2014 IEEE RFID Technology and Applications Conference (RFID-TA)

A Modular Antenna for UHF RFID

Near-Field Desktop Reader

R. Caso, A. Michel, A. Buffi, P. Nepa G. Isola

Department of Information Engineering, University of Pisa, C.A.E.N. RFID s.r.l.
Via Caruso 16, 56122 Pisa (Italy) Via della Vetraia, 11, 55049 Viareggio, Lucca (Italy)
E-mail: roberto.caso[andrea.michel, alice.buffi, E-mail: g.isola@caen.it
paolo.nepa]@iet.unipi.it

Abstract—The combination of a near-field coupling antenna TWA up to a few decimeters from the antenna surface, by
placed in the central area of a UHF RFID desktop reader with a exploiting the radiation of an array of low-gain circularly
low-gain resonating antenna allocated at the reader border is polarized miniaturized patches. The antenna layout is presented
here proposed to obtain a confined detection volume within the in Section II, and simulation results obtained with a full-wave
antenna near-field region (including both the reactive and commercial tool (CST Microwave Studio software) are
radiative near field regions). The antenna layout consists of a presented and discussed in the same section. Antenna
spiral Travelling Wave Antenna (TWA) which series-feeds an performance is shown in Section III, in terms of RSSI
array of two circularly-polarized miniaturized patches. The distributions on the desktop reader surface, together with
spiral TWA geometry allows for exciting an almost homogeneous
readability tests for stacked-tags configuration. Concluding
field on the antenna surface, making the tag detection on the
remarks are drawn in Section IV.
reader antenna (near-field reactive region) almost independent
on tag location and orientation. The low-gain patch array is used
to extend the read range up to the radiative near-field region. II. ANTENNA LAYOUT AND NUMERICAL RESULTS
Good results in terms of read range and RSSI (Received Signal
Strength Indicator) distribution have been checked The geometry of the proposed NF Modular Antenna for
experimentally, also for a stacked tag configuration. UHF RFID desktop readers is shown in Fig. 1. The antenna is
printed on a grounded 1.6mm-thick FR4 (εr=4.4, tgδ=0.025)
Keywords— UHF RFID systems; near field coupling; desktop
reader antenna; planar modular antenna.
dielectric substrate. A 50- coaxial cable feeds a spiral shaped
TWA at the surface center, which in turn series-feeds a
I. INTRODUCTION coplanar array of two miniaturized square patches. The
The antenna near-field (NF) features have been applied to patches are located on the spiral opposite sides and are 194mm
specific short-range radio systems (Near Field apart (corresponding at 0.56λ at the central frequency of the
Communications [1], microwave wireless power transfer [2], ETSI RFID band, 866.5MHz).
Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) systems [3]-[5]). In
such framework, NF UHF RFID systems for item level tagging
applications have been developed, with the advantages of
higher reading and data rates, and smaller tag antennas, with
respect to HF RFID systems. Reader antenna design requires to
maximize the field in a limited volume close to the reader
antenna surface, while minimizing the field radiated in the far-
field region to prevent false-positives readings. Moreover, an
as homogeneous as possible field distribution is required on the
antenna surface to avoid failed detections when the tag is
arbitrarily located/oriented on the antenna surface. Depending
on the specific application and size constraints, different
antenna technologies can be employed: near-field focused Fig. 1. Top and lateral view of the proposed near-field Modular Antenna for
UHF RFID desktop readers. The main geometrical parameters values are
arrays [6]-[7], segmented loop antennas [8], travelling wave listed in Table I.
antennas [9]-[12].
The authors recently proposed a general scheme for RFID
To limit the overall antenna size, four slits at the patches
desktop reader antennas [13] consisting in a Travelling Wave
Antenna (TWA) which series-feeds a resonating antenna. In corners have been introduced in order to lower the patch
this paper, a specific design of such a Modular Antenna is resonance frequency [14]. The patch slits are asymmetric
presented, together with simulation results. The main goal is to (C=6.2mm, D=2.4mm), in order to radiate a circular
extend the confined uniform field distribution generated by the polarization. The main antenna parameters dimensions are

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 2014 IEEE RFID Technology and Applications Conference (RFID-TA)

shown in Table I for an ETSI band (865-868 MHz) RFID readability of tags arbitrarily oriented. It is also apparent that
reader. the presence of the cuts in the square patches and the small
size of the patches help to get a satisfactory magnetic field
TABLE I. ANTENNA GEOMETRICAL PARAMETERS FOR AN ETSI (865-868 amplitude at the antenna borders as well.
MHZ) BAND RFID READER

Modular Antenna Dimension (mm)

A 31 D 2.4
B 33.4 F 194
C 6.2 L 69.7

A TWA layout [7]-[10] allows to obtain a relatively strong

and uniform field within a confined volume right above the
antenna surface (NF reactive region) for the whole area
covered by the antenna. Moreover, the spiral geometry helps
to get reading performance almost independent on tag location (a)
and orientation, when tag lies on the antenna surface up to a
distance of a few centimeters. The spiral shaped TWA series-
feeds in turn the two-element patch array. In details, the 50-
spiral microstrip line is divided into two 100- microstrip
lines, which excite in-phase the two miniaturized patches.
Since dielectric and radiation losses in the spiral TWA
introduce a few dBs of power attenuation, the array is fed by a
fraction of the reader output power; moreover, the gain of the
miniaturized patch is expected to be quite lower than that of a
conventional patch. It follows than the proposed modular
antenna can easily met the additional requirement for a low (b)
far-field radiation. Moreover, the spiral-shaped TWA helps to
improve return loss performance; indeed, the simulated
reflection coefficient (Fig. 2) is below -14dB in a frequency
range that is much larger than the UHF RFID ETSI band (865-
868 MHz), so making the antenna robust to the effect of the
material properties of the tagged items on its surface.

