Radar cross-section analysis for passive RFID

systems
. M. Keskilammi, L. Sydanheimo
K. Penttila, . and M. Kivikoski

Abstract: The authors analyse radar cross-section (RCS) for operational optimisation of radio
frequency identification (RFID) systems. The research work is based on both theoretical analysis
and scattering pattern measurements over tag antennas with four different loads. Furthermore, the
influence of the tags’ antenna ground plane size to their performance is analysed. Theoretically,
short circuited tags scatter all the incoming field to their environment, while a perfectly matched
antenna does not scatter at all. Furthermore, the antenna shape has a significant role in the total
scattered RCS, while antenna mode RCS is under 1 m2 for both measured antennas. In addition,
as the dimension of the antenna’s ground plane is increased, the maximum identification range
with reliable identification is not increased; instead, only the maximum achievable identification
range increases. The results presented are useful when optimising tag performance, and further
identification range.

1 Introduction different operational modes: short circuited, open circuited,

The trend in automated industry is to move towards fast
and real-time identification, further improving the speed
and accuracy needed to enable continuous identification
and monitoring. The interest in adopting radio frequency
identification (RFID) technology for use in high-level
automation systems with minimal manual involvement is
increasing rapidly. RFID systems are capable of providing
real-time object visibility with high accuracy enabling
continuous identification and location of all items and
thereby providing accurate real-time data management
instead of simple snapshots.
As the operation of passive RFID tags is based on the
electromagnetic field they receive from the readers, the tags’
antenna design has a vital role in the system level efficiency
and reliability. Furthermore, the backward communication
link from the tags to the reader is largely dependant on the
backscattering field strength of the tags. Therefore we see
the optimisation of the tags’ antenna and their scattering
ability as a fundamental challenge for RFID systems to
become commonly used across industry processes.
Passive RFID systems and their communication have
been researched in several publications [1–4]. This research
gives more in-depth analysis towards the tags’ performance.
Our approach is based on theoretical analysis of the tags’
radar cross-section (RCS). In addition, we analyse the
variation of the tags’ RCS with different loads. The
theoretical analysis is based on a wide study over several
publications [5–13].
In order to verify our theoretical analysis, we measure
scattering patterns of microstrip patch antennas in an
anechoic chamber. Measurements are taken within four
r IEE, 2006
IEE Proceedings online no. 20045183
doi:10.1049/ip-map:20045183
Paper received 31st December 2004
The authors are with Tampere University of Technology, Institute of
Electronics, Rauma Research Unit, Kalliokatu 2, FIN-26100 Rauma, Finland
E-mail: katariina.penttila@tut.fi
resistor loaded and integrated circuit (IC) loaded cases.
Furthermore, we study the influence of the tags’ antenna
ground plane size to the RCS and identification perfor-
mance. The purpose of the measurements is to compare
RCS of different load cases and to study the influence
of the increase of the antenna ground plane to the tag
performance.
2 Passive RFID technology
An RFID system consists of tags, readers and an
application host. The readers communicate wirelessly with
the tags to obtain the information stored on them. The data
sent by the reader is modulated and backscattered from a
number of tags. The cheapest RFID tags with the largest
commercial potential are passive, harvesting energy from
the reader’s communication signal to power up their
operation and communication with the reader. This
communication principle is intended to operate in far field
at UHF (ultra high frequency) range, on which this study is
also focused. Figure 1 illustrates the operation of back-
scattering passive RFID.
The reader-to-tag communication window consists of
three sections. In the first section the reader sends a
continuous wave (CW) to the tags. This field activates the
tags and gives them the energy required to receive the reader
command. The second section is the command. Finally the
reader sends a CW field that the tags modulate and
backscatter back to the reader. Between two sequential
communication windows is a transaction gap during which
the RF field is switched off.
In order to analyse the operation of RFID tags we derive
two radar equations for RFID purposes and use them
together with common RCS equations. RFID systems can
be treated as radar systems because the backward commu-
nication link (from tags to the reader) is purely scattering.
Only minor differences between an RFID system and a
radar system occur: first, the strength of the backscattering
field varies significantly as the identification range changes.
Second, as the distance between the reader and the tags at

