2018 IEEE International Conference on RFID (RFID)

UHF Reader Antenna for Near and Far Field RFID

Operation
Manikanta Lalkota, Gaurangi Gupta and A. R. Harish
Department of Electrical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India-208016
manikantalalkota@gmail.com, gaurangi@iitk.ac.in and arh@iitk.ac.in

Abstract— In order to detect the RFID tags kept inside an

enclosure, the reader antenna needs to couple energy into
another antenna kept in the near-field region. To detect the tags
placed in the far-field, the reader antenna should have a good
gain. In such applications it is useful to have an antenna which
can operate in both far field and near field, and the requirements
of the two regions compete with each other. In this work
modification to a loop antenna is proposed such that it can
operate in both near and far-field. The performance of the
proposed antenna is compared with that of several other
antennas by measuring the read range of RFID tags. It is found
that the proposed antenna performs better in comparison with
the other antennas when detecting the tags placed inside an
enclosure. When operating as a far-field antenna, its
performance is very close to that of a conventional RFID reader
antenna, which is optimized only for far-field operation.
Keywords— loop antennas; near-field antenna; RFID; UHF
I. INTRODUCTION
RFID tags can be detected easily in an open environment if
placed within the read range of the RFID reader. However, in
the applications where the tags are placed inside an enclosure,
e.g. a room, wooden or metallic box, freezer etc., it is difficult
to detect them directly with the reader antenna placed outside
as electromagnetic waves do not penetrate into the enclosure
easily. Also, it is not feasible to place a reader inside every
enclosure. Techniques have been proposed in [1-3] to detect
the tags inside an enclosure as presented in Fig. 1. An
internally placed antenna (antenna-3) is connected to an
externally placed antenna (antenna-2) via a relay module or
other coupling device. A reader antenna (antenna-1) is then
brought close to the antenna-2. Antenna-1 couples the power to
antenna-2, which in turn transmits this power to antenna-3 kept
inside the enclosure. Antenna-3 illuminates the RFID tag,
receives the backscattered signal from the tag, and transmits
the information back to the reader. Thus the tagged objects
inside the enclosure can still be read without taking the reader
inside the enclosure. The efficiency of this technique and the
read range inside the enclosure depend on the coupling
coefficient between the two coupled antennas (antenna-1 and
antenna-2).
In several applications, a portable RFID reader is used to
detect the tags. For example, in a museum, the artefacts are
tagged with RFID tags. They need to be tracked when on
display as well as when they are stored in an enclosed space.
Fig. 1. Detection of RFID tags inside and outside the enclosure.
The reader antenna, therefore, should be designed such
that it has long read range when communicating with tags kept
in the far-field region (e.g. tags attached to artifacts on
display). To detect the tags placed on objects kept in an
enclosed space, we could use the same reader antenna to
couple energy into another antenna. Therefore, the reader
antenna should have high gain in far field, and a high coupling
in near-field.
Several far-field antennas [4-5] and near-field antennas [6-
7] have been proposed in the literature. However, the
application under consideration demands that the antenna
should be capable of both far-field and near-field operation
and we find in literature some antenna designs for such
applications [8-9]. These antennas are designed so that they
can detect tags placed in both near-field as well as far-field
regions. In this work, we explore the suitability of such an
antenna to read the tags kept in the far-field region as well as
couple power into another antenna kept in the near-field
region. It is observed that the antennas available in the
literature cannot used directly for such an application. An
antenna is usually designed to provide good input match when
radiating into free space. When it is brought close to another
antenna which is also tuned to the same frequency, it gets
detuned. Therefore, antenna needs to be specifically designed
to operate in free space as well as in a coupled condition.
Based on the analysis, a loop antenna pair has been designed
for the application. The antenna is studied in an isolated
environment and a coupled environment to understand the
behaviour. The reader antenna (antenna-1) is designed to have
both high gain and high coupling, and the other antenna outside
the enclosure (antenna-2) is designed to have high coupling.

978-1-5386-1456-3/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE

978-1-5386-1456-3/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE

 2018 IEEE International Conference on RFID (RFID)

The feed portion is modified for both the antennas to obtain an

optimum gain and coupling in the Indian RFID frequency
range. RFID experiments to determine the read range inside
and outside the enclosure have been designed and executed
with various antenna pairs, and it was observed that the
proposed antenna performs very close to a far-field antenna
and better than other conventional antenna pairs in the near-
field operation.