(c)
Fig. 3. Normalized magnetic field intensity (dB) on the 275×135 mm2
antenna surface, at a distance of 2mm and at the frequency of 865 MHz: (a)
Hx, (b) Hy and (c) Hz.

The broadside antenna gain is about -5dBic in the whole

Fig. 2. Simulated reflection coefficient of the proposed Modular Antenna
in the UHF RFID ETSI band.
In Fig. 3, the amplitude of the H-field components is shown
at the frequency of 865MHz. It should be noted that, thanks to
the adopted spiral structure of the TWA, all H-field
components exhibit an almost homogeneous amplitude
distribution on the antenna surface, so allowing a good
UHF RFID European band (Fig. 4), which is at least 10dB
lower than the antenna gain of commercial reader antennas for
long read range applications (more than 5m). In Fig. 4, the
Modular Antenna gain is compared with that of the two
separate antenna modules (spiral shaped TWA and patch
array). As expected, the far-field gain (dashed line) of the
spiral TWA (when the latter is closed on a matched load) is
very low (about -14dBic). This confirms that a spiral TWA
loaded on a matched load cannot be used as a desktop reader
antenna if a reading range up to tens of cm is required (the
matched load is needed to avoid a standing wave distribution
on the antenna surface, [9]-[12]). Finally, the Modular
Antenna gain is 3dBic smaller than the patch array gain (dash

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 2014 IEEE RFID Technology and Applications Conference (RFID-TA)

dotted line), so showing that the spiral microstrip line is Also, it is possible to observe how the field is well confined
effective to reduce the power level at the array input (as well close to the reader case, thus reducing false positives readings.
as to improve return loss performance).

Fig. 4. Simulated broadside realized gain versus frequency, for the

proposed Modular Antenna in the UHF RFID ETSI band. For comparison, the
broadside gain of the two separated antennas is also shown: the spiral TWA
when it is ended on a matched load (dashed line); the array of two circularly
polarized miniaturized patches (dash dotted line).
(a)

III. ANTENNA PERFORMANCE

A prototype of the modular antenna has been fabricated and
a photo is shown in Fig. 5.

Fig. 5. Modular Antenna prototype.

In order to evaluate its reading performance, the proposed

antenna has been integrated into a commercial desktop reader
case (30 × 18 cm2) and read range tests have been carried out
using LABID UH414 tags. The reading tests have been
repeated in each of the 33×33 cells in which a 99×99 cm2
plane coplanar to the antenna surface has been subdivided.
Reader output power has been set at 200mW. In Fig. 6 the
RSSI distributions are shown, for the horizontal and the
vertical tag orientation on the entire square plane. In
particular, the RSSI value relative to each cell has been
obtained by averaging all the RSSI values collected in a 10s
time interval. The tag is always read when it lies directly
above the antenna surface, for any tag location and orientation.
On the contrary, very low RSSI values have been measured
when the tag is placed far from the desktop reader borders.
(b)
Fig. 6. RSSI distribution on the desktop reader surface plane, with a
LABID UH414 tag and a reader otuput power of 200mW. The tag is oriented
along (a) the x-axis and (b) the y-axis. A plane of 99×99 cm2, coplanar to the
antenna surface, has been subdivided into 33×33 square cells.
In a further test, the tag has been located in the antenna
central area and it has been moved away from the antenna
surface with steps of 5cm. At each distance, the RSSI value
has been averaged in an interval of 10s, for two orthogonal tag
orientations. The tests have shown that the antenna is able to
read a UH414 tag up to a distance of about 1m, with an output
reader power equal to 200mW, regardless of tag orientation
(Fig. 7). Above distance reduces to about 40cm when an
output reader power equal to 100mW is applied.

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 2014 IEEE RFID Technology and Applications Conference (RFID-TA)
Finally, 11 tags have been placed in a stacked configuration
and separated by foam layers. The distance from each other
has been set to 2cm, up to an overall height of 20cm (the first
tag has been placed directly in contact with the antenna case).
The stacked tags readability has been tested at each of the 9×5
grid cells on the desktop reader surface (27×13 cm2). The total
number of tags that are detected in a 10s time interval has
been recorded, when varying the tag orientation and the stack
position on the antenna surface. Results are shown in Fig. 8,
for two different tag orientations.
Fig. 7. RSSI value by varying the tag (LABID UH414) distance from the
antenna surface central point, with an input power of 100mW (marker line) or
200mW (no marker line), for two orthogonal tag orientations.
(a)
(b)
Fig. 8. Number of detected tags in a 10s time interval, for different
positions of 11stacked tags on the antenna surface. The 11 stacked tags have
been placed at a distance of 2cm from each other, up to a height of 20cm (the
first tag has been placed directly in contact with the surface of the antenna).
The tags are oriented along (a) the x-axis and (b) the y-axis.
Almost all the 11 stacked tags are read in each cell of the
antenna surface grid. As already highlighted in the previous
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tests, the worst performance is observed at the desktop reader
borders, where the reader electronic circuit is placed.
IV. CONCLUSION
A Modular Antenna configuration consisting of a spiral
shaped TWA series connected to an array of two miniaturized
patches has been proposed for NF UHF RFID desktop reader
applications. Tag detection tests demonstrated that such a
Modular Antenna configuration allows for the detection of tags
placed in the antenna central area, up to 100cm from the
antenna surface (reader output power equal to 200mW),
regardless of tag orientation.
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