Ilovepdf Merged

SELF-POWERED MULTI-PORT UHF RFID TAG-BASED-
SENSOR
SEMINAR REPORT
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Degree of

Bachelor of Technology in Electronics and Communication Engineering of the
APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University
Submitted by,
AKHILA M P
(Reg No: VAK15EC002)
DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION

ENGINEERING VIDYA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
TECHNICAL CAMPUS, KILIMANOOR
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM,695602
2015-2019
i
SELF-POWERED MULTI-PORT UHF RFID TAG-BASED-
SENSOR
SEMINAR REPORT
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Degree of

Bachelor of Technology in Electronics and Communication Engineering of the
APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University
Submitted by,
AKHILA M P
(Reg No: VAK15EC002)
Guided by,
MS. DIVYA KUMARAN A K
Assistant Professor
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering
DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION

ENGINEERING VIDYA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
TECHNICAL CAMPUS, KILIMANOOR
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM,695602
2015-2019
ii
VIDYA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY-TECHNICAL
CAMPUS, KILIMANOOR, THIRUVANANTHAPURAM 695602.
DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS & COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING
CERTIFICATE
Certified that this is a bonafide record of seminar entitled on ‘Self-Powered

Multi-Port UHF RFID Tag-Based-Sensor by ‘AKHILA M P (Reg No:
VAK15EC002), 2015-2019 batch student, in the seventh semester in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the award of degree of BACHELOR OF
TECHNOLOGY in Electronics & Communication Engineering under APJ ABDUL
KALAM TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY, Thiruvananthapuram.
Prof. Divya Kumaran A K Prof.Muhammed Anshad P Y
Asst. Professor, Asst. Professor,

Dept. of Electronics & Communication Engg. Dept. of Electronics & Communication Engg.
(Guide) (Seminar Co-ordinator)
Prof.Amlu Anna Joshy Prof.Saheeda P A

Asst.Professor Professor
Dept. of Electronics & Communication Engg. Dept. of Electronics & Communication
(Seminar Co-ordinator) (Head Of The Department)
iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I extend my heartfelt gratitude to our respected principal Dr. MATHAVRAJ

RAVIKUMAR for providing the opportunity and facility for doing this seminar without
which this effort would not have seen light.
I would like to express my sincere thanks to Ms. SAHEEDA P A the Head of

Electronics & Communication Department for her kind cooperation. . I thank Mr.
MUHAMMED ANSHAD P Y, seminar coordinator for his support. I also thank my
seminar guide Ms. Divya Kumaran A K, Assistant Professor, Electronics &
Communication for her valuable guidance and support during the course of my seminar.
I take this opportunity to thank all other staffs of Electronics & Communication
department for helping me in the progress of my seminar.
I thank my family and friends for their active support throughout the work of my
seminar.
Above all, I thank the God Almighty for his grace and blessings that led me to the
success of my seminar
AKHILA M P
iv
ABSTRACT
Multi-port UHF RFID tag-based sensor is used for wireless identification and sensing
applications. Two RFID chips, one with attached sensor and the other without, are
incorporated in a single tag antenna with two excitation ports. The chip with the integrated
sensor (sensor port) transmits a signal impacted by the sensed temperature or humidity, while
the other RFID chip serves as the reference signal (reference port) transmitter in the sensing
process. The proposed tag-based sensor is fabricated and experimentally evaluated. The
measured results demonstrate that the sensed data can be extracted using a commercial RFID
reader by recording and comparing the difference in the reader output power required to
power up the reference port and the power required to power the sensor ports. To improve the
reading range of the proposed sensor, a dual-port solar powered RFID sensor is also
presented. The reading range of the sensor is increased by two times compared to a similar
prototype without solar energy harvesting. The experimental evaluation demonstrates that the
proposed tag based sensor can be easily integrated with a resistive humidity or temperature
sensor for a low-cost solution to detect the heat or humidity exposure of sensitive items for
several applications such as supply chains and construction structures.
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iii
ABSTRACT iv
LIST OF FIGURES vii
LIST OF SYMBOLS ix
ABBREVIATIONS x
CHAPTER TITLE PAGE

NO
1.0 RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION 1
1.1 History Of RFID And Early Beginnings 1
1.2 Next RFID Development 1
1.3 Active RFID 2
1.4 UHF RFID History 2
1.5 Proposed System 3
1.6 Summary 4
2.0 LITERATURE SURVEY 5
2.1 Earlier Works – An Overview 5
2.2 Conclusion 13
3.0 MULTI -PORT RFID TAG BASED SENSOR 14
3.1 Tag Antenna 14
3.2 Cost Efficiency 15
3.3 Concept Of Multiport Rfid Tag-Based Sensor 15
3.4 Fabrication And Experimental Evaluation 15
3.5 Conclusion 16
4.0 PRINCIPLE OF THE MULTI PORT RFID TAG BASED- 17
SENSOR DESIGN
4.1 Idea and Framework 17

