PIERS Proceedings, Xian, China, March 2226, 2010

882

UWB Circular Polarization RFID Reader Antenna for 2.4 GHz

Band
T. G. Abo-Elnaga1 , E. A. F. Abdallah1 , and H. El-Hennawy2
1

Electronics Research Institute, Cairo, Egypt

Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt

Abstract Ultra Wide Band (UWB) left hand, right hand circularly polarized antenna is
proposed for the supper high frequency (SHF) 2.42.483 GHz Radio Frequency Identification
(RFID) applications. The antenna is composed of three layers, upper FR4 layer with circular
slotted patch antenna on the top, middle foam layer, bottom FR4 layer with modified branch
line coupler on the top and ground plane on the bottom of this layer. The slotted circular patch
is fed by two posts connecting the circular patch through the foam layer with the branch line
coupler. The antenna achieves impedance bandwidth of 1.66 GHz from 2.344 GHz for both left
hand and right hand circular polarization operation which agree well with the computed results.
The proposed antenna has 3 dB axial ratio bandwidth of 488 MHz for the left hand circular
polarization covering the range 2.372992.86174 GHz and 591 MHz for the right hand circular
polarization covering the range 2321542.91318 GHz. The proposed antenna offers an acceptable
gain and other antenna parameters within its bandwidth.
1. INTRODUCTION

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), which was developed around World War II, is a technology that provides wireless identification and tracking capability. In recent years, RFID technology
has been rapidly developed and applied to many service industries, distribution logistics, manufacturing companies, and goods flow systems. In RFID system, the role of antennas (for reader
and tag) is very important. The reader antenna should have circular polarization (CP) characteristic since the tag antenna can be arbitrarily positioned on the target. Such CP antennas have
been reported in literatures [1, 2]. When an RFID tag comprising an antenna and an applicationspecific integrated circuit (ASIC) is located in the reading zone of the reader antenna, the tag is
activated and interrogated for its content information by the reader. Most RFID systems operate
at ISM frequencies, such as 13.56 MHz, 2.45 GHz and 5.8 GHz, some operate at UHF frequencies
such as 840845 MHz, 920925 MHz (China), 952954 MHz (Japan), 868870 MHz (Europe) and
902928 MHz (USA) [3], etc. The proposed antenna is designed to cover the Supper High Frequency
(SHF) Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) band of 2.42.483 GHz with acceptable performance
in terms of gain, AR, and impedance matching. The antenna achieves 10 dB impedance bandwidth of 1.66 GHz from 2.344 GHz for both left hand and right hand circular polarization operation
which agree well with the computed results. The proposed antenna has 3 dB axial ratio bandwidth
of 488 MHz for the left hand circular polarization covering the range 2.372992.86174 GHz and
591 MHz for the right hand circular polarization covering the range 2321542.91318 GHz. The proposed antenna offers an acceptable gain and other antenna parameters within its bandwidth. The
antenna configure is simple and easy for fabrication.
2. ANTENNA DESIGN

Figure 1 shows the proposed three-layered circularly polarized RFID reader antenna where the
proposed antenna flipped down to see clearly the ground plane, modified branch-line coupler, posts
and finally, the T-slotted circular patch. Figure 2 shows the four T-slots which are etched on the
circular patch of the top layer with radius R1 = 15.6 mm and width w = 1 mm and occupy a circular
sector with central angle of 80 positioned at 45 from the center of the circular patch with radius
R = 16.5 mm calculated from Eq. (1) and Eq. (2) [4], with resonance frequency fr = 2.4 GHz. The
slot has a radial length L = 5 mm. The circular patch is fabricated on FR4 substrate with thickness
h1 = 1.5 mm and permittivity r = 4.65. The radius R is optimized to be 19.5 mm. The middle
layer consists of foam layer with thickness h2 = 4.8 mm acts as air layer. The branch-line coupler is
designed according to [5]. Two stubs added axially with length of 5.63 mm and width of 2.75 mm
for matching and bandwidth enhancement purpose. The modified branchline coupler is fabricated
on FR4 substrate with thickness h1 = 1.5 mm and permittivity r = 4.65. Finally two copper posts
with radius 0.25 mm and height of 6.3 mm are used to connect the modified branch line coupler

Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium Proceedings, Xian, China, March 2226, 2010

883

with circular patch through the foam layer with distant 11 mm away from the center of the patch
in x and y direction. Noted that LHCP and RHCP could be achieved by alternately feeding one
input of modified branchline coupler and matching the other input. The whole structure is analyzed
using IE3D Zeland Method of Moments based software.
R= n

A
h i
o1/2
2h1
A
1 +
ln
+
1.7726
2h1
rA

where
A=

(1)

8.791 109

fr r

(2)

L
R1

w
r1

r 2

r1

Figure 1: CP RFID reader antenna.