IEE Proc.-Microw. Antennas Propag., Vol. 153, No. 1, February 2006 103
 reader transponder
power + data
directional coupler
transceiver
Tx
IC
Rx RL
load resistor
modulated reflection
Fig. 1 Operational principle of passive RFID
range is relatively short compared to wavelength used, the
communication takes place at the same time to both
directions. This challenge can be overcome by using an
effective directional coupler or circulator to separate the
transmission and the receiving signal in the reader.
3 Scattering
Energy of an electromagnetic field is reflected, transmitted
or absorbed when the wave propagates in free space
towards an object that is characterised by its permittivity, e
and permeability, m [11]. In a conductor, electrons are free
to move in response to the changing incident electric field to
maintain a zero total tangential surface field. The time-
varying incident field causes a time-varying charge separa-
tion to occur on the conductor, which represents a current
flow. These charges and currents represent the sources for
the scattered field. The remainder of this Section presents
the antenna scattering mechanisms and gives a short
introduction to antenna scattering equations.
3.1 Antenna scattering mechanisms
Antenna scattering mechanisms are divided into structural
and antenna mode scattering [9]. Structural mode occurs
owing to the antenna’s given shape and material, and is
independent of the fact that the antenna is specifically
designed to transmit or receive RF energy. Antenna mode
has to do directly with the fact that the antenna is designed
to radiate or receive RF energy with a specific pattern.
Principles of these modes are presented in Fig. 2 [12].
antenna mode structural mode
Fig. 2 Antenna scattering: antenna mode (left) and structural
mode (right) [13]
As our research focuses on tags with microstrip patch
antennas, we analyse only the resonant region scattering.
Structural mode scattering mechanisms in the resonant
region are body-to-body interaction and surface wave
scattering [9].
With body-to-body-interaction the field at any part of
the body is the sum of the incident field plus that scattered
by other regions of the body. This collective interaction
determines the resultant current density [9].
Surface wave scattering occurs when the electric field
polarisation is in the plane of incidence but not when the
angle of reflection equals the angle of incidence. The
induced surface wave gains energy from the incident field.
When this energy is reflected from a discontinuity, back-
scattering occurs. Surface wave scattering is independent of
body size but proportional to wavelength squared (l2). It is
divided into travelling and creeping waves [9].
104
Travelling waves are significant only when a component
of the incident electric field is parallel to the surface and in
the plane containing the surface normal and the direction
of the incidence. The intensity generally increases with
increasing distance, since a travelling wave ‘feeds’ on energy
supplied by the incident wave over illuminated surfaces.
Travelling waves may be launched along metal surfaces [9].
Creeping waves follow surface geodesics and can be
reflected by obstacles of discontinuities. If no discontinuity
exists, the creeping waves will ultimately emerge from the
shaded side of the body at a shadow boundary, where a
portion of it is launched back toward the radar.
The intensity of creeping waves decreases with increa-
sing distance. Creeping waves are of little practical
significance [9].
When the energy that has travelled down the transmis-
sion line is reflected from the termination, antenna mode
scattering occurs [9]. This is presented in Fig. 3, where a+
and a
represent signals of antenna transmission lines and
b+ and b
represent the incoming and outgoing spherical
waves. The collected power from the incident wave
reradiates the field in all directions [13].
a+ b−
ZL
a− b+
Fig. 3 Antenna scattering principle
3.2 Antenna scattering equations
Antennas are typically designed to transmit or receive as
much energy as possible. In this Section, we first derive
equations for antenna effective area for a receiver antenna
and then on the basis on antenna reciprocity, we use them
