Effect of Antennas on Read Range in RFID Systems for Manufacturing and Logistics Control

M. Keskilammi, P. Salonen, L. Sydänheimo, and M. Kivikoski (Finland)

Keywords

RFID, Manufacturing, Logistics Control,Identification, Antennas

Abstract

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a contactless method for data transfer in object identification. Radio frequency identification system generally consists of three components: 1)small electronic data carrying device called transponder or tag that is attached to the item to be identified, 2)reader or scanner that communicates with the tag using radio frequency signals and 3)host data processing system that contains the information of the identified item and distributes the information between other remote data processing systems. [1] An RFID system can be considered as a wireless communication system because the scanner communicates with the tag by using electromagnetic waves at radio frequencies. The performance of this communication link can be studied by determining the read range for backscatter RFID systems. The read range or the distance where the reader unit notices the tag depends on many factors. Frequency used for identification, gain, orientation and polarization of the reader antenna and the transponder antenna, and the placement of the tag on the object to be identified will all have an impact on the RFID system’s read range. [2],[3] This paper presents an approach to analyzing the read range of a backscatter RFID system as a function of frequency, antenna gain and polarization mismatch.

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