4.2 Method Used 18
vi
4.3 Result Analysis 18
4.4 Conclusion 19
5.0 UHF RFID SENSOR TAG DESIGN 20
5.1 Design 20
5.1.1 Tag Design 20
5.1.2 RFID Chip Design 20
5.1.3 Sensor And Reference Port Design 21
5.2 Conclusion 23
6.0 RFID TAG BASED SENSOR EVALUATION 24
6.1 RFID Tag Based Sensor Evaluation 24
6.1.1 Power Sensitivity Measurement 24
6.1.2 Reading Range Measurements 27
6.1.3 Radiation Pattern 28
6.2 Sensor Measurement Results 29
6.3 Power Sensitivity Measurements On Consumer 31
Products
6.4 Conclusion 33
7.0 SOLAR POWERED RFID TAG BASED SENSOR 34
7.1 Solar Powered RFID Tag Based Sensor 36
7.2 Conclusion 36
8.0 CONCLUSION 37
REFERENCES 38
vii
LIST OF FIGURES
FIG.NO TITLE PAGE NO
SCHEMATIC DIAGRAM OF THE PROPOSED RFID

1.1 3
TAG-BASED SENSOR
GEOMETRY OF THE PROPOSED PATCH ANTENNA

5.2 20
BASED SENSOR
POWER TRANSFER CO-EFFICIENT AT THE PORT OF

5.3 THE PROPOSED SENSOR WITH DIFFERENT 22
RESISTORS
6.4 TAGFORMANCE MEASUREMENT SETUP 25
MEASURED MINIMUM TRANSMIT POWER REQUIRED

6.5 TO ACTIVATE RFID CHIP AT THE SENSOR PORT 26
WITH DIFFERENT RESISTANCE VALUE

6.6 TO ACTIVATE RFID CHIP AT THE REFERENCE PORT 26
WITH DIFFERENT RESISTANCE VALUE
MEASURED TRANSMIT POWER DIFFERENCE

6.7 BETWEEN SENSOR PORT AND REFERENCE PORT AT 27
915MHZ
MEASURED RADIATION PATTERN OF THE

6.8 28
PROPOSED SENSOR AT 915MHZ
MEASURED REALIZED GAIN FOR THE PROPOSED

6.9 29
TAG-BASED SENSOR

TO ACTIVATE RFID CHIP AT THE SENSOR PORT OF
6.10 30
THE PROPOSED RFID SENSOR WITH THERMISTOR-
NTC NTC SENSOR
viii
MEASURED PACKAGES WITH THERMISTORS-
6.11 31
NTCLE100E3681JB0
MEASURED REQUIRED MINIMUM POWER FOR THE

6.12 REFERENCE AND SENSOR PORTS OF THE TAG 32
ATTACHED TO A BOX CONTAINING PLASTIC ITEMS
REFERENCE AND SENSOR PORTS OF THE TAG IN
6.13 32
FIG. 11 ATTACHED TO A BOX CONTAINING
METALLIC ITEMS.

MONOPOLE TAG ANTENNA DESCRIBED IN PLACED
7.14 33
TO THE TOP OF A BOX CONTAINING PLASTIC AND
METALLIC ITEMS
PICTURE OF THE PROTOTYPED SOLAR POWERED

7.15 35
RFID TAG-BASED SENSOR
MAXIMUM READING RANGE OF THE REFERENCE

7.16 PORT WITH AND WITHOUT EXTERNAL ENERGY 36
SOURCES.
MAXIMUM READING RANGE OF THE SENSOR PORT
7.17 37
WITH AND WITHOUT EXTERNAL ENERGY SOURCES.
ix
LIST OF SYMBOLS
SYMBOLS
𝑍𝑖𝑛 Input Impedance
𝑍𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑝 Chip Impedance
𝑍𝐴𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑛𝑎 Antenna Impedance
𝑅𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑝 Chip Resistance
𝑃𝑇𝑎𝑔 Power Transferred To The Chip By Tag Antenna
𝜆0 Free Space Wavelength

𝑑 Distance Between Reader And Tag
𝐺𝑇 Tag Gain
𝐺𝑅 Reader Gain
𝜑 Humidity Parameter
𝜃 Material Parameter
𝜓 Temperature Parameter
𝜂𝑃 Polarization Mismatch Between Reader And Tag Antenna
𝜌 (𝜑 ) Modulation Efficiency Of Tag
PR Power Received By Reader
𝑃𝐶𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑒𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑑 Threshold Power Of The Chips
𝑃𝑡𝑚𝑖𝑛 Minimum Transmit Power
𝑃𝑡𝑆𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑜𝑟 Sensor Transmit Power
𝑃𝑡𝑅𝑒𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 Reference Transmit Power
𝑃𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒
𝑚𝑖𝑛
Caliberate Power
𝜏𝑅𝑒𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡 Power Transmission Co-Efficient Of Reference Port

𝜏𝑆𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑜𝑟 𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡 Power Transmission Co-Efficient Of Sensor Port
𝛤 Reflection Co-efficient
x
ABBREVIATIONS
UHF Ultra High Frequency
RFID Radio Frequency Identification
NTC Negative Temperature Co-efficient
HFSS High Frequency Structure Simulator
WORM Write Once Read Many
xi
Seminar report on Self- Powered Multi-Port UHF RFID Tag-Based Sensor
CHAPTER 1
RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION
1.1. HISTORY OF RFID AND EARLY BEGINNINGS