to derive antenna scattering equations. The operation of an
antenna can be described by using an equivalent circuit,
shown in Fig. 4, where antenna impedance ZA and
termination impedance ZT are defined as:
ZA ¼ RA þ jXA ¼ Rr þ RL þ jXA ð1Þ
ZT ¼ RT þ jXT ð2Þ
where RA is the antenna resistance, XA is the antenna
reactance, Rr is the antenna radiation resistance, RL is the
antenna loss resistance, RT is the termination resistance and
XT is the termination reactance. Further, from the
equivalent circuit (Fig. 4) we obtain:
V
I¼ ð3Þ
Z A þ ZT
V
ZA ZT
I
Fig. 4 Antenna equivalent circuit
IEE Proc.-Microw. Antennas Propag., Vol. 153, No. 1, February 2006
Substituting (1) and (2) into (3): theoretically zero. The measured results will be analysed
V against these equations in Section 5.3.
I ¼ qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð4Þ
ðRr þ RL þ RT Þ2 þ ðXA þ XT Þ2
4 Radar cross-section
The power delivered from antenna to its terminating
impedance is [13]: Radar cross-section, s, is a measure of power scattered in a
2
given direction when a target is illuminated by an incident
PA
T ¼ I RT ð5Þ wave [9]. This is shown in Fig. 5. Hansen [5] defines antenna
Substituting (4) into (5): RCS as follows:
V 2 RT  2
PA
T ¼ ð6Þ 1 2pREstruct pREant 
2 2 s ¼ 
ð1
Ga Þ ð16Þ
ðRr þ RL þ RT Þ þ ðXA þ XT Þ p Einc Einc 
Kraus [13] defines that in an ideal case, the power delivered
from an antenna to its terminating impedance is equal to In (16), R is the distance between the transmitting and the
the total power the antenna absorbs from the incident field. receiving antenna, Estruct is the electric field at the receiver in
Further, the amount of the power the antenna absorbs from the short circuit case, Einc is the electric field incident at the
the wave is defined as [13]: target (tag) antenna, Ga is the tag antenna reflection
coefficient from load to antenna and Eant is the electric
Pabsorbed ¼ SAeff ð7Þ
field strength of antenna mode at the receiver antenna. The
where S is field density at the antenna location and Aeff is two terms of the above equation, (16), are called structural
the antenna effective area. Reorganising (7) and substituting and antenna mode.
(6) into it, we will have: Electric field E is related to power density S:
V 2 RT pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Aeff ¼ h i ð8Þ E ¼ 2Z0 S ð17Þ
S ðRr þ RL þ RT Þ2 þ ðXA þ XT Þ2
where Z0 is the wave impedance in vacuum. Substituting
When the antenna termination is matched to the antenna (17) into (16):
impedance, the termination reactance XT ¼
XA and the
termination resistance RT ¼ Rr þ RL . Then:  rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi rffiffiffiffiffiffiffi2
1  Sstruct Sant 
V2 s ¼ 2pr
ð1
Ga Þpr  ð18Þ
Aeff ¼ ð9Þ p Sinc Sinc 
4SðRr þ RL Þ
A loss resistance RL of a lossless antenna is zero and the The structural mode RCS can easily be calculated from the
maximum effective area of the antenna: short circuited case in which the antenna mode scattering is
V2 zero [9]. To calculate the total scattered RCS and the
Aeff ¼ ð10Þ antenna mode RCS, we consider another definition of RCS.
4SRr Knott defines RCS as [9]:
As antennas are reciprocal, they scatter the same amount of
power that they absorb. According to the equivalent circuit jEscat j2
(Fig. 4), the power delivered from the antenna termination s ¼ lim 4pR2 ð19Þ
R!1 jEinc j2
to the antenna is:
PT
A ¼ I 2 Rr ð11Þ where Escat is the total scattered electric field. Substituting
(17) into (19) we get the total scattered RCS:
And further:
V 2 Rr rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi2
 Sscat 
PT
A ¼ ð12Þ s ¼ lim 4pR  2  ð20Þ
ðRr þ RL þ RT Þ2 þ ðXA þ XT Þ2 R!1 S  inc
Similarly as within the absorption case, the antenna effective
area for a lossless antenna with matched termination is: According to (18) and (20), we will have:
V2  rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi rffiffiffiffiffiffiffi2
Aeff ¼ ð13Þ 1  Sstruct Sant 
4SRr s ¼ 2pR
ð1
Ga ÞpR
p Sinc Sinc 
When the antenna is short circuited, the termination rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi2
resistance RT ¼ 0 and the termination reactance XT ¼
XA  Sscat 
¼ lim 4pR2   ð21Þ
[13]. Then: R!1 Sinc 
V2
Aeff ¼ ð14Þ
SRr Pi [W/m 2 ]
Pi [W] Ps = (
Pi )/(4πr 2) [W/m 2 ]

