IEEE 2012 International Conference on RFID -Technologies and Applications (RFID - TA)
Use of Transmission Lines as Near Field Antenna in UHF RFID.
G. Manzi, Member, IEEE
Abstract—in this paper the use of simple transmission lines
as “near-field antenna” for Ultra High Frequency (UHF) Radio
Frequency IDentification (RFID) applications is proposed. The
limitation of the reading/identification zone to the “near field”
region of the antenna is a challenging problem for UHF RFID
application. Several solutions have been proposed during past
years but most of them are complicate and expensive in the
final implementation. In this paper a very simple solution based
on a transmission line concept will show that is possible to
achieve a limitation of the reading zone in a simple and
effective way by using very simple “antenna” or better to say:
“coupling mechanism system between RF signal generated by
RFID reader and UHF RFID Tag”.
Keywords: RFID; UHF antennas; transmission line; RFID
antennas; near-field UHF RFID; Antenna, loop antenna, near-
field antenna
I. INTRODUCTION
R adio-frequency identification (RFID), since several
years is an expanding technology. By using RFID
technology is it possible to identify an object/item with a
univocal identification code stored in the memory of the IC
attached to the tag/antenna placed on the item. The basic
concept has been in use since the 1970s-1980s, and during
year it has been developed in many application field from
simple passive identification, inventory and anti-
counterfeiting for asset management to active systems.
Particular attention during year has been given to Item Level
Tagging [1-6].
Passive RFID tags harvest the energy needed to operate from
the electromagnetic signal radiated by the reader antenna.
UHF RFID operates in the range from 860 MHz to 960
MHz. Each country selected a specified sub-band and a
defined maximum allowed radiated power. A summary for
all regions and country with corresponding sub-band and
maximum allowed radiated power is given in a document
provided by GS1 [7].
In the past several studies have been addressed to the near
field topic [8], and have been developed measurements and
qualification techniques [9-11].
In this paper attention is focused on the use of UHF RFID
system in the Near Field Region. Furthermore, will be given
an overview of the Near Field Theory and will be presented
a very simple and effective UHF RFID solution suitable for
near-field applications.
Manuscript received July 15, 2012.
G. Manzi is with “ams AG”, Unterpremstaetten, A-8141, Austria
(phone: +43-3136-500-31473; fax: +43-3136-500-931473; e-mail:
giuliano.manzi@ams.com).
978-1-4673-0328-6/12/$31.00 ©2012 IEEE 319
The proposed Near-Field system overcomes the problem of
containing the radiated field in order to limit the tag
detection zone to a very small region surrounding the UHF
reader antenna.
II. RADIATED FIELD REGIONS
In application definition is crucial the correct understanding
of the radiated field regions. At today, many UHF RFID user
and system integrator referrer oft to Near-Field region
assuming such region to be 25 – 35 cubic centimeter in front
of the reader antenna and using UHF Tag based on small
loop in order to maximize the coupling between reader and
tag via magnetic field.
In Figure 1 the regions surrounding the antenna are
presented in a simple form. Those regions hare classified in
three main regions: Reactive Near-Field, Radiating Near-
Field (Fresnel Region) and Far-Field (Fraunhofer Region)
[12]. In the Reactive Near-Field phase of electric and
magnetic field are often near quadrature; thus wave
impedance is highly reactive and there is a high content of
non-propagating energy near the antenna. In the Radiating
Near-Field (Fresnel Region) Fields are in phase and Fields
patterns vary with distance and are not yet spherical. In the
Far-Field (Fraunhofer Region) fields have spherical
wavefront, pattern doesn´t vary with distance, electric and
magnetic fields are in phase, the impedance is real and
energy propagates. The Reactive region ends at a distance R1
from the antenna, the Far-Field region start at a distance R2
from the antenna. R1 and R2 are respectively:
0.62 ⁄λ (1)
2 ⁄λ (2)
Assuming the maximum dimension of a UHF reader antenna
to be D = 18cm (typical dimension of an high gain antenna)
R1 and R2 at 867.5 MHz (λ ≅ 0.3458 m) are respectively
0.08 m and 0.18 m.
By having a look to the number above calculated for R1 and
R2 appear to be much smaller in comparison of the users and
system integrator idea expectation for a pure Near Field
system.
In following paper work will be focused on the
implementation of an radiating structure having a maximum
dimension of 8 cm and able to detect (in combination with
an UHF RFID reader) small RFID tag up to a distance
between of 5 cm and 6 cm ( from R2 near field region end
at ~4.7cm ).
 III. IMPLEMENTATION AND CHALLENGE OF PURE NEAR B. Challenges
FIELD SYSTEM To summarize main challenges in near-range UHF RFID are
A. Implementations as follows:
First, ensure that the antenna's reading capability is confined
Implementation of a pure near field system is still a
in a very small region above the antenna (inside the Fresnel
challenging task for RF system designer and integrator.
region);
Many solutions are available on the market in order to be
Second, achieve uniform field coverage inside the operating
able to identify UHF RFID tag only in the Near-Field.
region;
The most widely solution implemented by many system
Third, usable on any UHF RFID reader without any change
designer is based on the usage of special “segmented loop”
in the reader hardware;
antennas see Figure 2 and references [13,14]. Segmented
Forth, simplicity, the antenna must be simple enough for
loop is used to create uniform current distribution along the
low-cost production, and should be easily implementable
lop antenna structure in order to achieve uniform magnetic
into different system having different geometrical,
field distribution inside the loop area.
mechanical constraints.

