag, impedance
matching, inner loop matching technique, item locating, RFID
application, RFID read range
I. I NTRODUCTION
L OCATING items rapidly and accurately has become a
crucial part of our modern society. Accurate locating
not only saves time and money, but also reduces wastage
as products are not lost during the processes. One of the
most effective indoor tracking method is provided by Radio
Frequency IDentification (RFID) technology. Main benefit
of RFID technology rely on the ability to inventory items
simultaneously and rapidly without the requirement of line of
sight to the target. To fully utilize this property RFID engineers
are required to design RFID tags which operate reliably within
varying environments and medium materials.
In this paper, a RFID system is proposed to locate books
of the library of Aalto University School of Electrical Engi-
neering. In the suggested approach, the books placed outside
the main library are equipped with an Ultra-High Frequency
(UHF) RFID tag and they can be located using a hand-held
RFID reader device. In addition to locating the books, the
system keeps the book inventory up to date.
One of the main challenges was to design tags which would
operate reliably regardless of book sizes and paper materials.
The electrical properties of objects in the vicinity of tags
affect significantly their operation. In this case, different books
may have different dielectrical permittivities which affects the
electrical length of the tag antennas. The resonant frequency of
A. Oksman, A. Vienamo, M. Heino and J. Toivanen are all students of
Aalto University School of Electrical Engineering. Oksman and Vienamo are
B.Sc. (tech.) students of Automation Engineering whereas Heino and Toivanen
are M.Sc. (tech.) students of Radio Science and Engineering, Espoo, Finland
(email: firstname.lastname@aalto.fi).
Manuscript received March 22, 2014.
1
an antenna depends, for instance, on its electrical length and
thus affects the matching between the tag antenna and chip
[1]. Tags designed to operate inside one book might detune
out of resonance within other books and would be unlikely
to respond. For this purpose, the tags were designed to be
wideband to achieve robust operation in varying environments.
The wide operation bandwidth was achieved by applying a
new matching technique that exploits the use of multiple inner
loops in conjunction with meandered dipoles [2]. The new
technique was developed by the authors whilst designing RFID
tags for the IEEE AP-S Student Design Contest [3]. The
authors participated the contest with the system introduced in
this paper. A second challenge was the implementation of the
reader as off-the-shelf components may not always perform
ideally and as specied when embedded into a small Printable
Circuit Board (PCB).
II. S YSTEM DESCRIPTION
This section presents the details of the reader device, user
interface and the bill of materials. The section also discusses
RFID tag design theory and describes the tag design process
used in this project. The tag design exploits the double loop
matching technique invented by the authors [2]. The section
also further studies the double loop matching technique by
introducing even more loops.
A. Reader Device
The books are located and catalogued using an RFID reader
module (Skyetek SM-MA-MH-1.H-00CET0) [4] connected
to an embedded computing device (Raspberry Pi Model A)
hosting the user interface. The module is capable of reading
and writing RFID tags by the GS1 EPC Tag Data Standard.
The module settings are software-adjustable. As an example,
the reader output RF power is adjustable from 10 to 30 dBm
and the operating frequency band can be set in the range from
860 to 960 MHz. For this project, the reader output power
was set to 30 dBm and the operation frequency to the US
UHF RFID-band from 902 to 928 MHz. The module switches
its operation frequency rapidly within the band [4]. The reader
sensitivity is specified to be 60 dBm when used with 40 kbps
data rate and 30 dBm transmit power [4]. The reader can be
powered either by a battery or an external power source. The
book database can be stored either on the hand-held device
itself or online on a remote server. The user interface, for
selecting books to be located or catalogued, is operated using
a touch screen. Reader case was fabricated using 3D printing.
The reader and the bill of materials are presented in Fig. 1 and
Table I, respectively.
The design contest rules state that the maximum Equivalent
Isotropic Radiated Power (EIRP) of the reader should be no
IEEE AP MAGAZINE, 2014
Fig. 1. Hand-held reader device. The reader is operated using the touch
screen.
Fig. 2. Three main sections of the reader user interface. Scan is used to
search all nearby books whereas Filter can be used for locating a single book
from the book database.
greater than 4 W. In conjunction with the reader transmit
power, the reader antenna gain can thus be 6 dB at maximum.
Due to the gain resriction a circularly polarized patch antenna
[5] was selected as the reader antenna. The selected antenna
is small enough to fit conveniently to the back cover of the
