URSI GASS 2023, Sapporo, Japan, 19 – 26 August 2023

Design and Evaluation of mmWave Backscatter Tag System for Internet of Things Applications
Fathul Muin(1), Tommi Hariyadi (1), and Seong-Ook Park(1)
(1) Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, South Korea; e-mail: fathul.muin@kaist.ac.kr;
tommi@kaist.ac.kr; soparky@kaist.ac.kr

Abstract environments. One approach uses modulation depth

The demand for Internet of Things (IoT) devices that
provide wireless communication has increased
significantly in recent years. RFID technology is currently
one of the most widely used and prevalent technologies.
Low power consumption and simple hardware design are
the main benefits of RFID technology. However, RFID
implementation in expansive spaces with massive
obstructions would make it difficult for the RFID reader to
detect the RFID tag due to interference from these
obstructions. This paper describes the practical design of
the mmWave FSK backscatter tag system and its
evaluation. The experiment results indicate that the FSK
backscatter tag system generates the FSK signal from the
incoming signal and that the tag can be programmed with
any frequency modulation and multiple frequencies. Based
on these findings, the mmWave FSK backscatter tag’s
performance is more promising than the conventional
RFID tag. In the following section, we will discuss how the
mmWave backscatter tag system is more powerful than
conventional RFID tag systems.
1 Introduction
The Internet of Things (IoT) technology has become
increasingly popular recently, and its usage has grown
significantly. IoT involves connecting devices and
appliances to the internet, allowing them to collect and
exchange data. This has led to numerous benefits and
applications, from improved efficiency and automation in
various industries to new opportunities for innovation and
progress in our daily lives. Radio Frequency Identification
(RFID) is one of the IoT devices developed by numerous
researchers and used in many practical uses due to its
comprehensive functionality and adaptability [1]. RFID
systems have seen a rise in demand for various applications
such as inventory management, asset tracking, shipping
container tracking, etc. However, the conventional RFID
system, especially the RFID tag, is plagued by many issues,
such as tag interference and the inability to implement in
large spaces due to path loss [2].
Numerous researchers have created a variety of RFID tags
resulting in a novel design and method. Several studies [3–
5] have made advances in overcoming the limitations of
conventional RFID tags by developing unique designs and
techniques. These studies optimize the placement of the
passive RFID tag for optimal performance in real-world
enhancement to improve the angle of the incoming RF
signal from the source. Ultimately, integrating the RFID
tag with an FPGA is another solution for adding advanced
features. However, most of the work operates on the UHF
frequency, which is widely used in communication
technologies such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Mobile Cellular,
and other RFID signal. This makes the RFID tag signal
susceptible to interference from other signals.
Consequently, it can be difficult for the reader to extract
the RFID tag information.
In recent years, another similar technology of the RFID tag
system has been researched that has the same functionality:
a backscatter tag/transponder tag. One of the most
significant benefits of the backscatter tag is the ability to
modify the incoming signal by implementing a modulation
scheme or other signal modification techniques on the tag.
Recent backscatter tags employ straightforward digital
modulation, such as ASK and PSK [6-7]. These
modulations have a high bandwidth efficiency and require
a simple design for generating the modulated signal, which
reduces the manufacturing cost of the system and provides
a high data rate. However, due to the variation in ASK
leverage amplitude, the noise will likely degrade the
signal's amplitude. Meanwhile, the PSK signal's binary
data require a complex decoding procedure involving
estimating the signal's phase states. Furthermore, since
both the incoming and backscatter signals have the same
frequency, both signals can easily interfere.
This paper proposes a mmWave Frequency Shift Keying
(FSK) Backscatter Tag System that can be used for various
IoT applications. Typically, we implement FSK
modulation into the backscatter tag so that it can transmit
its ID information by shifting the reader's carrier frequency
to represent the bit signal. We can avoid interference
between the reader's incoming signal and the tag's
backscattering signal by utilizing FSK modulation. In
addition, the FSK signal has several advantages, such as its
resistance to fading as a constant-envelope modulation and
its greater noise resistance than amplitude modulation due
to its ability to achieve a lower Bit Error Rate (BER) for
the same digital-to-noise ratio. This system employs
frequency signal modulation at 24 GHz to prevent
interference from UHF frequencies such as Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth, and other RFID tag antenna. In addition,
mmWave signals have a broad bandwidth, allowing for
massive communication.