II. ANALYSIS OF LOOP ANTENNA

A square loop antenna of side length 0.05 m is considered
in x-y plane (Fig. 2 (a)) and its performance is studied in
4NEC2 from 100 MHz to 2300 MHz which corresponds to the
perimeter of 0.067λ to 1.53λ. When the perimeter of loop is
very small compared to wavelength (e.g 0.1 λ), the loop has
uniform in-phase current distribution and its radiation pattern
is omni-directional with good gain in the x-y plane. When the Fig. 3. Electric and Magnetic Fields in near-field region and gain at θ = 0° in
far-field region of isolated loop antenna.
perimeter of the loop is one wavelength, the current
distribution is strong on opposite sides of the loop and it has
good gain in z direction.
The |E|max and |H|max fields are recorded at all frequencies
in the near-field region within x = -0.04 m to 0.04 m and y = -
0.04 m to 0.04 m and at z = 3 mm above the loop. The gain of
the antenna at θ = 0° is also recorded. The relation between
the fields in the near-field and gain is shown in Fig. 3. It can
be observed from Fig. 3 that |E|max and |H|max are proportional
to each other, except when perimeter of loop is very small as
compared to wavelength (that is perimeter is about 0.067 λ to
0.2 λ). The reason is that when perimeter is very small, the
loop has uniform current distribution on it and thus produces
strong magnetic field intensity. It can also be inferred that
when the perimeter of loop antenna is about one wavelength
(current distribution is strong on opposite sides of loop), it Fig. 4. Simulated S parameters of isolated and coupled loop antennas shown
produces strong magnetic field in the near-field and good gain in Fig. 2(a).
at θ = 0°.
The antenna is studied in the coupled mode with an loop of perimeter same as the wavelength. Thus, a loop
identical antenna placed in the near-field at a distance of 3 mm, antenna of perimeter about one wavelength can be used for
as shown in Fig. 2(b). The S-parameters of the isolated loop both far-field operations (as it has good gain) and near-field
antenna and coupled loop antennas as computed in HFSS are coupling operations (as coupling coefficient between two loop
shown in Fig. 4. It is clear that S11 of isolated loop antenna antennas is high).
shifts when another loop antenna is brought very near to it due
to the effect of coupling. Since two identical loop antennas are III. LOOP ANTENNA FOR FAR-FIELD AND NEAR-FIELD
used in the study, S11 and S22 of coupled loop antennas are OPERATIONS
same. It is known that the magnetic field intensity and the The loop antenna with a microstrip line feed has been
coupling coefficient are proportional to each other thus the designed in [9] for far-field and near-field operations. We
coupling coefficient S21 is high for both a small loop and a begin our analysis by considering a similar configuration. Fig.
5 shows the microstrip fed loop antenna structure. A square
loop of outer side length L1 = 120 mm and width W1 = 20 mm
is fabricated on 1.6 mm thick FR4 substrate (εr = 4.3, tan δ =
0.025) and is fed using a simple microstrip feed line with
dimensions L2 = 50 mm, L3 = 15 mm and W2 = 2 mm. The
spacing between the antenna and the reflector is typically
quarter wavelength in Indian RFID frequency range (865 MHz
to 867 MHz), thus the spacing (H) is chosen to be 80 mm.
Two antennas are required for the discussed application, a
reader antenna, i.e. antenna-1 which works as an isolated
(a). Isolated loop antenna (b). Identical coupled loop antennas
Fig. 2. Loop antenna.
antenna as well as a coupled antenna. Another antenna is kept
 2018 IEEE International Conference on RFID (RFID)

Fig. 5. Square loop with a monopolar feed

(b). Z parameters real part in coupled mode

outside the enclosure, antenna-2, whose purpose is only to

transfer the power coupled by antenna-1 to the antenna-3
placed inside the enclosure. Hence, antenna-1 needs to have a
high gain as well as high coupling. Antenna-2, on the other
hand, needs only near-field coupling. Thus the antenna-1 and
antenna-2 have been chosen to be similar except the reflector
which is required for antenna-1.
The input reflection coefficient for antenna-1 in isolated
mode presented in Fig. 6 (a) is satisfactory at 865 MHz. Both
the antennas are then kept together facing each other at a
spacing of 5 mm such that the direction of current is same for
maximum coupling. The input reflection coefficient and the
coupling coefficient for two antennas in the coupled mode are
presented in Fig. 6 (a). It indicates that the coupled reflection
coefficients |S11| and |S22| degrade as compared to the
required level of -10 dB, and |S21| of -6 dB is not sufficient to
couple power efficiently. Therefore, the antenna geometry (c). Z parameters imaginary part in coupled mode
Fig. 6. Performance of antenna-1 and antenna-2 pair shown in Fig. 5.
needs to be modified. From the Z parameters of the coupled
system shown in Fig. 6 (b) and (c), respectively, it can be
observed that Z11 and Z22 are very similar at 865 MHz. Also,
it is known that the two-antenna system is a reciprocal
network which implies Z12 = Z21. It is observed that the
imaginary part of Z11 and Z22 is close to 0 at 865 MHz.