reader casing. The circular polarization of the antenna enables
detecting tags independent of the polarization alignments. The
antenna was designed and manufactured on 1.5 mm thick
Rogers RO4003C substrate and has a gain of 5.5 dBi at 915
MHz. One benefit of the patch antenna is the relatively sharp
3-dB beamwidth edges in its radiation pattern which could be
further exploited when locating a single tag. Outside the main
beam, the tag is not likely to receive enough power required
to empower the chip and thus, does not respond. Visible laser
pointers could be utilized in future for displaying the 3-dB
edges which the user could exploit to point the direction of a
single tag.
The user interface, illustrated in Fig. 2, was designed to
2
TABLE I. B ILL OF MATERIALS
Component Cost
Raspberry Pi Model A 25 e
2.8 TFT screen 45 e
RFID module (SM-MA-MH.1H00CE-T0) 400 e
Enclosure 20 e
Miscellaneous (Cables, connectors, wirings etc.) 50 e
PCB material for reader and tag antennas 50 e
Higgs-4 RFID chips 0 e (Free samples)
Total 590 e
be intuitive and simple. Once the reader is switched on a
two-segment window appears on the touch screen. This initial
menu screen consists of two buttons: Scan and Library. Scan
is used for inventorying all of the books within the range
of the reader antenna whilst Library is used for viewing the
entire book database for searching single books. Once Scan is
toggled on the reader begins to enlist all of the books within
its range. In scanning mode the reader sends query commands
constantly and switches its operation frequency within the US
UHF RFID-band. The percentages beside the book names in
Fig. 2 indicate how many times the reader has received a
response with respect to the total queries. Toggling Library
enlists the whole book database where the user may select
a single book and start locating it by clicking Filter. The
user is mainly responsible for locating the books as the 3-dB
beamwidth of the patch antenna should be exploited to delimit
the presence of the searched tag. The user interface runs on a
Debian based Raspbian operating system and was programmed
with Python. It utilizes Python libraries Tkinter for creating the
graphs and pySerial for serial port communications with the
RFID module.
B. Tag Design Theory
A passive UHF RFID tag consists of an antenna and
microprocessor chip. The chip contains all the information of
the tag and is programmed to respond to certain commands
following the GS1 EPC Tag Data Standard. Once the chip
intercepts a valid command it modulates a response to the
Continuous Wave (CW) provided by the reader. Thereafter,
the modulated response propagates back to the reader for
detection. In order to harvest power the chip requires an
antenna that receives the incoming radiowaves effectively. The
antenna should be conjugately matched to the chip ensuring
maximal power transfer and read range. [1]
The chips are highly capacitive and require an inductive
antenna. The most commonly used antenna element in RFID
tags is a modified half wavelength dipole, due to its omnidi-
rectional radiation pattern, which ensures the tag readability
from various angles. Shorter than λ/2 dipoles are inherently
capacitive and thus they require additional inductive elements
to cancel their own and the chips capacitances. Capacitance
is usually cancelled by adding loop elements to the structure
[6]. A loop antenna exhibits a strongly non-linear dependence
between loop circumference and impedance especially with
loop circumferences small compared to wavelength. Resistance
IEEE AP MAGAZINE, 2014
scales down more rapidly than reactance with decreasing small
loop circumferences [7]. The circumference of the loops in
RFID tags are usually significantly smaller than wavelength
and thus they mainly contribute to the reactance of the tag.
Achieving conjugate matching in free space is relatively
straightforward as complex environmental factors are not re-
quired to be taken into account. In free space, minor distur-
bances in tag performance are caused by, for instance, the
chips impedance dependence on input power, coupling effects
of other nearby tag antennas and ElectroMagnetic Interference
(EMI) from the environment. [1]
A tag’s performance is significantly affected by nearby
objects and varying medium material. The reactive near field
of a tag is considered to extend to a range of λ/2π [7]. All
objects within this limit alter the fields generated by the tag.
The relative permittivity of the environment may vary as well
as the volume of the medium material which both affect the
electrical length of the tag antenna. Changes on the electrical
length of the antenna can be taken into account when designing
tags. Broadband tags are typically better at tolerating varying
environmental conditions. The impedance bandwidth of the tag
is a compromise with the matching level. A poor matching
level is unlikely to provide enough power to awaken the chip.
Chip empowerment failure is more commonly referred to
as failure of the forward link. In turn, reverse link failure
is set mainly by the sensitivity of the reader. When a tag