While RFID history can be traced back to the beginnings of radio, and earlier, it really
started to come to life when radio technology was used to passively identify objects. The first
experiments with radio used in this way were conducted by Sir Robert Watson-Watt when he
invented radar. This system used a single transmitter receiver which transmitted a high power
signal, and the aircraft (in the first instances) passively reflected a small amount of the radio
energy back which was received by the receiver in the radar system. Radar only served to
identify the presence of an object, but gave no details about it, apart from its size. It was of
particular importance to be able to identify an aircraft to see whether it was "Friend or Foe."
As a result Watson-Watt went on to develop a system known as IFF - Identification Friend or
Foe. A transponder was placed on each plane and when interrogated by a ground station, it
responded with a code to identify it. This is the basis of an RFID system.
1.2. NEXT RFID DEVELOPMENT

While radar and IFF systems had demonstrated the principles of remotely detecting
and then interrogating objects, for the next stage in RFID history, further development was
required to enable these systems to be used for low cost commercial applications.
The first developments were of electronic surveillance tags used for shop packaging.
These very simple low cost devices were added to the outside of packages. These had two
states and were switched at the payment desk. With sensors at the doors, any tags that had not
been switched would be detected and an alarm sounded.
1.3.ACTIVE RFID
The original tags that were used in the shopping electronic surveillance tags was
purely passive - the next step in the RFID history was to develop active tags.As happens in
the development of technology, several people were working on similar types of development
around the same time, each with their own approach or result. In one development a US
patent was granted for an active RFID tag with a rewritable memory in January 1973.
Vidya Academy Of Science And Technology-Technical Campus, Kilimanoor Page 1

Also in the 1970s the Los Alamos National Laboratories started to develop a system
to track the transportation of nuclear materials securely and safely. The system included a
variety of readers and transponders attached to the vehicles carrying the materials. These
would then enable the truck to be identified at various points along its route.
In another development in the RFID history, again at Los Alamos, but in the
agricultural department needed to devise a system that would allow individual cows to be
identified. A system was devised that enabled a passive transponder was injected under the
skin of the cow. The RFID was based at a frequency of around 125 kHz transponder drew
power from the reader, reflecting back a "backscatter" signal that was modulated with the
cow identification information.
While the low frequencies of 125 kHz were initially used, systems around the 13.56
MHz license free frequencies were also developed. The use of the higher frequency allowed
for higher data rates and longer ranges to be achieved.
1.4. UHF RFID HISTORY

While RFID had previously been focused on lower frequencies where the technology
was cheaper, the advantages of the UHF frequency spectrum started to be employed in the
early 1990s.The main drawback to large scale commercialization was the lack of standards.
Several processes started to come together to ensure proper standardization that would allow
the grown and widespread use of RFID. In 1999 a number of organizations set up the Auto-
ID Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This enabled common standards to
be set up. Also the International Standards Organization, ISO introduced standards for the
different elements of RFID from tags to readers and writers, etc. Another milestone in RFID
history occurred when suppliers started to take RFID seriously and in January 2005, Wal-
Mart required its top 100 suppliers to apply RFID labels to all shipments.
1.5. PROPOSED SYSTEM
In this system , a pair of RFID tag antennas are employed for identification and
sensing; one of the tags serves as a reference signal, while the other is used as a sensor node.
The reference node has a common RFID tag configuration, while different approaches are
adopted to implement the sensor node. The proposed tag-based sensor is fabricated and
experimentally evaluated & the experimental evaluation demonstrates that the proposed tag-

based sensor can be easily integrated with a resistive humidity or temperature sensor for a
low-cost solution to detect the heat or humidity exposure of sensitive items for several
applications such as supply chains and construction structures.
Fig.1.1. Schematic Diagram Of Proposed RFID Tag-Based System
The sensed physical quantity is determined from the ratio of the minimum power
from the reader required to activate the reference and sensor nodes, or the power ratio of the
signals received from reference and the sensor nodes. These values are then compared to
benchmark laboratory experiments with the same tags, RFID chips and similar sensors. The
challenges in developing these types of sensors include designing suitable tag antennas and
accurate determination of the sensed physical quantity (e.g. temperature, humidity, or
permittivity) by using commercial RFID readers.
1.6. SUMMARY
The history of RFID has shown a steady development in RFID technology. Having its
routes in the earliest days of electrical science and then radio, RFID history has come out of
developments such as radar and IFF. Now RFID is a technology in its own right which is
widely used and showing massive benefits to industry and society as a whole.
RFID technology has recently been employed in sensor applications that require low-
cost low-power wireless nodes with radio identification and sensing capabilities. Utilizing

low-cost with long life time passive RFID tag based sensor technology as an effective and
reliable way for tracking and monitoring excess heat and humidity for several consumer
items is gaining great interest in the scientific and industrial domains.

CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE SURVEY
The important papers which are supporting this proposed work is selected and
reviewed. The survey includes a broad, comprehensive, in-depth, systematic and critical
review of the reference papers which are relevant and useful for the proposed paper.
2.1. EXISTING WORKS – AN OVERVIEW
1.Multiport UHF RFID-Tag Antenna For Enhanced Energy Harvesting Of Self-

Powered Wireless Sensors
This paper presents the design and experimental evaluation of a long-range solar
powered sensor-enhanced radio frequency identification (RFID) tag. The tag antenna is a
multiport microstrip patch with an overlay of thin-film solar cells for energy harvesting. A
second port is allocated on the patch antenna for supplementary energy-harvesting from the
RF signal transmitted by the reader. An I2C-RFID chip along with a microcontroller unit
(MCU) and temperature and humidity sensor are incorporated in the tag design to implement
a low cost wireless sensor using a commercial RFID reader. The measurements of the
fabricated RFID-tag sensor demonstrate that a maximum sensing/reading range of 27 m is
achieved when all the circuits are powered using solar cells, while it is 7.48 m with only the
secondary option of energy harvesting. The proposed sensor with dual energy harvesting
achieves both a longer range and lifetime compared to similar battery-powered sensor-
enhanced RFID tags. The RFID sensor is also evaluated in a climate chamber and the sensor
data (temperature/humidity) was remotely recorded with an excellent accuracy using a
commercial UHF RFID reader. In addition, the sensor can be programmed for the
temperature/humidity surveillance of sensitive items, such as those found in various supply
chain and transportation applications.

2.Low-Cost Inkjet-Printed Fully Passive RFID Tags For Calibration-Free Capacitive/

Haptic Sensor Applications.
A fully passive, compact, and low-cost capacitive wireless RFID-enabled sensing

system for capacitive sensing and other Internet of Things applications is proposed. This
calibration-free sensor utilizes a dual-tag topology, which consists of two closely spaced
RFID tags with dipole antennas and a printed capacitive sensor component connected to one
of the tags. A series LC resonator is used to both reduce the antenna size and improve the
isolation between the two antennas and the design/optimization steps are discussed in detail.
All components except for the RFID chips are inkjet-printed on an off-the-shelf photo paper
using a silver nano particle ink. The complete sensor dimension is 84 mm x 95 mm and the
sensor is compatible with EPC Class 1 Gen 2 (UHF) standard reader technology at 915 MHz.
In this work, an antenna-embedded series inductor-capacitor(LC) resonator and inkjet
printing technology are employed to address the aforementioned design challenges. The
inkjet printing method was utilized as a fabrication method in this work in order to take
advantages of low-cost, scalable and variable properties of the printing technology. This
paper presents a miniaturized RFID-enabled sensor tag using the printed LC-resonator loaded
dipole antenna in reducing the spacing of the sensing tag and the reference tag and provides
theoretical insights on design the dual-tag RFID-enabled sensor. The statistical method was
utilized to provide robust detection of the event which can be applied to any other dual-tag
RFID-enabled sensor topology
3.Signal Integrity And EMI Evaluations Of An RFID-Sensor Tag For Internet-Of-

Things Applications.
An RFID (radio frequency identification) -Sensor tag for internet of things
applications is evaluated for various signal integrity and electromagnetic radiation measures
in this paper. It is found that the placement of digital circuit with respect to the radiating
element has to be optimized and the entire system layout, digital and RF parts has to be co-
simulated to be able to capture the detuning of operating frequency. Port impedance plots are
generated via full-wave simulations to show this impact. The coupling between ports is also
inspected by monitoring transmission coefficient (S21). One possible application of this
sensor device is for on-body temperature measurements; therefore, back radiation of the tag
and specific absorption rate (SAR) plots are reported as well.
The system components of these web-connected sensor devices can be often grouped
into three categories; Sensor, Digital and RF circuits Since it is often desired for these devices

to have a compact form factor, the interconnects for routing power, digital and RF signals are
packed in close proximity to the radiating antenna. This makes the system susceptible to
electromagnetic interference (EMI), signal integrity (SI) and power integrity (PI) problems.
Therefore, SI, PI and EMI evaluations are important steps in development of any IOT product
that should be considered from the initial design steps. In addition, the deployment
environment of a wireless IOT device (with or without a sensor) has to be included in the
layout simulations, since the electrical characteristics of its surroundings can alter the antenna
performance and impact the overall device operation and power budget. In many cases the
IOT sensor nodes are deployed in harsh environments or placed in proximity to human body,
metal objects or other lossy materials which result in detuning of the radiation frequency or
even altering the impedance of any exposed line in the interconnect network. In the case of
placing the device near human users, along with the SI/PI tests and inclusion of environment
effects on device operation, absorption of radiated electromagnetic energy in human tissue
has to be predicted. Hence, simulation of specific absorption rate (SAR) is an essential part of
design and simulation of any wireless IOT product that operates close to human body.
Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology has been considered as one of the
low cost and efficient means for implementation of IOT products. This notion has become
especially affirmed with the recent developments of RFID enabled sensor tags. In this paper,
an RFID-sensor tag operating at the North American UHF RFID band is investigated for
various signal integrity and EMI measures. The entire RFID-sensor tag layout is optimized to
achieve the best system performance. One suggested application of this sensor tag is for on-
body placement and temperature measurement. Therefore, back radiation of the tag antenna
and the absorbed powered in human body is monitored via fullwave radiation pattern and
SAR simulations. The base RFID tag considered herein is a single port patch antenna printed
on a Rogers substrate A full-wave electromagnetic CAD solver (An soft HFSS) has been
used for simulation and design of the tag. Signal integrity in the digital section of the RFID
tag which is composed of the digital sensor, MCU and connecting bus to RFID chip- is
investigated through monitoring scattering parameters.
4.A Cost-Effective UHF RFID Tag For Transmission Of Generic Sensor Data In
Wireless Sensor Networks.
The use of RF identification (RFID) technology for the automatic transmission of
physical parameters in wireless sensor networks paves the way to a large class of attractive
applications ranging from healthcare to automotive, diagnostic systems, robotics, and many