This paper's copyright is held by the author(s). It is published in these proceedings and included in any archive such as IEEE
Xplore under the license granted by the “Agreement Granting URSI and IEICE Rights Related to Publication of Scholarly
Work.”
2 24 GHz FSK Backscatter Tag System In most cases, the backscatter system uses a digital signal,
such as a square wave, to approximate a sine wave, and for
The FSK backscatter is a tag system that uses the FSK the sake of simplicity, we can define as a square
method to modulate the backscatter signal. Comparing wave.
FSK modulation to other digital modulations like ASK and
PSK reveals some advantages. First, FSK offers robustness 2! "
against fading as it is a constant-envelope modulation. 2& 2
Second, FSK is more resistant to noise than amplitude (4)
modulation because it can achieve a lower Bit Error Rate # $%
(BER) for the same digital-to-noise ratio. '()

Then the backscatter signal from the tag becomes

$% ⋅ (5)
. /'
" '
0
%!
The model presented in the previous section indicates that
the backscatter signal generates multiple sidebands, each of
which is frequency-shifted by + % , and attenuated
,
by+ -.
'

Figure 1. FSK Backscatter Tag system architecture.

Figure 1 shows the FSK backscatter architecture that
describes how the FSK tag backscatters the
incoming/interrogation signal from the reader. Impedance
mismatching is the key concept behind modifying and
reflecting RF signals [8]. To shift the signal's frequency,
the tag varies its impedance over time Γ between and
0 to approximate a sine or square wave. Consequently, the
incoming signal's frequency is shifted by based on the
frequency modulation of the backscatter tag. We can Figure 2. 24 GHz FSK Backscatter Tag Prototype.
analyze the signal in a mathematical equation to better
understand how the baseband signal flows into the Figure 2 depicts the prototype of the mmWave FSK
backscatter tag [8]. Backscatter Tag. FSK digital modulation is implemented
in a backscatter tag using a commodity electronic
First, let's define the incoming signal from the component, ADRF5300-EVALZ SPDT switch. The RF
transmitter as a continuous wave. switch can route the high-frequency signal along various
transmission paths. On the backscatter tag, the RF switch
(1) connects the antenna to RF load with varying impedance
and switches between them. By alternating between the
Where is the amplitude of the incoming signal, is RF1 and RF2 ports, the backscatter tag conducts FSK
the frequency of the incoming signal. modulation, effectively adjusting the reflectivity over time.
The backscatter tags adjust over time so that is or
roughly resembles a sine wave to alter the frequency of the
reflected signal .

| | (2)

Where is the frequency modulation from the tag. So, the

backscatter signal from the tag leads to

⋅
(3)
| |
(a) (b)
As a result, the backscatter signal is frequency Figure 3. (a) Fabricated 2x2 element array antenna (b) S-
shifted by from , and attenuated by | |. Parameter simulation result of the array antenna.
Table 1. Antenna array 2x2 element specifications
Backscatter Tag Reader
No. Antenna Parameter Value
Laptop
1. Frequency range (resonant) 23.1 – 24.7 Oscilloscope
(24 GHz)
2. Bandwidth 1.6 GHz
3. Gain 13 dBi
4. HPBW 36)
5. Radiation pattern Directional
6. Substrate material Taconic
TLY-5
7. Dimensions 20x20 mm
Figure 4. Experiment setup for evaluating the 24 GHz
The RFC port of the switch is connected to a microstrip 2x2 backscatter tag system
element array antenna operating at 24 GHz. Figure 3 and
Table 1 illustrate the antenna's detailed specifications and
simulation results, respectively. At the same time, the RF1 Tag Frequency Hormonic signals
and RF2 ports of the RF Switch are connected to a 50 Ω-
matched ground connection and an open connection,
respectively. The transition rate between reflection and
absorption governs the modulation frequency of the tag. A
low-power microcontroller afterward controls the RF
switch; in this case, we use an Arduino Nano. The Arduino
Nano is utilized to control the RF switch's signal state and (a)
speed of the RF switch. After evaluating the performance
Tag Frequency
of the Arduino Nano, this microcontroller can generate a
clock frequency of up to 16 MHz, meaning that the
frequency modulation of the tag can be set to a maximum
of 16 MHz.