is interrogated, forward and reverse links are both required.
Therefore, the smaller of forward and backward ranges defines
the total read range [1]. The maximum read range is greatly
affected by the additional medium material path loss which
can not be accounted in the design process.
C. Robust Tag Design with the Inner Loop Method
The tags are realized using Alien Technology’s Higgs-4 chip
in the SOT323 package [8] and an antenna patterned on a PCB.
According to the rules of the AP-S Student Design Contest [3]
the tags must operate in the US UHF RFID-band of 902 − 928
MHz and their size is limited to 50 mm x 50 mm x 5 mm. In
this project, yet thinner tags were aimed to facilitate their usage
inside books. For practical reasons, the tags were implemented
on rigid and 1.5 mm thick FR4 substrates. This substrate was
conveniently available to our student team and the antenna
pattern could be etched on it in an in-house laboratory. The
tags were designed and simulated with CST Microwave Studio.
The book was simulated as a dielectric box measuring 235 mm
x 170 mm x 16 mm with an initial relative permittivity of dry
paper r = 2.31. The tag model was placed in the center of
the book. The antenna lines were simulated as 35 µm thick
annealed copper lines.
A meandered dipole antenna was chosen as the initial
antenna structure as it enables an omnidirectional radiation
pattern facilitating the search of even randomly oriented
books. The dipole was further loaded with inductive loops
to obtain conjugate matching to the highly capacitive chip
(18.4 − j181.2 Ω at 915 MHz) [2], [8]. In the simulations
the chip was modelled as an equivalent circuit consisting of
parallel connected 1.8 kΩ resistor and 0.95 pF capacitor [8].
3
The design began by creating the chip feed port and adding
the outermost loop crossing the entire design area. Four
meandered dipole arms were placed to the corners of the loop.
Using four meandered dipole arms instead of two was known
to result in larger bandwidths as the design area is used more
effectively [9]. Initially the height of the loop was tuned to
cancel the capacitive reactance of the chip. The meandering
lengths were tuned to get the resonance point to the center
of the US RFID UHF-band at 915 MHz. The linewidth was
controlled to cover as much of the design area as possible.
The linewidth could also be used as a tuning parameter for
making small shifts in the resonant frequency. In this design
the linewidth of different sections was kept the same for the
sake of simplicity.
At this point the design exhibited too high resistance values
at the center frequency and thus the impedance had to be scaled
down closer to the desired 18.4 Ω. The inner loop matching
technique was used to scale down the impedance by adding
inner loops to the antenna structure. After the impedance was
scaled lower, small corrections could be made by adjusting
the loop separations dw, meandering lengths l, linewidth t and
the loop heights h. Parameters l and t mainly contribute to
the location of the resonant frequency and had to be tuned, in
case the loop height was changed, to effectively use the design
area. The design parameters are illustrated in Fig. 3. Strength
of this model and technique relies on the adjustability of dw
as it can be tuned to set the correct impedance level without
affecting the resonance frequency. Increasing loop sizes scales
the impedance higher and lowers it when decreasing them [2].
h should only be adjusted if dw is at its limits and reactance
is still too low or high. Most crucial in this design is to
set reactance to the desired level as the resistance curve will
eventually still cross the desired resistance values.
The correct impedance level was thus achieved with two
inner loops. The final antenna structure, relevant dimensions
and a manufactured prototype tag are presented in Fig. 3.
With these particular dimensions and substrate material the tag
operates reliably inside a book. In the free space the conjugate
matching is lost and the tag most likely ceases to operate.
Although, this same tag design could easily be tuned to operate
within other medium materials by varying the meander lengths
and loop sizes.
The simulations depicted the model to exhibit a double
resonance, with respect to the chip impedance, which can
be seen clearly as a loop on the Smith chart in Fig. 4. The
resonance loop was carefully tuned to the center of the Smith
chart to maximize the impedance bandwidth.
The final impedance curves and matching are illustrated
in Fig. 5 and 6, respectively. The book permittivity affects
the resonance loop and rotates it on the Smith chart. Book
thickness or the amount of paper and adjustment parameter
dw rotate the double resonance in a similar manner. The
simulated -10-dB impedance bandwidth of the tag inside the
book is approximately 90 MHz from 872 to 962 MHz with
two higher matching points occurring at 886 MHz and 948
MHz as seen in Fig. 6. The matching peaks as the resistance
curve crosses the desired 18.4 Ω. The slight notch in matching
at the center frequency results from the resonance frequency
IEEE AP MAGAZINE, 2014 4