others. Nevertheless, although some RFID tags capable to transmit sensor-like information
are already on the market, only a limited number of sensors, such as those for temperature or
pressure measurement, can be easily miniaturized and embedded in the RFID chip. The
integration of more complex sensors, in fact, appears to be complicated and extremely
expensive. In this paper, a cost-effective general-purpose multi-ID tag is proposed. It can be
connected to generic sensors, regardless of the actual measured value, and it is capable to
transmit, when interrogated by a standard RFID reader, a proper combination of ID codes that
univocally codifies the sensor measured value. The functionalities of this device have been
extensively validated under stressing conditions and the capability to transmit whatever kind
of sensor data has been demonstrated.
In this study, a cost-effective UHF sensor tag (S-tag) is presented and extensively
validated. It can be connected to a generic sensor and can transmit toward the RFID reader
the measured parameters. The basic idea consists of: 1) de-signing an RFID tag provided of a
wired input and coherently2) making a well- defined digital output (in our prototype, it is the
simple binary conversion of the measured data) available on the sensor. When the tag and
sensor are connected one to an-other and are interrogated, the measured value can be read by
a standard UHF RFID system and interpreted through an RFID middleware. In such a way,
the system takes advantage of the standard RFID technology, preserving most of its
peculiarities and maintaining the compatibility with all the devices already available and
standardized worldwide.
In this study, a simplified, but effective approach, called “multi-ID” here, has been
used. The realized S-tag samples the value measured by the sensor and transmits in real time
a combination of different ID codes. Each combination corresponds to a different level so
that the quantized waveform of the input will be naturally received by a standard RFID
reader. More specifically, the device can associate a different ID code to each informative
“bit” of the quantized real-time value in input. Hence, a certain number of IDs is mandatory
in order to effectively transmit the measured value
5.Printed Temperature Sensors For Passive RFID Tags.
A concept is presented where a temperature sensitive printed nano structure is

integrated into a UHF RFID tag antenna. The printed structure acts as a WORM memory
(Write Once Read Many) allowing telling whether a tag has been exposed to excessive
temperature since the last read. The 1-bit WORM used in experiments is defined through its

resistance where a logical zero equals a high resistance over 2 kΩ and a logical one equals a
lower resistance, typically less than 50 Ω. Setting the bit can be achieved through sintering,
which is a process to enhance junctions among nano-particle silver and reduce resistivity by
heating. The WORM is designed to modulate the impedance of a passive RFID tag antenna,
aiming to change the tag from readable to unreadable or the other way around. The simplest
way of modulation is to set the WORM to be parallel with the silicon chip. The tag then
works well with the high WORM resistance apparent before sintering and poorly or
preferably not working at all after sintered because the chip is short-circuited by the low
WORM resistance.
A variant of the half wavelength dipole has been used to demonstrate this concept and
it should also work with other antenna patterns. Both the WORM memory and the tag
antenna are printed on photo paper by an Inkjet printer and the silicon chip is connected to
the antenna using the electrically conductive ink. Compared to the sensor solutions that
integrate the normal battery supported sensors into silicon chips with the aid of A/D
converters, the sensor tag presented in this paper is much simpler and allowing easy
fabrication. It has long lifetime, a smaller size as well as a lower cost. Since the WORM
memory by definition stores the state and can be read out long time after it's been
programmed this tag can tell about past events. Potential use include all applications where
one wants to detect if a high temperature has occurred since the last time of read and where
normal sensors either have too short lifetime or are too expensive.
6.RFID Tag Antenna Based Temperature Sensing.
Temperature monitoring is important in a number of fields, particularly cold supply

chain applications. Most commercial wireless temperature sensors consist of transceivers,
memory and batteries to maintain a temperature time history but this is expensive and allows
for limited sensor deployment. In this paper, we propose a low cost temperature sensor based
on the paradigm of passive RFID tag antenna based sensing. A simple mechanical method to
permanently induce changes in RFID tag power characteristics upon exposure to
temperatures greater than a threshold is presented. Critical temperature threshold violations
can then be detected by monitoring received backscatter signal strength at a reader. The
feasibility of the proposed hypothesis is examined via theoretical and experimental means. It
will be shown that this sensing paradigm has the potential to greatly increase the

pervasiveness of temperature sensing nodes and improve supply chain visibility and
performance.
Temperature sensors are required to monitor and record all critical temperature
changes in the environment over the period of deployment. The wide variety of wireless
temperature sensors deployed in commercial supply chain applications achieve this by
including appropriate on board electronics like memory and battery which drives up the cost
of the sensor unit. As a consequence, economic considerations often preclude the deployment
of these sensors on a truly pervasive scale. Ambient temperature levels are inferred based on
the output of a finite number of sensor nodes, rather than by monitoring each logistic unit
passing through the supply chain. It would therefore be very useful to have a dedicated sensor
monitoring at the logistic unit level so that critical temperature state changes can be
monitored and recorded. However in order to meet this objective, the cost of this sensor must
be significantly low. In this paper, we propose the design of an ultra-low cost temperature
sensor based on passive UHF RFID principles, which is capable of logging temperature
changes above a critical temperature threshold for user specified tolerance intervals.
7. The Art Of UHF RFID Antenna Design: Impedance Matching And Size-Reduction
Techniques.
Radio-frequency identification technology, based on the reader/tag paradigm, is