When the antenna is open circuited, termination impedance

ZT ¼ 1 [13], antenna current I ¼ 0 and the antenna
effective area is:
Aeff ¼ 0 ð15Þ incident target’s antenna target reradiates
power flux with cross section captured energy
Comparison of (13) and (14) shows that the antenna from distant area
captures
effective area is ideally four times larger with the short transmitter energy
Pi
circuited case than with the perfect match case. In addition,
when the antenna is open circuited, its effective area is Fig. 5 Antenna RCS [9]

IEE Proc.-Microw. Antennas Propag., Vol. 153, No. 1, February 2006 105
Now, by reorganising (21) we get the antenna mode: Finally, from (26) and (28) we will have:
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffi2 G
 pffiffiffi  Sant  S1 ¼ P1 ð29Þ
s ¼ ð1
Ga Þ pR  4pR2
Sinc 
 rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi2 4p
 pffiffiffi S pffiffiffi Sscar  S2 ¼
P3 ð30Þ
¼ 2 pR
struct

2 pR ð22Þ l2 G
Sinc Sinc 
The power density S1 at the tag’s location is the incident
In order to place the measured field powers to the above power density at the target (tag), equalling Sinc and the
equations (18), (20) and (22) we must find out the context backscattered power density S2 is the total scattered power
between power densities and measured and transmitted received by the reader Sscat.
powers. According to Friis’ transmission equation [12, 13] As an RFID tag changes its antenna matching to form
the power density S at distance of R from the transmitter is the modulation during backscattering, we study four
defined as: different load cases: short circuit case; open circuit case;
resistor loaded case; and IC loaded case. The first two cases
Gtransmitter Ptransmitted are clear; they present the situation, in which the tag’s
S¼ ð23Þ
4pR2 backscattering field reaches its maximum and minimum.
The third and fourth cases present the situation, in which
where Gtransmitter is the gain of the transmitting antenna and the tag is loading itself, first using a 50 O resistor load and
Ptransmitted is the transmitted power. Further, the power then using tag IC. The theoretical difference between these
collected by receiver antenna is: loads is that the IC will absorb the electromagnetic field
during its operation for a very short time period, of the
Preceived ¼ SAe receiver ð24Þ
order of tens of microseconds. In addition, the IC has
1200 O input impedance and therefore correct matching is
where Ae_receiver is the effective area of the receiving antenna, difficult to achieve. By analysing both of these cases we
defined as: want to study whether the tags stop loading their ICs after
l2 Greceiver the specified loading period and starts to act as a reflector.
Ae receiver ¼ ð25Þ
4p 4.1 Short circuit case
In the short circuit case, the value of the reflection
l is wavelength and Greceiver is the gain of the receiving coefficient Ga is 1 and no antenna mode scattering occurs.
antenna. The above equations can be used to analyse RFID According to (22), (18) and (20), we get the antenna mode,
system as tag operation is based on backscattering, as stated the structural mode, the total scattered RCS for short
in Section 2. The remainder of this Section presents circuited case:
equations for calculating power densities at the tag’s
location and reader’s location. sant sc ¼ 0 ð31Þ
First, we assume a constant transmission power from the  
reader to the tag: Ptransmitted ¼ P1 and constant distance R ð4pÞ3 R4 P3 sc 
sstruct sc ¼   ð32Þ
between the reader and the tag. Further, we use the ðlGÞ2 P1
following definitions:
sscat sc ¼ sstruct sc ð33Þ
G ¼ reader antenna gain
Gtag ¼ tag antenna gain where subscript sc indicates the short circuit case.
S1 ¼ power density at tag’s location (during forward link)
4.2 Open circuit case
S2 ¼ power density at reader’s location (during backward
In the open circuit case, the reflection coefficient Ga has the
link)
value
1 and both structural and antenna mode scattering
P2 ¼ power received by the tag (forward link)
occurs. The structural mode of the open circuit case
P3 ¼ backscattered power, power received by the reader
corresponds to the structural mode of the short circuit case.
(backward link)
The antenna mode, the structural mode, the total scattered
Ae_tag ¼ the effective area of the tag antenna
RCS for open circuited case in respect of (32), (18) and (20)
Ae_reader ¼ the effective area of the reader antenna
are:
 