36 340
33 Resistance 320
30 300
Reactance

Resistance [Ω]

Reactance [Ω]
27 280
24 260
21 240
18 220
15 200
12 180
9 160
6 140
3 120
0 100
800 850 900 950 1000
Frequency [MHz]

Fig. 5. Resistance and reactance of the antenna when optimized for book
relative permittivity r = 2.31.

0
Fig. 3. Designed RFID tag antenna. The optimized dimensions with book
relative permittivity of r = 2.31, were g = 0.7 mm, L1 = 21.4 mm, −5
L2 = 18.7 mm, t = 1.6 mm, h = 20 mm, w = 46.4 mm and dw = 3.6 −10

S11 [dB]
mm. −15
−20 r = 2.31
1 −25 r = 1.85
r 0.5
= 2.31 −30 r = 2.85
2 −35
r = 1.85 US RFID-band
r = 2.85 −40
800 850 900 950 1000
0.2 5 Frequency [MHz]

Fig. 6. Simulated reflection coefficients with respect to the chip impedance

0.2 0.5 1 2 5 with different book relative permittivities.
0

achieving conjugate matching. The main benefit of multiple

−0.2 −5 smaller loops is that resistance scales down more in relation
to reactance as more loops are added to the design.

−0.5 −2 III. M EASUREMENT RESULTS

−1
Fig. 4. Impedance curves of the tag antenna with respect to the chip
impedance with three different book permittivity values.
of the meandered dipole antennas as they obtain their largest
resistance value at this point.
Fig. 4 and 6 also present how changes in the books relative
permittivity affect the matching. The resonant frequency is
inversely proportional to relative permittivity. This is caused by
the change in the electrical lengths of the antenna dimensions
which are inversely proportional
√ to the square root of the
relative permittivity l ∼ 1/ r [7]. The matching level drops
when shifting the resonant frequency. Although the frequency
shifting is significant, the results indicate that the reflection
coefficient remains better than −5 dB in the whole US RFID
UHF-band when the relative permittivity of the book is within
1.85 and 2.85. Thus this wideband design is shown to be robust
and should remain operational inside any book.
The loop addition method is thus verified to provide ef-
fective means for scaling down the impedance and further
This section illustrates and discusses the measurement re-
sults of the system. As common for RFID systems, special
interest is on the total read range of the system. The initial
plan was to first ensure the functionality of the prototype tag
so that possible system failures later on could be pinpointed
to the reader.
A. Tag Measurement Setup
Correct operation of the tag was verified by measurements
with Tagformance lite, a commercially available UHF RFID
tag performance tester from Voyantic Ltd. The device was
used for conducting threshold and read range measurements by
placing the tag within different paper amounts and qualities.
The measurement antenna and the tag under test were placed
into an anechoic box. The tags were set at a distance of 30
cm from the antenna onto a specific foam stand. The tag chip
is the aforementioned Higgs-4 from Alien Technology. The
measurement setup is presented in Fig. 7 with an ongoing read
range measurement.
A threshold measurement describes the lowest possible
reader power that results in an observed tag response and is
IEEE AP MAGAZINE, 2014
Fig. 7. Tags were tested in an anechoic box using a commercially available
UHF RFID tag performance tester. Read range measurement is in progress.
commonly used for making relative comparison measurements.
For the threshold measurements, the selected observable mea-
surement unit was Power On Tag Forward which describes the
transmitted power level present at the tag. This measurement
unit is independent of the path loss. Path loss refers to the link
budget to the tag which consists of the antenna gain and free
space attenuation. Power on tag forward allows comparison to
other tags presented in literature. Theoretical read ranges, set
by the forward and reverse link, were also obtained from the
threshold measurement. Theoretical read ranges are specified
by the EPCglobal. Theoretical Read Range Forward is derived
from the maximum allowed commercial transmitter power of