quickly permeating several aspects of everyday life. The electromagnetic research mainly
concerns the design of tag antennas having high efficiency and small size, and suited to
complex impedance matching to the embedded electronics. Starting from the available but
fragmented open literature, this paper presents a homogeneous survey of relevant
methodologies for the design of UHF passive tag antennas. Particular care is taken to
illustrate, within a common framework, the basic concepts of the most-used design layouts.
The design techniques are illustrated by means of many noncommercial examples.
Several frequency bands have been standardized for this technology. Low-frequency
(LF, 125-134 kHz) and high-frequency (HF, 13.56 MHz) systems are the most mature and
worldwide diffused technology. They are based on quasi-static magnetic flux coupling among
the reader's and tag's coils. Ultra-high-frequency (UHF, 860-860 MHz) and microwave (2.4
GHz and 5.8 GHz) systems instead involve electromagnetic interaction among true antennas
and permit longer communication links, and they are the emerging technology. Together with
the power sensitivity of the microchip, the tag's antenna plays a key role in the overall RFID

system performance factors, such as the overall size, the reading range, and the compatibility
with tagged objects.
Most of the antennas for IJHF omini directional tags are commonly fabricated as
modified printed dipoles. The design goal is to achieve the inductive input reactance required
for the microchip conjugate impedance matching, and to miniaturize the antenna shape.
Several tricks are used, and the resulting tags sometimes exhibit charming and nearly artistic
layouts. Although many tag configurations can be retrieved in scientific papers, or even in the
catalogs of commercial products, there is a lack of systematization of the design
methodology. A first tutorial paper was available in, where the concept of conjugate
impedance matching to the microchip was reviewed, some performance parameters were
introduced, and fabrication and measurement procedures were described in some detail. This
paper provides a unitary and general survey of the mostused design procedures for
miniaturized tag antennas with a complex impedance matched to the microchip load.
Attention is devoted to the rationale and to the main features of basic configurations, by the
modification and combination of which a great variety of tag layouts can be easily obtained.
For each design solution, the role of the main geometrical parameters over the complex
impedance tuning are investigated here by introducing matching charts, which are a useful
tool to get the same antenna configuration to suit different kinds of microchips.
8. A Prototype RFID Humidity Sensor For Built Environment Monitoring.
A possible method of utilizing paraffin wax as a substrate material in developing a

threshold heat sensing radio frequency identification (RFID) tag is discussed. A small
narrowband passive UHF RFID tag is made on top of a multilayer substrate. Paraffin wax
acts as the main heat sensitive layer of the substrate. The properties and characteristics of the
paraffin layer change due to heat. The narrowband tag on top of the substrate is designed to
be sensitive enough to detect any structural and physical changes of the substrate material.
The changes in the properties of the substrate material will cause a shift in the operating
frequency of the tag. This frequency shift will reduce the performance of the narrowband
RFID sensor tag. The change in the properties of paraffin wax after being exposed to heat is
irreversible under normal conditions and therefore, the proposed RFID tag can be referred to
as a threshold heat sensing device. Such a low-cost solution can be useful in detecting heat
exposures in various supply chains and transportation mishandling of heat sensitive items.

In this study, a low loss antenna and tag substrate is utilized to develop a heat sensing
RFID tag. The substrate is made of different layers, where paraffin wax behaves as the main
heat sensitive part of the substrate. The main idea of this type of heat sensor is that the overall
performance of the RFID tag and its operational frequency gets affected when exposed to
high temperatures. Exposing this type of substrate to high temperatures will change the
physical and chemical properties of the paraffin wax. These changes will eventually result in
changing the dielectric properties of the substrate, causing a shift in the tag’s operating
frequency. The shift in the operating frequency is irreversible in normal conditions, unless the
paraffin layer of the substrate is retreated and made, as mentioned in Section III-B. This
feature makes the tag antenna more like a threshold temperature sensor, optimized for a
certain frequency, avoiding the need of a broadband interrogation system. To make this
change more prominent, a sensitive narrowband passive RFID tag is developed.
The sensitive narrowband tag can be useful in developing low-cost heat sensing tags,
by sensing the change in the dielectric properties of the substrate. These low-cost passive
RFID tags are useful in detecting heat exposures of several heat sensitive products like daily
consumer items, drugs and other perishable food items. In practical applications the sensing
tag should be carefully packaged with the product, to avoid any accidental damage to the tag.
This can be done in various ways such as, using some special type of casing for the sensing
tag, or placing the tag inside the package, depending on the type of product. However, in
many applications the use of external force can also damage the product inside the package,
as well as the sensing tag. This will make the tag unreadable, indicating that the quality of the
product has been lowered or been damaged. This feature can also be useful in monitoring the
quality of various food items in supply chain operations. The readability of the tag after being
heated can also be controlled by limiting the transmitted power.
2.2. CONCLUSION
The eight reference papers which are mostly supporting are reviewed in-depth found
out that those papers form the basic idea of the proposed paper. But also found that the
proposed system dominates all those ideas in the reference papers.