Far-Field (Fraunhofer)
IV. PROPOSED NEAR-FIELD SYSTEM.
Radiating In this section is described in detail the simple concept of the
Near-Field (Fresnel) radiating structure used to enable an RFID reader to operate
R2 in Near-Field mode. The proposed radiating system consists
Reactive
Near-Field of a very simple microstrip transmission line matched to the
reader RF output impedance (in this case 50Ω).
D
R1
A. Microstrip geometry.
As before mentioned, the radiating structure consist of a
very simple microstrip line with a limited GND. The
geometry of the microstrip is circular and the PCB has a
dimension of 56.5 mm by 59 mm (see Figure 3). The
microstrip is made on an FR4 substrate (1.55 mm thick) and
Fig. 1. Field Regions the top (Signal trace) and bottom traces (Ground trace) have
a width, respectively of Wt = 3 mm and WGND = 5 mm
resulting on a quasi 50Ω trace impedance. Traces width have
been optimized by using full 3D electromagnetic simulation
software (CST microwavestudio [16]

Fig. 2. Segmented Loop Antenna (picture from US D570,337)

Other possibilities to limit the detection zone are based on

the use of antenna with very low gain and efficiency. An Fig. 3. Circular microstrip
example is the antenna distributed by Kathrein [15] having a
gain of -15dBi.
By using such antennas the detection region can be limited
by reducing the reader transmitted power in a way that Wt
radiated power at distance higher than R2 is extremely low
and will not be enough to power up and enable operational
condition of passive RFID tag.
Both possible solutions: “Low gain” and “segmented loop”
antenna will radiate energy in the Far field region and may WGND
allow detection of tag located in the Far-Field spatial region.
Fig. 3. Microstrip cross section

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The microstrip is terminated on a 50Ω RF load in order to
keep system fully matched. Shape has been chosen as
circular in order to achieve as much as possible a uniform
H-field distribution in the direction perpendicular to the
circumference axis.
Transmission line impedance is shown in Figure 4.
Radiating structure shown also a very good matching and S11
is very small, below -20dB over the UHF RFID worldwide
frequency bands as showed in Figure 5.
Fig. 4. Microstrip impedance
Fig. 5. S11H-field (z-component)
Fig. 6. H-field (z-component) @ 28mm from TxLine
(a)
(b)
Fig. 7. (a) E-Field Distribution. (b) H-Field Distribution.
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B. Microstrip field distributon.
The circular shaped microstrip allow to achieve an H-field
distribution with maximum concentration of field in the
center of the circumference as showed in Figures 6.
From field distributed can be noted that radiating structure
create a uniform H field distribution, in the center of the
open circumference created by the microstrip line, in the
direction of his vertical axis. From Figures 7 (a) can be
noted that E field is mainly parallel to the circumference
plane and dominant components are Ex and Ey wherease
from Figure 7(b) can be noted that for the H field the
dominant component is the Hz field with not neglectable Hx
and Hy components. With such field distribution will be
possible to detect without problem in the Near-Field region
very small UHF RFID tag and also Big Far Field tag at the
beginning of the Far-Field Region.
Important is to verify that also Far-Field characteristics are
in accordance with the requirements to achieve very low
power radiation in order to avoid detection of RFID tag at
distance higher than R2 or more generally in Far-Field
Region. To verify such expect Far-Field gain have been
calculated and results. Far field Gain has been also
calculated and the value obtaine from 3D EM simulation for
the gain is lower than -27 dBi.
C. Microstrip Measurements.
Prototype of the proposed system have been realized and
tested with very good results, according with predicted
behavior from Electromagnetic simulations. Expectations
are that tag readability will be limited to the area
surrounding the microstrip either for small and farfield UHF
RFID tag. To test the system, the microstrip has been placed
on a special holder (made of plastic material with very low
dielectric constant) see Figure 8(a) and tags have been
placed at fixed position inside the area of the microstrip (see
black dot marked on the holder structure) and at different
level in eight (from 1 cm up to 14 cm), see Figure 8(b),
having the tag center aligned with the corresponding dot
marker.
For the test two different tags have been used, a short range
tag and a far field long range one. The tags are commercial
available materials produced by AVERY-DENNISON RFID
and are following two models: AD-815 (20 mm x 10 mm
with Monza3-IC) and the AD-224 (95 mm x 8.15 mm with
G2xL-IC).
The relative position (versus center) and marker labeling is
showed in Figure 9.
Results for the AD-815 and AD-224 have been reported
respectively in Table I and Table II. In following table the
value of tag RSSI received from the reader is reported when
reading occurs successfully and 0 is reported when no
readings occurs. From table can be noted that small tag can
be read up to 6 cm and big far field tag can be detected up to
12 – 14 cm.
 TABLE I
MEASUREMENTS RESULTS AD-815
Elevation
000 010 020 011 021 012 022 013 023
[cm]
1 30 30 30 30 28 30 28 30 30
2 30 30 30 30 30 30 22 30 22
3 30 30 30 30 28 28 20 28 20
4 28 28 26 26 24 247 0 24 0
5 24 26 26 24 22 0 0 22 0
6 20 22 220 0 0 0 0 0 0
7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

TABLE II
MEASUREMENTS RESULTS AD-224
Elevation
000 010 020 011 021 012 022 013 023
[cm]
2 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30
3 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30
4 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30
5 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30
6 30 30 28 28 28 30 30 30 30
…

12 26 26 26 24 0 0 0 26 24
14 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

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