30 dBm and from the tag sensitivity. Commonly the theoretical
read range forward does not deviate significantly from the
values of built RFID systems as the 30 dBm transmission
power is relatively easy to achieve [1]. Theoretical Read Range
Reverse is defined for a reader specific sensitivity of -70 dBm
and an antenna gain of 4 dBi. Theoretical read range reverse
might differ significantly from those of a RFID system, as
typically, a good reader sensitivity is more expensive and
harder to achieve [1].
One crucial factor should be considered when comparing
theoretical and actual total read range of a RFID system. If the
theoretical read range forward is shorter than the theoretical
read range reverse, the total read range is the one set by
the forward link. On the contrary, this is not the case when
theoretical read range reverse is shorter. When the forward
link has excessive link margin the tag can be moved slightly
closer to the reader. This increases the power on tag which
affects the Power On Tag Reverse. Similarly as power on tag
forward, power on tag reverse is independent of the path loss.
Power on tag reverse may increase or decrease depending how
the tag chip impedance reacts to the increased power on tag
forward. Usually the sacrifice of forward link margin increases
the theoretical read range reverse, thus increasing the total read
range. It should be noted, that this is not obvious as the tag
impedance matching may become worse due to the change
of the chip impedance. To inspect the amount that the total
read range increases requires specific measurement procedures.
5
Air
News paper, 20 mm
Magazine, 8 mm
Power On Tag Forward [dBm]
3 Book, 16 mm
Book, 30 mm
0
2 Books, 30+16 mm
−3
−6
−9
−12
−15
−18
800 850 900 950 1000
Frequency [MHz]
Fig. 8. Measured power sensitivity of the tag inside different books and in
free space.
The main objective of a read range measurement is to obtain
the dependence between power on tag forward and power on
tag reverse at different power levels. In the case of excessive
forward link margin, this dependence can be further exploited
to obtain the correct power on tag reverse value as the tag is
brought closer to the reader. The new theoretical read range
reverse, resulting from decreasing the forward link margin,
can be further derived by applying the reader sensitivity and
antenna gain to the power on tag reverse value.
B. Tag Power Sensitivity
Fig. 8 illustrates threshold measurements with six different
paper amounts and qualities. The different measurement cases
were selected to simulate varying operation environments. The
tag was designed to operate reliably inside a book and was
known to detune at free space. Thus the measurement cases
were selected to depict a transformation from low to high
relative permittivities. The selected news paper, magazine and
books are presented in Fig. 9. News paper, is a daily news
paper ”Helsingin Sanomat” with loose sheets and a relative
permittivity approximated to be close to that of free space.
Magazine, is an ”IEEE Microwave Magazine” which was
thought to have a higher relative permittivity. Book, 16 mm, is
”Fundamentals of Radio Engineering” which was used as the
initial reference book for the simulations. Book, 30 mm, is a
hardbound copy of D. Pozar, ”Microwave Engineering”. The
measurements show that the tags are wideband and perform
reasonably well inside different kinds of books. The obtained
minimum values are approximately 3 dB higher than the
specified -18.5 dB typical sensitivity of the Higgs-4 chip [8].
The tag is seen to operate more reliably within books and even
better as more paper material is in the vicinity of the tag. Thus,
the tag design can be considered successful.
Fig. 10 displays how a commercial tag, UPM Raflatac
DogBone, performs in comparison to the prototype tag. The
performance of the UPM tag lowers drastically as more paper
material is in the proximity of the tag. Thus the performance
is the opposite of the prototype tag.
IEEE AP MAGAZINE, 2014 6