CHAPTER 3
MULTI-PORT RFID TAG-BASED SENSOR
A radio-frequency identification system uses tags attached to the objects to be

identified. Two-way radio transmitter-receivers called readers send a signal to the tag and
read its response.
RFID tags can be either passive, active or battery-assisted passive. An active tag has
an on-board battery and periodically transmits its ID signal. A battery-assisted passive (BAP)
has a small battery on board and is activated when in the presence of an RFID reader. A
passive tag is cheaper and smaller because it has no battery; instead, the tag uses the radio
energy transmitted by the reader. However, to operate a passive tag, it must be illuminated
with a power level roughly a thousand times stronger than for signal transmission. That
makes a difference in interference and in exposure to radiation.
RFID tags contain at least three parts: an integrated circuit that stores and processes
information and that modulates and demodulates radio-frequency (RF) signals; a means of
collecting DC power from the incident reader signal; and an antenna for receiving and
transmitting the signal. The tag information is stored in a non-volatile memory. The RFID tag
includes either fixed or programmable logic for processing the transmission and sensor data,
respectively.
3.1. TAG ANTENNA
In this system the tag antennas are often dipole topology. Due to their omni-
directional radiation, these types of antennas are influenced by the characteristics of the
identification object, and their resonance frequency, input impedance, radiation pattern and
efficiency all degrade, especially when they are mounted on metallic surfaces or in close
proximity to the human body. These changes in the tag antenna characteristics affect the
reference and the sensor nodes’ signals, reducing the sensing accuracy. To overcome this
problem, in patch antennas have also been used for RFID sensors but still in a multiple tag
arrangement
3.2. COST EFFICIENCY

To reduce the cost, and the overall size of the developed sensor architecture, the
sensor and reference ports must be integrated in one ordinary RFID tag. Including both
reference and sensor nodes in the same antenna makes it possible to expose them to identical

environmental conditions such as temperature. In addition, this ensures similar power levels
for switches on the RFID chips, since a large separation between the sensor and reference
nodes increases the risk of dissimilarity in the received powers due to propagation path
variations. In this type of sensor architecture, the sensor nodes also limit the reading rang of
the whole system, e.g.,1 m. To increase the range, the sensor nodes’ threshold power should
be enhanced.
3.3. CONCEPT OF MULTIPORT RFID TAG-BASED SENSOR

In this paper, a multi-port RFID tag-based sensor, operating at the 902-928 MHZ
North American frequency band, is proposed. The proposed tag antennas are incorporated
with multiple RFID chips (RI-UHF-IC116-00) provided by Texas Instruments, with power
sensitivity of -13 dBm and input impedances of 8.2−j61Ω at the operation frequencies of 915
MHz, respectively. For a maximum power transfer between the RFID chips and the antennas,
inductively-coupled loop and inset coupled feeds are integrated in each antenna layout. One
port in each antenna is dedicated for attaching a resistive sensor as a load in parallel with the
RFID chip. Few normal resistors are used as an alternate way to represent the resistive sensor
in simulations and measurements.
3.4.FABRICATION AND EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION

The proposed tag based sensor is fabricated and experimentally evaluated using a
commercial RFID test system. These tests show that the designed RFID tag sensor can read a
resistance variation of between 20Ω to 2KΩ, which is equivalent to the resistance’s variation
of the humidity sensor when there is a humidity change from 20% to 80%, or to the
temperature sensors (NTC Thermistors) whose resistances change from 1.9KΩ (at 00C) up to
20.86Ω (at 1450C). To improve the reading range of the sensor, a dual-port solar powered
RFID-tag-enabled sensor is also fabricated and experimentally evaluated. The measured
results demonstrate that the reading range of the dual-port solar powered RFID tag-enabled
sensor is increased by two times compared to a similar prototype without solar energy
harvesting. Compared to the author’s earlier work on multiport tag antenna, the proposed tag-
based sensor is simpler, as it can be integrated with low-cost passive sensors without any
additional discrete electronic components to measure different parameters (e.g. temperature
or humidity).

3.5. CONCLUSION
The fabrication and experimental evaluation has been explained in this chapter.
Concept behind multi-port UHF RFID tag based sensor, it’s cost efficiency has also been
well explained. The chapter gives a clear base for the further studies on multi-port UHF RFID
tag based sensor

CHAPTER 4
PRINCIPLE OF THE MULTI PORT RFID TAG BASED-
SENSOR DESIGN
This chapter describes about the sensing principle of the proposed multi-port tag
antenna is described. The principle behind the proposed system is the power harvesting of
RFID tags which is required to operate IC from the RF signal transmitted from the reader. The
power harvested by the tag depends on the tag-antenna performance.
4.1. IDEA AND FRAMEWORK