ð4pÞ3 R4 P3 sc 
Then, by using the above definitions and (23) we will have sstruct oc ¼   ð34Þ
power density S1 for the forward link: ðlGÞ2 P1
GP1 rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi2
S1 ¼ ð26Þ ð4pÞ3 R4  P3 sc P3 oc 
4pR2 sant oc ¼ 
 ð35Þ
ðlGÞ2  P1 P1 
Similarly, by using the definitions and (23)–(25), power  
density S2 and backscattered power P3 for backward link ð4pÞ3 R4 P3 oc 
Sscat oc ¼   ð36Þ
are: ðlGÞ2 P1
Gtag P2 where subscript oc indicates the open circuit case.
S2 ¼ ð27Þ
4pR2
4.3 Resistor loaded case
In the resistor loaded case, the reflection coefficient is ideally
l2 G Ga ¼ 0 (perfect match) and both structural and antenna
P 3 ¼ S2 Ae reader ¼ S2 ð28Þ
4p mode scattering occurs. Similarly, as in Section 4.2, the
106 IEE Proc.-Microw. Antennas Propag., Vol. 153, No. 1, February 2006
structural mode, the antenna mode and the total scattered A patch antenna is suitable for several applications
RCS are: because of its simple implementation and easy mounting in
  or on almost any surface. With a conducting ground plane,
ð4pÞ3 R4 P3 sc  patch antennas can be designed to operate in the vicinity of
sstruct R ¼   ð37Þ
ðlGÞ2 P1 metal. The size of a patch antenna depends on the
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi2 wavelength used and dielectric characteristics of the antenna
ð4pÞ3 R4  P3 sc P3 R  substrate. Antenna thickness is determined by its substrate
sant R ¼ 2 

 ð38Þ thickness and possible shielding used.
ðlGÞ P1 P1 
In this study, we chose to use patch antennas because
  of their properties mentioned above and also because of
ð4pÞ3 R4 P3 m  availability. The chosen antennas were made of Teflon
sscat R ¼   ð39Þ
ðlGÞ2 P1 (Rogers 5870), with a dielectric constant of 2.33 and
thickness of 3.18 mm. They were designed to operate
where subscript R indicates the resistor loaded case. around 900 MHz (UHF range). The size of the antennas’
radiation element is of the order of 100 mm  100 mm and
4.4 IC loaded case the sizes of the ground planes are of the order of
In the IC loaded case, the operational reflection coefficient 200 mm  200 mm (for antenna A1) and 150 mm  150 mm
varies between one and zero or minus one, or between short (for antenna A2). Antennas are presented in Fig. 6.
circuit and resistor load or open circuited case, according to
manufacturer realisation. Therefore antenna scattering of
the IC loaded case may vary between these two modes.
Now, similarly as in Section 4.2, the structural mode, the
antenna mode and the total scattered RCS are:
 
ð4pÞ3 R4 P3 sc 
sstruct IC ¼   ð40Þ
ðlGÞ2 P1
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi2
ð4pÞ3 R4  P3 sc P3 IC 
sant IC ¼ 
 ð41Þ
ðlGÞ2  P1 P1 
 
ð4pÞ3 R4 P3 IC 
sscat IC ¼   ð42Þ
ðlGÞ2 P1
where subscript IC indicates the IC loaded case and sc the Fig. 6 Measured antennas A1 (left) and A2 (right)
short circuit case.
5.2 Measurement system
5 Measurements The measurement system arrangement is presented in
Fig. 7. It consists of a transmission system with an antenna
We measured tag antenna scattering patterns with four and a signal generator, and a measuring system with an
different loads: a short circuit case; an open circuit case; a antenna and spectrum analyser. Measurements were taken
resistor loaded case; and an IC loaded case; that are equal in an anechoic chamber. Transmitting and measuring
to those we analysed in Sections 4.1–4.4. Measurements are antennas were fixed to a wooden support, a distance of
based on two microstrip patch antennas with different 1 m from each other. Both transmitting and measuring
physically sized ground planes. antennas have gain of 6 dBi. The transmission signal level
With an ideal RFID tag, the short circuited case presents was 0 dBm. The antenna being measured was attached to a
a situation in which all the incoming field is scattered wooden support, 2 m apart from the transmitting and the
forming the maximum intensity of the backscattering field. measuring antennas, well located in the far field.
The resistor load (ideally a perfect match) and the open
circuited cases present a case in which all the incoming field
R=2m
is correspondingly absorbed or dissipated forming the A transmitter
minimum intensity (100% modulation depth) of back- G transmitter
…… ..
scattering field. As the transmission signal of the RCS ………..
measurement system does not include the identification signal
generator
command of the reader, the IC loaded case is expected to
operate similar to the resistor loaded case. However, the A tag
backscattering field of IC loaded case may show some
G tag
variation over time, as the tag is not likely able to store
the energy forever, whereas the resistor will continuously
transform the absorbed field to heat. tag
A receiver
antenna
G receiver
5.1 Antennas
In general, a tag antenna must have a high ability to capture
..…
the incoming field and an efficient rectifier to transform the ..…
..…
..…
..…
incoming field to energy. Further, the tag must have good ..… R=2m
radiation properties to achieve long identification range.
spectrum
The design of tag antennas is often based on application analyser
specific requirements, such as required identification range,
durability and easy attachment to objects being identified. Fig. 7 Measurement system