Forward , book, 16 mm
Forward, 2 books, 30+16 mm
Reverse, book, 16 mm

Theoretical Read Range [m]

Reverse, 2 books, 30+16 mm
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
800 850 900 950 1000
Frequency [MHz]

Fig. 9. Selected literature to simulate the varying tag environment. 1. Fig. 11. Measured theoretical forward and reverse read ranges.
Daily news paper, 2. IEEE Microwave Magazine, 3. Fundamentals of Radio
Engineering and 4. D. Pozar, Microwave Engineering. TABLE II. T HEORETICAL R EAD R ANGES AT 915 MH Z

Theoretical EPCglobal Standard Built System

Read Range 16 mm book 2 books 16 mm book 2 books
Power On Tag Forward [dBm]

0 3-loop tag, book, 16 mm Forward [m] 7.9 8.5 7.9 8.5

−2 UPM tag, air
−4 UPM tag, book, 16 mm
−6 UPM tag, book, 30 mm
−8
−10
−12
−14
−16
−18
800 850 900 950
Frequency [MHz]
Fig. 10. Power sensitivity comparison with a commercial tag UPM Raflatac
DogBone.
C. Theoretical Read Range
Measured theoretical read ranges are presented in Fig. 11.
As previously stated, the theoretical read range reverse of an
actual RFID system is most likely significantly lower due to the
lower than -70 dBm reader sensitivity. To obtain reader specific
values the theoretical read range reverse values should be
recalculated using different reader sensitivity and antenna gain.
For the RFID system presented in this paper, the theoretical
read range reverse values should be recalculated using the
specified -60 dBm reader sensitivity [4] and the 6 dB antenna
gain restriction, stated by the design contest [3], to obtain the
maximum read range. On the contrary, theoretical read range
forward values are the same for the presented RFID system
as the module was used at its maximum transmission power
level of 30 dBm [4]. The measured theoretical read ranges
depict the total read range to be limited by the forward link.
However, it should be noted that due to the sensitivity of the
reader module, the actual total read range of the built system
becomes limited by the reverse link. This is further illustrated
in Table II which presents the theoretical read ranges at 915
MHz in conjunction with the corresponding built RFID system
Reverse [m] 10.9 9.8 4.3 3.9
readings.
Fig. 12 presents the total read ranges for the built system.
These results were calculated for the antenna gain restriction
of 6 dB to represent the maximum read range of the system.
Based on these measurements and depending on the paper
1000 amount and quality in the vicinity of the tag, the total read
range of the built RFID system is approximately 5 meters in
the US UHF RFID-band.
D. Reader Measurements
The reader tests could be executed after ensuring the func-
tionality of the tag. Reader tests began by measuring the
output power directly from the reader module output cable.
This measurement also revealed the operation principle of the
reader module as it constantly switched its operation frequency
within the US UHF RFID-band. The reader is most likely
designed to switch its operation frequency to maximize its
read range. In realistic read cases, constructive and destructive
interferences are always present due to multipath propagation.
Using multiple frequencies ensures the occurrence of construc-
tive interference at least at some frequencies. As a downside,
this slows the tag detection time, especially at long ranges,
as the user may have to wait long periods until a suitable
frequency occurs. Output power of 1 W was measured from
the reader using a spectrum analyzer. The measured value is in
accordance with the specified value of 1 W [4]. Thus a 6 dB
reader antenna could be used for testing the maximum read
range of the system.
The read range measurement setup is shown in Fig. 13.
The tag was placed inside the middle book amongst three
books. A 9 dB horn antenna was used as the reader test
antenna in conjunction with a 3 dB attenuator to simulate the
maximum allowed reader antenna gain of 6 dB. An external
IEEE AP MAGAZINE, 2014 7

10
9 Book, 16 mm
Read Range [m]

8 Book, 30 mm
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
800 850 900 950 1000
Frequency [MHz]

Fig. 12. Measured total read ranges for the built RFID system.

power source was used to provide constant power to the reader.