Fig. 7. Dependency of S parameters on imaginary part of Z21.

Similarly, the real part of Z11, Z21 and Z22 is close to 20

Ω at 865 MHz. Hence, at 865 MHz the values of Z parameters
for the coupled antenna system are Z11 = 20 + j 0, Z22 = 20 +
j 0 and Re (Z12) = 20. Keeping these values as constant, we
have plotted the reflection coefficient and coupling coefficient
(a). Reflection coefficient in isolated and coupled mode
 2018 IEEE International Conference on RFID (RFID)
in terms of imaginary part of Z21 (Fig. 7). It can be observed
from Fig. 7 that in order to obtain the maximum coupling, the
imaginary part of Z12 is required to be ±j 50 :for the
discussed antenna pair. However, the imaginary part of the
discussed coupled antenna pair is around –j 25 :(from Fig.
6(c)). Hence, the feed of the antenna needs to be modified.
In order to increase the capacitive nature of the coupling, a C-
shaped metallic strip is kept at a small gap to the microstrip
line-fed as shown in Fig. 8 (a). The metallic strip dimensions
are L4 = 34 mm, L5 = 24.5 mm, W3 = 2 mm and W4 = 7.5
mm. The slot and microstrip line dimensions have been kept
same as the previous design. With the addition of the C-shaped
strip, the real part of Z parameters does not change much,
however, the imaginary part of Z12 reduces to –j 50 : as
compared to –j 25 :. This satisfies the condition for maximum
coupling discussed in Fig. 7. The reflection and coupling
coefficient for this antenna shown in Fig. 8 (b) and (c) support
the analysis. The S11 performance in isolated mode shown is
almost similar to that for the previous antenna. However, both
S11 and S22 in the coupled mode improve in the desired
frequency range. Also, S21 is improved to -4 dB by modifying
the feed, thus enhancing the coupling efficiency between the
two antennas.
(a). Modified antenna-1 by adding C-shaped metallic patch over feed line.
Antenna-2 is same as antenna-1 without the reflector. Fabricated structure in
inset.
(b). S parameters in isolated and coupled mode
Fig. 8. Modified antenna performance.
Fig. 9 presents the effect of the distance between antenna-1
and antenna-2. It can be observed that as the distance between
the antennas changes, the amount of coupling changes thus
resulting in a shift in the resonance frequency. It can be
observed from Fig. 9 that a distance ranging between 5 mm
and 10 mm presents optimum reflection and coupling
coefficients in the frequency of operation, hence the
dimensions of the coupled antennas has been optimized for
achieving desired performance in the Indian RFID frequency
range when the spacing is 5 mm. The coupling can be
improved by further reducing the distance between the
coupled antenna pair, however, we found that it is very
difficult to reliably achieve this spacing. In the next step we
try to improve the performance of the coupled antennas
system with distance fixed at 5mm further. Since the
performance of antenna-1 is satisfactory in the isolated mode,
hence the modifications are made to antenna-2 only. The
microstrip line length and C-shaped patch size have been
optimized for the best performance of antenna-2 as shown in
Fig. 10. A stub has been added in the feed line to improve the
impedance match. The proposed antenna pair has been
fabricated.
(a). Reflection coefficient for antenna-1
(b). Coupling coefficient between antenna-1 and antenna-2
Fig. 9. Coupled antenna pair performance as a function of distance.
 2018 IEEE International Conference on RFID (RFID)

The reflection coefficient is measured using a vector

network analyzer. Fig. 11 (a) compares the simulated and
measured reflection coefficient for antenna-1 in isolated mode.
The measured 10-dB bandwidth (|S11| < -10 dB) is 11.54 %
(816-916 MHz), which agrees well with simulated result. The
simulated gain is about 6.8 dB in Indian RFID frequency
range (865 MHz – 867 MHz). The far-field realized gain has
been measured inside an anechoic chamber with the help of
standard gain horn antenna, and it presents a close
resemblance with the simulated gain with a maximum
variation of 1 dB throughout the desired frequency range. The
two dimensional radiation pattern of the antenna at 865 MHz
in the YZ plane is shown in Fig. 11 (b). The measured and
simulated results present a good match. It can be observed that
the measured cross polar levels are better than 15 dB. The
measured and simulated S-parameters of coupled antennas
kept at a gap of 5 mm are compared in Fig. 11 (c). It can be
observed that the reflection coefficients |S11| and |S22| are less (b). Simulated and Measured radiation pattern in yz plane at 865 MHz
than -10 dB in the desired RFID frequency range. The
measured and simulated results present a good agreement. The
coupling coefficient (S21) is in between -2 to -3 dB where
about 50 % of the power is transmitted from antenna 1 to
antenna 2.

