Equivalent input and output impedances in HF RFID system including resonator

High Frequency Radio Frequency Identification (HF RFID) system based on Magnetically Coupled Reader Resonator Coils (MCRRC) is reported. The proposed system consists of reader antenna including small resonant coil operating by magnetic coupling with the tag coil. In the proposed system, the reader and tag impedances are modified. The equivalent electrical model is used to express the equivalent impedance matrix and used to express the equivalent input and output impedances of the system. The formulas are confirmed by comparison between High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS) results and measures

Improvement of HF RFID detection for small and misaligned tag

A design of a reader antenna is proposed to optimize HF RFID range detection in parallel and perpendicular configuration. The reader antenna has a surface of 500 cm2, the tag corresponds to 0.7% of the reader surface. For passive RFID system, if the reader antenna does not provide the threshold energy to the tag, this one will not be detected. This is the case of the misalignment systems with great difference size antenna. Another problem limiting RFID detection is the different possible tag orientations. In perpendicular configuration, the detection is weak, the tag can only be detected above the edges of the antenna. These limits are minimized in this work by using a multiple loop antenna including resonators. Electrical model is developed to calculate the equivalent mutual inductance of the system from the impedance matrix: the measured results confirm the simulated ones. The detection measurements validate the improvement

Array sub-loops reader antenna for HF RFID tracking

This paper focuses on tracking and objects identification by means of High Frequency magnetic coupling RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) at 13, 56 MHz. The coil of the used RFID tags corresponds to 1.9% of the reader coil surface (120×160 cm 2 ). To increase the size ratio between the two coils, we proposed the use of multiple twisted loops antenna. The reader antenna is consequently divided into four sub-loops, corresponding to 8% of the surface of each one of the sub-loops area. According to the principle of twisted loop antenna, the nearest sub-loops are feed by current in opposite phase (complementary loops principle), and. This structure creates a strength curvature of magnetic field lines between each two of them, improving the magnetic coupling for vertical magnetic dipoles. In contrast, the structure presents at its center a null of magnetic field intensity due to the symmetry. To avoid this inconvenient a resonator is added to the structure to broke the symmetry and modify the magnetic field distribution. Its positioning is studied to optimize RFID detection in different angular and lateral positioning of the tag. Simulations and measurements of the proposed design with and without resonator are presented in the different parts of this paper

3D HF RFID reader antenna for tag detection in different angular orientations

Herein, a 3D 13, 56 MHz (HF) RFID reader antenna is proposed in order to optimize detection performance whatever the tag angular positioning. The design is made of a multi-loop structure, based on serial complementary antennas, as said “twisted” antennas. The RFID tag detection is optimized by two factors which rely on the modifications of the magnetic field (i) vectorial distribution and (ii) magnitude density. The reader antenna design is analyzed with electromagnetic simulation under HFSS (High Frequency Electromagnetic Field Simulation), and validated by detection measurements, in coplanar mode. A multi-loop structure, composed by 4 sub-loops, is then conformed onto a tube surface to provide the 3D structure. The goal of this improvement is to provide tag detection for any angular positions. At the center of the tube (3D reader structure), the detection of the tag is performed whatever its angular orientation, that is to say for any radial orientation

Effect of added resonators in RFID system at 13.56 MHz

In this study, a reader antenna including resonators is proposed to improve detection of a small moving tag in the case of tracking a radiofrequency identification (RFID) system. The near-field RFID technology is based on load modulation, the input impedance on the reader coil and the mutual inductance between the reader and tag coils are the main parameters for performing detection. They are calculated from the impedance matrix parameters. The added resonators change all the parameters of the impedance matrix consequently the input impedance and mutual inductance are also changed. In this study, analytical formulation defining the equivalent impedance matrix parameters is developed. These formulae are used to evaluate the performance of the proposed design according to the tag misalignment (lateral and angular). From the calculation and simulation results, a frequency shift in the equivalent input impedance is found. To avoid this problem, optimising the positioning of the resonators on the reader coil is performed. This study is confirmed by measures of RFID detection for a reader prototype (with and without resonators) and a small commercial tag. Both the surface and volume of detection of the small moving tag (lateral and angular misalignment) are improved by the principle of added resonators