Based on the previously measured theoretical read ranges,
the system read range was estimated to be approximately
5 meters. The measured values could deviate significantly
from the previously obtained values due to, for example, non-
ideal measurement environment, possible antenna mismatches
and antenna misalignments. Maximum read range was to be
obtained by aligning the polarizations of the tag and reader
antennas to the same plane. Oblique read angles were to
be studied after finding the maximum read range. It was
shortly noticed that such accurate read range characterizations
would be impossible with this specific reader and measurement
setup. Firstly, the measurement setup was not ideal as, for
example, the wall on left in Fig. 13 does not fully absorb
UHF radiowaves and thus allows multipath propagation to
the tag. Other directions are not as likely to cause multipath
propagation due to the λ-sized absorbers and large empty
space in conjunction with the highly directional measurement
antenna [7]. Another difficulty in the measurement process was
set by the frequency shifting as the read range became limited
by the detection time. The tag detection time increased with
the reading distance.
The reader was able to detect the tag inside the middle
book, shown in Fig. 13, which was approximately 7 meters
away from the reader antenna. The cost for this relatively long
read range was the response waiting period, which could be Fig. 13. Read range measurement setup: 1. 5-m tape measure, 2. Prototype
even up to 30 seconds. The user should be careful and patient tag, 3. Reader, 4. 9 dB reader test antenna, 5. 3 dB attenuator and 6. Power
when using similar readers at long distances. An instantaneous source.
response range was measured to be approximately 4 meters
which was in agreement with the previously measured theo- scaling down the antenna resistance while maintaining suffi-
retical read ranges. cient reactance values. The simulations indicated the conjugate
matching to remain at acceptable levels even when facing sig-
nificant changes in the medium material relative permittivity.
IV. C ONCLUSIONS
A prototype tag was manufactured and its functionality was
This paper described an RFID system for finding books. The verified with an accurate tag performance tester. Threshold
built RFID reader was made from off-the-shelf components measurements depicted the tag operational and displayed the
and was seen to operate reliably and appropriately in different wide operational bandwidth and robustness in varying envi-
circumstances. ronments. The tag was tolerant to varying paper amounts and
A robust and easily tunable passive UHF RFID tag was qualities and performed even better as more paper material
designed to operate within books. The design exploited the was in the vicinity of the tag. The theoretical read range at
double loop matching technique [2]. The technique was further 915 MHz was measured as approximately 8 meters which
studied by adding even more inner loops to the design. The corresponded to a read range of approximately 4 meters for the
inner loop addition was verified as an effective method for built RFID system introduced in this paper. The built system
IEEE AP MAGAZINE, 2014 8