(a)

Figure 2: Circular patch with four T slots.

(b)

Figure 3: (a) Fabricated RHCP antenna top view. (b) Fabricated RHCP antenna bottom view.

(a)

(b)

Figure 4: (a) Fabricated LHCP antenna side view. (b) Fabricated LHCP antenna bottom view.

PIERS Proceedings, Xian, China, March 2226, 2010

884

3. SIMULATED AND MEASURED RESULTS

The fabricated antenna is shown in Figure 3 and Figure 4, and its dimensions are given in the
previous section. Figure 5 shows the simulated and measured return loss characteristics of the
fabricated antenna shown in Figure 3 for right hand circular polarization operation. The measured impedance bandwidth reaches 58.5% (from 2.344 GHz) with resonant frequency of 2.837 GHz
which is broader than 37.45% (2.333.36 GHz) predicted during simulation at resonant frequency
of 2.75 GHz. The 3 dB axial ratio (AR) bandwidth reaches 20.8%. The measured impedance
bandwidth for the left hand circular polarization reaches 67.76% (from 2.344 GHz) at resonant
frequency of 2.535 GHz, which is narrower than the simulated result 39.95% (from 2.323.29 GHz)
with resonance at 2.45 GHz as shown in Figure 5 and Figure 6 respectively. The 3 dB axial ratio
(AR) bandwidth reaches 19.95% (from 2.372992.86174 GHz). Figures 712 show the other antenna
parameters. The discrepancies are mainly attributed to fabrication tolerance, using three layers of
foam to reach the required thickness, SMA soldering, imperfect matched loads for the branch-line
coupler, etc.
Measured S11

Measured S11

Simulated S11

Simulated S11

-10

S11 (dB)

S11 (dB)

-10
-20

-20

-30

-30
-40
2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

Frequency (GHz)

2.0

2.5

3.0
Frequency (GHz)

3.5

Figure 5: RHCP S11 versus frequency.

Figure 6: LHCP S11 versus frequency.

Figure 7: RHCP elevation pattern gain.

Figure 8: LHCP elevation pattern gain.

4.0

Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium Proceedings, Xian, China, March 2226, 2010

Figure 9: RHCP axial ratio versus frequency.

Figure 10: LHCP axial ratio versus frequency.

Figure 11: RHCP gain versus frequency.

Figure 12: LHCP gain versus frequency.

Figure 13: RHCP directivity versus frequency.

Figure 14: LHCP directivity versus frequency.

885

886

PIERS Proceedings, Xian, China, March 2226, 2010

4. SIMULATED AND MEASURED RESULTS

LHCP, RHCP three-layered circular T-slotted patch antenna for 2.4 GHz RFID readers applications
is presented. The proposed antenna is optimized using method of moments based IE3D Zeland
software. By optimal design for both circular T slotted circular patch and modified branchline
coupler inner arms, the measured 10 dB input impedance bandwidth reaches 58.5% for the right
hand circular polarization and 67.76% for the left hand circular polarization. The 3 dB axial ratio
(AR) bandwidth reaches 20.8% for the right hand circular polarization and 19.95% for the left hand
circular polarization The proposed antenna presents an UWB performance with an acceptable 3 dB
axial ratio bandwidth and all other antenna parameters.
REFERENCES

1. Chen, W., C. Wu, and K. Wong, Novel compact circularly polarized square microstrip antenna, IEEE Trans. AP, Vol. 49, No. 3, 340342, Mar. 2001.
2. Paulson, M., S. Kundukulam, C. Aanandan, P. Mohanan, and K. Kasudevan, Circularly
polarized compact microstrip antenna, Microwave Optical Technology Letters, Vol. 26, No. 5,
308309, Sep. 2005.
3. Barthel, H., Regulatory status for RFID in the UHF spectrum, EPC Global, Brussels, Belgium, Mar. 2009.
4. Shen, L., S. Long, M. Allerding, and M. Walton, Resonant frequency of a circular disc,
printed-circuit antenna, APS, Vol. 25, No. 4, 595596, Jul. 1977.
5. Wen, C. and M. Chen, Design of multipassband microstrip branch-line couplers with open
stubs, IEEE Trans. MTT, Vol. 57, No. 1, 196204, Jan. 2009.