Design of Circularly-Polarized Patch Antennas

for RFID Reader Applications

September 29, 2005

Prof. Bierng-Chearl Ahn
School of Electrical & Computer Engineering
Chungbuk University

Applied EM Lab., Chungbuk University - 0 -

 Contents

1. RFID Reader Antenna

2. Possible Antenna Types
3. Side-Fed Air-Dielectric Patch (SFADP)
4. SFADP Design Steps
5. MWS Simulation
6. Designed SFADP
7. Miniaturization of SFADP by Dielectric Loading
8. 2-Element SFADP Array – Increasing the Gain
9. Tag Read-Range Measurements
10. Conclusions

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1. RFID Reader Antenna

An RFID System

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RFID Reader Antenna Specifications

- Frequency: 908.5 - 914 MHz (In Korea)

- VSWR: less than 2 with 50-ohm impedance
- Polarization: circular
- Axial ratio: less than 3 dB @ 908.5 - 914MHz
- Gain: 6 dBi @ 1W transmitted power
- Size and weight: as small as possible

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2. Possible Antenna Types

Antenna Antenna Size Pattern type Ground Size

Type
Helix L=1λ Directional 0.5 λ
Circularly polarized
Slot L = 0.5 λ Omni-directional 1λ
Linearly polarized
Dipole L = 0.5 λ Omni-directional Not
Linearly polarized applicable
Patch L = W = 0.5 λ Directional 0.75 λ
Circularly polarized

Æ Antenna type of choice : patch

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3. Side-Fed Air-Dielectric Patch (SFADP)

Structure
1. Proposed by Fa-Shin Chang, et al. (2003)
2. Design Parameters
- W1, L1: ground-plane size
- W, L: patch size
- t: truncation for circular polarization
- s: gap between ground plane and patch
- h: distance between patch and ground
plane
- Feeding method: 50-ohm coaxial cable

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Design Parameters
1) Patch size: W ≈ L = 0.4 λ = 139 mm
→ determines resonance frequency
1
2) Truncation: t/W = 0.22
→ determines the axial ratio
2
3) Ground plane size: W1= L1 = 0.7 λ = 234 mm
thickness = 2 mm
3 → determines the gain
4) Feed gap: s = 0.02 λ = 7mm
→ affects the impedance matching
4
5) Ground plane - patch distance: h = 0.06 λ = 20 mm
→ affects the bandwidth
5 6) Vertical height of ground plane: should be same as h
→ affects the axial ratio
6
7) Probe: coaxial SMA, probe diameter 1.2 mm
coaxial cable outer diameter 4.2 mm

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 4. SFADP Design Steps

Determine initial values of

design parameters

Draw the antenna geometry

in the MWS®

Set simulation parameters in MWS®

Select the port dimension

Set mesh parameters

No

Confirm the port impedance for correct mesh setting

YES
Run the Transient Solver of MWS®
Change parameter values

Check simulation results

No
YES
Fabricate the antenna

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5. MWS® Simulation

1. Geometry Drawing

2. Port Definition – TEM mode

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3. Setting the convergence parameter

4. Set post-processing options

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 st
5. Run the 1 stage simulation.
6. Check the result and repeatedly adjust design parameters
for near-final results.
7. Do parameter sweeps for optimum design.

Control of the variable = feed gap

S1
1

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Parameter sweep: control variable = truncation

S1
1

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Parameter sweep: control variable = patch size

S1
1

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8. Check the convergence of the solution by adaptive mesh refinements.

Conclusion S11

Δs value
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6. Designed SFADP

- Patch size: 139 X 139 mm

- Truncation: 30.5 mm
- Ground plane size: 234 x 234 mm
- Gap between patch and ground plane: 20 mm
- Vertical ground height: 30 mm
- Patch material: copper film
- Dielectric material: expanded polystyrene foam
- Feed: SMA coaxial

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 Performance of the designed antenna

Axial ratio at 900MHz

E-field flow

Gain
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 zx - plane

Reflection coefficient

yz- plane

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 Axial ratio, zx- plane

Gain

Axial ratio, yz - plane

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7. Miniaturization of SFADP by Dielectric Loading

Design Steps
1) Choose the suitable dielectric material: low-cost, easy fabrication
2) Place the dielectric between the patch and ground plane. The dielectric is 1.3
times larger than the patch.
3) Design the antenna.

Design Results
- Patch material: copper plate (t =0.2 mm)
- Patch size: 93 x 93 mm
-Truncation: 21 mm
- Gap between patch and ground: 20 mm
- Dielectric material: MC nylon, dielectric constant = 2.7, loss tangent = 0.01
- Dielectric dimension: 120 x 120 x 20 mm
- Feed gap: 7 mm
- Total antenna dimension: 160 x 160 x 32 mm (area reduction factor 0.54)

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Performance of the designed antenna

zx - plane

Reflection coefficient

yz - plane
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 Axial ratio, zx - plane

Gain

Axial ratio, yz - plane

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8. 2-Element SFADP Array – Increasing the Gain

Design Steps
1) Determine the distance between elements.
2) Design a single SFADP fed by a microstrip line.
3) Design the 2-element SFADP feed network.
4) Analyze the 2-element array.

Design Results
- Patch material: copper film (t = 0.017 mm)
- Patch size: 141 X 141 mm
- Distance between two patches: 0.62 λ = 211.45 mm
- Truncation: 32 mm
- Feed gap: 7 mm
- Gap between the patch and the ground plane: 20 mm
- Dielectric material: expanded polystyrene foam
- Connector type: SMA
- Power divider circuit material: FR-4 PCB
- Overall dimension: 445 X 234 X 22 mm
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Determining the element distance

1) Use the single element to form a 2-element array.

2) Check the gain versus the element distance.
3) Obtain the element distance for maximum gain.

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 Design of the feed network
1) Find the input impedance of the single patch: 144 ohms
2) Use an 100-ohm quarter-wave transformer to transform
144 ohms into 70 ohms. Z0 higher than 100 ohms leads
to too thin lines.
3) Combine two 70-ohm lines using a T-junction.
4) Connect the output of the T-junction to a 50-ohm
microstrip line. Return loss = 15 dB.
144 144

Z2 Z1 Z1 Z2

Z0
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Performance of the designed antenna

zx - plane

yz - plane
Reflection coefficient

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 Axial ratio, zx - plane

Gain

Axial ratio, yz - plane

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 9. Tag Read-Range Measurements

- An Alien RFID system is employed.

- EPC class 1 UHF RFID Tag(64bit) “Squiggle T” tag is used.

Read Range
Antenna type Gain (dBi)
(m)
Alien RFID reader antenna 6.0 5
SFADP 8.7 7
Miniaturized SFADP 6.0 5
2-element SFADP 11.2 9.6

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10. Conclusions
- Three RFID reader antennas are desined using CST Microwave
®
Studio .

- Measurements of fabricated antennas show good agreements with

MWS simulations.

- MWS parameter sweep is very useful in obtaining optimum design.

- MWS version 5.1 shows excellent simulation performance on the

most up-to-date computer hardware.

- Benchmark:
1) Hardware platform: Intel Pentium 4 Smithfield 640 64-bit 3.2 GHz,
RAM DDR2 4200 4GB
2) Performance:
Single SFADP : 20 min.(used adaptive mesh)
Miniaturized SFADP : 20 min.(used adaptive mesh)
2-element SFADP : 5 hrs.(used adaptive mesh)
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