total read range was inspected to be approximately 5 meters Aapo Oksman was born in Helsinki, Finland, 1993.
depending on the paper amount and quality in the proximity He began his studies towards the Bachelor of Science
of the tag. in Technology in automation engineering in Aalto
University School of Electrical Engineering in Es-
The built RFID system performance was investigated by poo, Finland, 2013.
studying the maximum read range. Read range tests revealed Despite the early stage of his studies he has
a long operational distance of even up to 7 meters with the acquired a remarkable amount of knowledge in elec-
prototype tag placed inside a book amongst other books. tronics and embedded systems.
Long range was believed to partly result from the constructive
interferences presented by the frequency shifting of the reader.
As a downside from the frequency shifting the tag response
time became slow at long ranges. With the aforementioned 7
meter read range the response time could be as slow as 30
seconds. The user should be patient when reading tags from
long distances. The range for a rapid response was measured
to be approximately 4 meters which was in agreement with
the measured theoretical values. Aapo Vienamo was born in Helsinki, Finland, 1994.
The presented system was seen easily reproducible and rel- He began his studies towards the Bachelor of Science
in Technology in automation engineering in Aalto
atively low cost. All of the required components are available University School of Electrical Engineering in Es-
for consumers and thus the system could be rebuilt for different poo, Finland, 2013.
applications requiring item locating in varying environments. Regardless of the early point of his career, he
displayed exceptional skills during the project being
responsible for the software of the reader device.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The RFID system presented in this paper was the authors
submission to the 2014 IEEE AP-S Student Design Contest.
The project began as an assignment in a practical antenna
designing course and proved to be highly educative. The
project was supported by Aalto University School of Electrical
Engineering. Besides Aalto, the authors would like to espe-
cially thank their Electronics workshop course lecturer Kimmo
Silvonen, Antennas-Practice course lecturer Jari Holopainen
Mikko Heino was born in Paimio, Finland, 1989. He
and Team mentor Ville Viikari for their support and guidance. received the Bachelor of Science in Technology in
electrical engineering from Aalto University School
R EFERENCES of Electrical Engineering in Espoo, Finland, 2013.
From 2012 to 2013, he worked as a research
[1] K. Finkenzeller, RFID Handbook, New York, Wiley & Son, 2000. assistant and from 2014 onwards he is working as a
[2] M. Heino, J. Toivanen, J. Holopainen and V. Viikari, ”Double Loop master thesis worker in the Department of Radio En-
Matching Technique for Robust UHF RFID Tag Antennas,” Accepted to gineering and Science of the Aalto University School
AP-S, 2014. of Electrical Engineering. His research interests in-
[3] IEEE AP-S Student Design Contest, 2014. Antennas for RFID clude RFID antennas and isolation improvement in
Application [Online]. Available: http://www.ieeeaps.org/pdfs/2014AP- MIMO systems.
SDesignContestAnnouncement.pdf
[4] Skyetek, (2012). Skyemodule M10 Datasheet [Online]. Available:
http://www.skyetek.com/docs/m10/m10datasheet.pdf
[5] T.-C. Yo, C.-M. Lee and C.-H. Luo, ”Small Single Band Circular Polar-
ization and Dual Band Circular Patch Antenna”, International Workshop
on Antenna Technology: Small and Smart Antennas Metamaterials and
Applications, pp. 435-438, Mar. 2007.
[6] G. Marrocco, ”The art of UHF RFID antenna design: impedance- Jalmari Toivanen was born in Espoo, Finland, 1988.
matching and size-reduction techniques,” IEEE Transactions on Antennas He received the Bachelor of Science in Technol-
and Propagation, vol. 50, pp. 66-79, Feb. 2008. ogy in electrical engineering from Aalto University
School of Electrical Engineering in Espoo, Finland,
[7] J. D. Kraus and R. J. Marhefka, Antennas for all Applications, 3rd ed.
2012.
Boston, McGraw-Hill, 2002.
From 2011 to 2012, he worked as a lab assistant in
[8] Alien Technology, (2012, May 8). Higgs 4 SOT Datasheet [Online]. the Metrology Research Institute at Aalto University
Available: http://www.alientechnology.com/wp-content/uploads/Alien- School of Electrical Engineering. During summer
Technology-Higgs-SOT.pdf 2013, he worked as an R&D trainee at Voyantic
[9] Thuat Nguyen-Tran, Mau Chien Dang, Nhan Ai Tran, Anh Hoang, Ltd. His research interests include the design of RF
Dat Son Nguyen, Fribourg-Blanc, E., Hong Phuong Phan, Ho Cong applications and their operation verification.
Tam Vuong, Van Hieu Nguyen and Tien Thong Pham, ”Contribution
on UHF RFID antenna design and tag fabrication,” IEEE International
Conference on RFID-Technologies and Applications, pp. 463-468, Sep.
2011.