IEE Proc.-Microw. Antennas Propag., Vol. 153, No. 1, February 2006 107
5.3 Results
The measured results, presented in Table 1, show that RCS
has its maximum when the antenna is short circuited.
According to Section 3.2, the total scattered RCS of short
circuited case is four times larger than the total scattered
RCS of perfectly matched load case. With antenna A1, the
scattered RCS of the resistor loaded case is only 3 dB lower
and the scattered RCS of IC loaded case is only 1.5 dB
lower than the scattered RCS of the short circuited case.
With antenna A2, the scattered RCS of the resistor and IC
loaded cases is only 1.5 dB lower than the scattered RCS
of the short circuited case. The reason for this is most likely
the matching uncertainty. Both antennas used similar
microstrip feeds for each measurement case, while the tag
IC requires 1200 O impedance while the load resistor used
was 50 O.
Table 1: Measurements results; maximum received power
with different load cases
Antenna load Maximum received power
Antenna A1 Antenna A2
Short circuit case
27.3 dBm
27.1 dBm
Open circuit case
29.1 dBm
28.0 dBm
Resistor loaded case
30.0 dBm
28.7 dBm
IC loaded case
28.7 dBm
28.6 dBm
Tables 2 and 3 present the calculated RCS of measured
antennas with different loads. Calculations are based on the
measured results from Table 1 and (27)–(29) and (33)–(42).
The structural mode RCS has a significant role in the
total scattered RCS. With both antennas, the antenna mode
RCS is smaller than 1 m2, while the structural mode RCS is
over 15 m2.
As expected on the basis of Section 3.2, the largest RCS is
achieved when the antenna is short circuited. The short
circuit case of an RFID tag corresponds to the situation in
which the tag short circuits its IC from the antenna with e.g.
a switch. This forms the high signal level of the back-
scattering signal (ideally everything scatters). The tag forms
the low signal level of the backscattering signal (ideally
nothing scatters) by either collecting all the incoming field
to its IC or switching the antenna to open circuited mode.
The first alternative is clearly more efficient, but the
practical realisation is manufacturer dependant.
The measured results of antenna A1 show that the total
scattered RCS is smaller with the resistor loaded case than
with the open circuited case. Further, for antenna A2, the
total scattered RCS is smaller with the resistor loaded and
IC loaded cases than with the open circuited case. The
reason for this may be non-idealities such as possible
mismatches between antennas and their termination
impedances. As the measurement environment is not fully
anechoic, a part of the incoming field may scatter from the
antenna and further proceed to the measuring antenna
unlike Section 3.2. presumes.
It is well understood that the antenna effective area is the
area with which the antenna collects or scatters the field, but
differs from the antenna physical area [13]. However, when
two antennas are made of similar material with similar
radiation properties it is likely that the one with larger
ground plane radiates or absorbs the field better and has
therefore bigger effective area. Despite of that, the
calculated results show that the total scattered RCS of
antenna A1 is slightly smaller than that of antenna A2.
However, this difference is quite small, and likely caused by
several non-idealities: (i) possible mismatches between
antenna and termination impedance, (ii) antenna loss
resistances are ignored in calculations, and (iii) environ-
mental disturbances.
As the measurements were taken in an anechoic chamber
that was open from one wall, other radio waves were able to
propagate into the chamber. Further, the chamber is not
fully anechoic. However, the motivation for using this
chamber to the measurements was to get rid of most of the
reflections and environmental disturbances that had clearly
dominated the early tests done in our RFID laboratory.
One of the most significant environmental disturbance
sources is GSM (global system for mobile communica-
tions), using frequency channels 890–915 MHz and
935–960 MHz.
In order to study the influence of environmental
radiation, we measured background radiation in the
anechoic chamber. It was
33 dBm, which is relatively
close to the antenna measurements. However, the back-
ground radiation was sufficiently stable over a wide time
and frequency range (measured spectrum was from 860 to
960 MHz). Therefore we presume that its influence on the
antenna measurements is reasonably low.