(c). Simulated and measured reflection and coupling coefficients of coupled

antennas 1 and 2 kept at 5 mm distance.
Fig. 11. Comparison of simulated and measured performance for the proposed
antenna 1 and 2 pair.

Fig. 10. Optimum design of antenna 2 placed outside the enclosure.
Dimensions are- L1 = 120 mm, L2 = 64 mm, L3 = 60 mm, L4 = 65 mm, L5 =
50mm, W1 = 20 mm, W2 = 15 mm, W3 = 2 mm, W4 = 3 mm, W5 = 15 mm and
W6 = 35 mm. Fabricated structure in inset.
(a). Simulated and measured reflection coefficient for isolated antenna.
IV. EXPERIMENTS AND RESULTS
The application to detect the tags inside and outside the
enclosure has also been realized as a part of this work.
Different antennas are tested for the suitability in the
application, i.e. near-field antenna (NF) [10], circularly
polarized antenna (CP) [11], patch antenna [12] and the
proposed antenna-1 and antenna-2 pair. All the antennas have
been fabricated and the measured performance has been
verified with simulation. An off the shelf circularly polarized
RFID antenna from Alien [13] has also been taken for the
analysis. The coupling coefficient (S21) of different antennas
when kept at a distance of 5 mm apart to each other is
compared in Fig. 12. It can be observed that the coupling
between near-field antenna and the CP or patch antenna is
worse than -25 dB. Hence, very less power can be coupled in
the antenna pair. The S21 for patch-patch antenna and NF-NF
antenna is close to -6 dB and -4.5 dB respectively in the
desired frequency range. The S21 of -2.5 dB for the proposed
antenna pair, however, is the best in the set. Hence, it can be
considered a good candidate for near-field applications.
 2018 IEEE International Conference on RFID (RFID)

From the results it can be inferred that the proposed antenna

has a read range very close to that of the alien antenna and
patch antenna which are predominantly far field antennas with
high gain. Hence, the proposed antenna can be used as a far
field antenna to detect the tags placed outside the enclosure
directly.

Fig. 14. Block diagram for measurement of read range in open environment.

Fig. 12. Comparison of coupling coefficient of different antennas kept at 5

mm distance.

(a). Block diagram for detection of RFID tags of antennas using coupling
mechanism

Fig. 13. A comparison of error due to alignment mismatch for the coupling
coefficient for patch antenna pair and proposed antenna pair.

The proposed antenna pair and the patch antenna pair have
been tested for error due to misalignment of the antennas.
Thus ten sets of experiments have been conducted to measure (b). Alien Antenna (antenna-3) inside the anechoic chamber
the coupling coefficient by placing the two antennas in in front
of each other at 5 mm spacing. The average outcome has been
plotted in Fig. 13 for both the antenna pairs along with the
error margins corresponding to maximum and minimum S21
obtained for different cases. It can be observed that the results
for both the antenna pairs were repeatable within an error
margin of approximately 0.5 dB over the RFID frequency
range. However, a significant improvement is observed for the
proposed antenna for near field coupling.
In the next step, experiments are conducted to measure the
read range corresponding to the antenna pairs in the open and
enclosed environment through direct and coupled connections
respectively. The Impinj RFID Reader [14] is used in
experiments and all the measurements are conducted inside
the anechoic chamber. The range of detection of RFID tags is
measured by setting +30 dBm as transmit power of Impinj
Reader. A linearly polarized RFID tag has been used for all
the experiments. The test set up to determine the range of (c). Coupling between antenna-1 and antenna-2 (Figure shows the antenna
different antennas in the open environment is shown in Fig. pair proposed in this work)
Fig. 15. Experimental set-up for detection of tags inside the enclosure using
14. In this case, the antennas are directly connected to the coupling mechanism.
reader. The range of different antennas is shown in Table I.
 2018 IEEE International Conference on RFID (RFID)

TABLE I: Read range for different antennas in open environment tested in the isolated and coupled modes to support the
Antenna 1 Range (m) analysis. The reflection coefficient in both the modes is less
Proposed Antenna 1 4.8 m than -10 dB and the coupling coefficient at 5 mm distance is -
Patch Antenna 5m
Alien Antenna 4.5 m
2.5 dB in the desired frequency range. RFID experiments are
NF Antenna 0.6 m conducted for determining the read range for the tags inside
and outside the enclosure and it was observed that the proposed
TABLE II: Read range for different antennas with the tags placed in enclosure antennas present a read range that is comparable to both the
Range near-field antennas and far field antennas in coupled and
Antenna 1 Antenna 2 Antenna 3
(m) isolated environment respectively.
Proposed Antenna 1 Proposed Antenna 2 Alien Antenna 2.05 m
NF Antenna NF Antenna Alien Antenna 1.72 m
Patch Antenna Patch Antenna Alien Antenna 1.6 m REFERENCES
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