Antenna array in 3D to improve tracking of small HF RFID tag

This paper presents an improvement of small RFID tags detection in HF near field, whatever their lateral and angular misalignments, using a complementary sub-coils reader antenna, enhanced by coplanar weakly-coupled resonators, and conformed on a 3D tube. The key ideas of detection improvement are: (i) modification of B -field vector distribution with the complementary coils above the common edge of consecutive loops; (ii) increase of B -field vector diversity and magnitude distribution by a 3D structure conformed on the tube, by realising 2 pairs of Identical Coaxial Loops (ICLs) with face-to-face sub-coils in forward current, and (iii) enhancement of B -field magnitude distribution by resonators included in the complementary sub-coils. Numerical simulations are carried out using High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS). The studied figure-of-merit is the mutual inductance between the tag and the reader coil. Results are reported for the 4 planar complementary sub-coils, the previous structure conformed on the tube and for the structure in which RCL resonators are added in the 3 planar complementary sub-coils. Experimental detection range measurements of each fabricated structure drives to the enhancement of the 3D complementary 4 × 3 sub-coils structure with weakly-coupled RLC resonators in each-sub-coil in terms of read-out distance and detection surface area

A Twisted Loop Antenna to enhance HF RFID detection for different tag positioning

In this paper, a new LF/HF RFID reader loop antenna design is proposed and tested, in order to increase detection areas of the tags. The studied structure is a Twisted Loop Antenna (TLA) which is based on a modified distribution and orientation of the magnetic field lines. Our structure fruitfully uses the complementary antenna principle in a co-planar configuration. This offers more possibilities of tag detection whatever the tag position and orientation. The antenna performances are evaluated by optimizing the equivalent mutual inductance between reader antenna and tag antenna. Results are presented firstly in simulation (MATLAB and HFSS electromagnetic calculator) and secondly by experimental tests at different distances and misalignments, for the two possible tag orientations: parallel and perpendicular

Detection tube for small HF RFID tags, based on mutual coupling with a coil resonator

This communication concerns the detection of 13.56 MHz (HF) RFID “small” tags. Herein, the term “small” refer to an effective area below 1 cm2 and the detection principle is in volume, especially inside a tube of 9 cm in diameter and 2m in length. The ability to detect the “small” tags in the tube is achieved by using a coil resonator conformed on the tube surface, following a principle of multiple magnetic coupling, also referred as magnetic field guide. Theoretical considerations on mutual coupling formula and electrical model fit to CST simulations and VNA measurements concerning the evaluation of impedance and coupling factors range. Detection tests with an RFID reader (from IB technology) and NXP SLI-X chip confirm the possibility of detection by providing a first result of 2 cm range. This detection was impossible inside the tube without using the resonator. Perspectives of improvement evocated at the end of the paper are numerous for that structure

Design of 1cm2 coils for HF RFID instruments tracking with detection range improvement

This paper concerns an application of magnetic coupling RFID technology at 13.56 MHz (HF band) for tracking devices such as instruments. The tag size is defined to be ergonomically small compared to the hand, and fixed inside a maximum surface of 1 cm 2. The case of multiple detections is considered, and consequently the reader surface of control is considered wide enough to include several instruments at the same time during a logistic control process. The use of such a small RFID tag is almost impossible using a large reader loop of 15×30 cm 2, as chosen for the tests. The key idea of the paper is then the addition of a resonator that enables to create the mandatory physical link by means of magnetic coupling between the tag coil and the resonator coil and between the resonator coil and the reader loop. Finally the detection range is highly improved by the presence of this resonator and results demonstrate that it is possible to detect these small RFID “1 by 1 cm 2 tags” at a distance of 1.5 cm to 3 cm, depending on their orientations

LF RFID chequered loop antenna for pebbles on the beach detection

This paper focus on low frequency (125 kHz) RFID by magnetic coupling, more precisely using glasstag type of tags in the context of pebble detection on the beach. The challenge is to detect over a wide area very small size tags which are highly sensitive to the orientation of the magnetic field. To improve the detection ability of the reader loop antenna, the paper proposes to exploit the principle of complementary loops. Theoretical simulations with MATLAB show the potential increase by means of mutual inductance value along a displacement of the tag. A prototype of a chequered loop structure is presented and tested with a classical low power RFID reader to demonstrate the improvement without increasing the current in LF reader loops. The detection performances reach 12,8% for a 900 cm 2 surface of a prototype reader loop, whatever the orientation of the glasstag