Table 2: Calculated RCS results of antenna A1

Antenna A1 Short circuit, sc Open circuit, oc Resistor, R IC

Stuctural mode (struct) 16.60739 m2 16.60739 m2 16.60739 m2 16.60739 m2

2 2 2
Antenna mode (ant) 0.00000 m 0.581796194 m 1.185480315 m 0.368017405 m2
2 2 2
Total (scat) 16.60739 m 10.97239398 m 8.918695 m 12.03098956 m2

Table 3: Calculated RCS results of antenna A2

Antenna A2 Short circuit, sc Open circuit, oc Resistor, R IC

Stuctural mode (struct) 17.86724 m2 17.86724 m2 17.86724 m2 17.86724 m2

2 2 2
Antenna mode (ant) 0.00000 m 0.17310269 m 0.505704584 m 0.449460442 m2
Total (scat) 17.86724 m2 14.52303704 m2 12.36111184 m2 12.64903559 m2

108 IEE Proc.-Microw. Antennas Propag., Vol. 153, No. 1, February 2006
 To analyse the performance of studied tags we measured
the achievable read ranges. The measurement system
consists of a commercial reader and applicable software.
The results were in reads per second format. This means the
number of succesful identifications during one second.
Measurements started at 0.5 m range and continued with
0.1 m steps further from the reader antenna. To describe the
tag performance, we measured two different read ranges.
First, we measured the maximum identification range with
reliable identification. This means that the tag is identified
continuously at least 100 times per second during one
minute at the current distance. Second, we measured the
maximum identification range, that is the distance from
which the tag can be identified at least once at least 100
times per second during one minute (Table 4).
Table 4: Measured read ranges
Antenna Max. identification Max. identification
range with reliable range
identification
A1 1.8 m 3.8 m
A2 1.8 m 3.1 m
Unlike expected, the maximum identification range with
reliable identification did not increase when the antenna
ground plane was increased. However, the maximum
identification range was significantly increased when the
antenna ground plane was increased. As RFID users
require 100% identification accuracy, the practical definition
of the read range for an application must be based on the
maximum identification range with reliable identification.
6 Conclusion
In this paper, we have analysed the influence of tags’
antenna RCS on RFID communication. The tag ability to
scatter the incoming electromagnetic field influences directly
the success rate of the tags’ replies.
We began our research with a theoretical analysis, based
on studies from several publications. Then we examined the
measured scattering patterns of two different patch
antennas with four different loads. Finally, we measured
the read ranges of studied tags. The obtained conclusions
are: first, structural mode RCS has a significant role in the
total scattered RCS, being over 15 m2 for both antennas,
while antenna mode RCS was under 1 m2.
IEE Proc.-Microw. Antennas Propag., Vol. 153, No. 1, February 2006
Second, the largest RCS was achieved when the antennas
were short circuited, but the difference was smaller than
theoretical results show, only 3 dB for antenna A1 with
resistor load and 1.5 dB for other load cases. This difference
is clear but smaller, most likely because of antenna loss
resistance, RL, mentioned in (2), but not considered in
calculations.
Finally, the maximum identification range with reliable
identification did not increase when the antenna ground
plane was increased. However, the maximum identification
range was significantly increased (0.7 m) when the antenna
ground plane was increased. In practice this means that, an
increased ground plane will increase the identification range
only when instead of reliable identification range, the prior
goal is the maximum identification range.
7 Acknowledgment
The authors would like to thank the Finnish National
Technology Agency and Nokia Foundation for financing
the research done for this paper.
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