3 Evaluations and Discussions

The experimental setup for evaluating the mmWave
backscatter tag system is depicted in Figure 4. We are
utilizing a commodity 24 GHz Distance2Go radar module
from Infineon for the system's reader, which can produce
Continuous Wave (CW), process the received signal within
its internal components, and display it in Infineon GUI. The
radar is configured to use a single transmitting and
receiving antenna to simulate an omnidirectional reader.
The radar has a maximum transmission power of 10 dB
(written on the software) and utilizes the entire 250 MHz
bandwidth of the 24 GHz ISM band. For the ground truth
of the backscatter tag frequency modulation, we measure
the frequency modulation on the tag board with an
MDO3102 Mixed Domain Oscilloscope.
Numerous experiments were conducted to evaluate the
capabilities of the mmWave FSK backscatter tag system.
We evaluate the backscatter tag signal in an indoor
environment (Laboratory) and determine its frequency
shift using Arduino Nano. To analyze the FSK signal
modulation, we programmed the backscatter tag to
generate one or two different frequencies and compare it
with the measurement data from the oscilloscope. The
intermediate frequency (IF) signal was recorded using
Infineon GUI and processed raw data signal from the radar
in MATLAB.
(b)
Figure 5. Recoded IF data from radar module for (a) 2
kHz (b) 8 kHz frequency modulation scenario.
Figure 5 shows the IF frequency signal that was captured
by the radar. The IF signal is the result of the mixing
process of the received and transmitted signals.
Furthermore, any peak magnitude observed in the IF signal
corresponds to the signal from the FSK backscatter tag. In
this experiment scenario, we set the frequency modulation
at a single frequency at 2 kHz and 8 kHz. Based on the peak
magnitude of the measured data, the captured IF data detect
peak magnitudes at the same frequency at approximately 2
kHz and 8 kHz. Regarding this result, the FSK backscatter
tag successfully modulates its frequency/shifting the
carrier frequency from the incoming signal with the desired
frequency, and is detectable by the reader. According to the
data, there are a number of peaks in other frequencies; these
peaks are harmonic signals caused by frequency
modulation of the tag.
Tag Frequencies

(a)
This paper's copyright is held by the author(s). It is published in these proceedings and included in any archive such as IEEE
Xplore under the license granted by the “Agreement Granting URSI and IEICE Rights Related to Publication of Scholarly
Work.”

Tag Frequencies
(b)
Figure 6. Recoded IF data from radar module for (a) 4 &
6 kHz (b) 5 & 9 kHz frequency modulation scenario.
Another scenario to evaluate the FSK backscatter tag is
implemented for real/practical situations. Generally, RFID
tag sends their ID information with bit signal ‘0’ and ‘1’.
Therefore, the backscatter tag needs to produce two distinct
frequencies to enable the tag to send information that
represents '0' and '1'. The measurement result depicted in
Figure 6 demonstrates that the FSK backscatter tag
generates two distinct frequency modulations. For
simplicity, we set the FSK backscatter tag to send signals
‘0’ and ‘1’ bit frequency alternately with an interval of 4
ms. The two first highest peaks in the IF signal represent
the bit signal. When we set the frequency modulation of the
tag to 4 kHz and 6 kHz to represent bits '0' and '1', the radar
can detect these two peak signal frequencies. In a different
scenario, when the frequency modulation was set to 5 kHz
and 9 kHz, the peak magnitudes signal from the IF data was
located at the same frequency modulation, which was also
the frequency we had set on the backscatter tag.
Based on this evaluation, the FSK backscatter tag system
successfully modulates the carrier signal from the reader by
shifting its frequency with either one or two different
frequencies simultaneously. This system can transmit any
ID information required to implement Internet of Things
applications based on an RFID system.
4 Conclusion
This research presents the mmWave FSK backscatter tag
system for Internet of Things (IoT) applications. The
system's performance was evaluated by testing its ability to
implement frequency shift keying (FSK) modulation on the
backscatter tag. The backscatter tag transmits its
identification information by sending two distinct
frequencies representing the binary signals "0" and "1" to
the reader. Due to the advantages of noise-resistant FSK
modulation, this tag can be utilized in various
environments. The mmWave signal used in this system
also avoids interference from widely used frequency
spectrums such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Mobile Cellular.
Due to the large bandwidth in mmWave, this backscatter
tag system is capable of massive communication.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by Samsung Research Funding &
Incubation Center of Samsung Electronics under Project
Number SRFC-IT2101-06
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