Passive RFID tags do not contain any power sources; Instead, they harvest the power
required to operate the IC from the RF signal transmitted from the reader. The amount of the
power harvested by the tag strongly depends on the tag-antenna performance and the
matching network between the chip and the tag antenna. The chip’s impedance is highly
capacitive (Zin = RChip − jXChip); for the maximum power transfer conditions, the antenna
input impedance must be conjugate matched to the microchip impedance (ZAntenna =
Z∗Chip). The power transferred to the chip by the tag antenna can be represented as :
𝜆0 2
𝑝𝑇𝑎𝑔 = ( ) 𝐺𝑅 (𝜃, 𝜑, 𝜓)𝐺𝑇 (𝜃, 𝜑, 𝜓)𝜏𝑃𝑡 𝜂𝑝 (1)
4𝜋𝑑
where λ0 is the free space wavelength, d denotes the distance between the reader and the tag,
GT, and GR represent the tag and reader antenna gain, ψ is the environmental parameter that
could affect the gain and τ is the power transmission coefficient of the tag, defined as:
4𝑅𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑝 𝑅𝐴𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑛𝑎 (𝜓)
𝜏= 2 (2)
|𝑍𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑝 +𝑍𝐴𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑛𝑎 (𝜓)|
The other parameters in Eq. 1 are Pt, the power transmitted from the RFID reader, and ηp ,
the polarization mismatch between the reader and the tag antenna. The power received by the
reader can be expressed by a radar equation:
𝜆0 4 2
𝑃𝑅 = ( ) 𝐺𝑅 (𝜃, 𝜑, 𝜓)𝐺𝑇2 (𝜃, 𝜑, 𝜓)𝜏𝑃𝑡 𝜂𝑝 𝜌(𝜓) (3)
4𝜋𝑑
where ρ(ψ) is the modulation efficiency of the tag, which is a function of the antenna and chip
impedances. It is also related to the tag radar cross section as identified. The power received

by the tag to activate the microchip or to be scattered by the tag is a function of the physical
characteristics of the target where the tag is attached. Thus, any change in the target
parameters causes a change in the power received by the tag as well as in the scattered power
that is received by the reader. By detecting these changes, the target properties can be
monitored in real time. However, preliminary laboratory experiments are needed to generate
a calibrated reading of the backscattered signal from the sensor tag or the minimum power
required from the reader to activate the tag.
4.2. METHOD USED

The schematic diagram of the proposed multi-port RFID tag based sensor is shown in
Fig.1.1. The sensor port is integrated with a resistive moisture or resistive temperature sensor,
while the other port (the reference port) is perfectly matched to the tag antenna. Any change
in the resistance of the sensor due to humidity or temperature variation introduces a mismatch
between the antenna and the sensor port. The reader should then transmit a higher power
level to activate the sensor port compared to that required for the reference port. Since the
threshold power of the chips(PC−threshold) is almost the same for the same types of chips
and the reference and sensor ports are integrated in the same tag, the parameter of reader-to-
tag distance can be dropped by calculating the ratio of the required minimum transmit power
(Ptmin) to activate the two chips (PTag ≥ PC−threshold) (sensor and reference ports) using
Eq:
1. The calibration power up curve at any arbitrary distance from the reader can be
obtained as follows:
𝑃𝑡𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑜𝑟 𝜏𝑟𝑒𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡
𝑃𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 = = (4)
𝑚𝑖𝑛 𝑃𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝜏𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑜𝑟 𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡
By measuring this power ratio, it is possible to map it to the sensor data and thereby the
determine humidity or temperature at the tag location.
4.3.RESULT ANALYSIS
In a passive UHF RFID system, the reader transmits interrogation signals to the tags
and the tags reply to the reader by means of modulating the backscattered signals. The
communication channel carrying information from the reader to the tag is regarded as
forward link and that carrying information from the tag to the reader is regards as reverse
link. In forward link, the reader transmits a power of Pt, reader to its transmitting antenna

(which has a gain of G reader) for power radiation and this results in a power density of Pt
,reader G reader/(4πr2) at the position of the tag antenna, where r is there adding distance
between there reader antenna and the tag antenna. The power received by the tag antenna (Pr,
tag) is the product of the incident power density and the effective aperture of the tag antenna
(Ae ,tag).. A certain percentage of the received power, determined by the power transfer
coefficient (τ), is transferred to the silicon chip of the tag. The power backscattered by the tag
antenna (Pbs ,tag) is determined by the incident power density and the radar scattering cross
section of the tag antenna (Asc ,tag). In a similar manner to that for the forward link, the
backscattered power received by the reader antenna (Pr ,reader) is the product of the
backscattered power density and the effective aperture of the reader antenna (Ae, reader).
4.4. CONCLUSION
The basic principle behind multi-port UHF RFID tag based sensor have been studied
in detail in this chapter. The main concepts discussed are about the idea and framework used
for the fabrication and experimentation of the proposed system. Also gives the methods used
for implementation

CHAPTER 5
UHF RFID SENSOR TAG DESIGN
This chapter describes about a UHF RFID sensor tag design. The design and
simulation results of the proposed tag antenna are presented. Designing of suitable tag
antenna and accurate determination of the sensed physical quantity (e.g. temperature,
humidity, or permittivity) by using commercial RFID readers. The amount of the power
harvested by the tag strongly depends on the tag-antenna performance and the matching
network between the chip and the tag antenna.
5.1. DESIGN
5.1.1. TAG DESIGN
The tag antenna shown in Fig.5.2. is designed and fabricated using a single layer
substrate, Rogers RO4350B (εr = 3.66) with h= 1.524 mm to operate at the North American
UHF RFID band (902-928 MHz). The length of the patch antenna is approximately one-half
of a wavelength at the operating frequency of 915 MHz yielding Lpatch=83mm and the width
of Wpatch=79.6mm. The overall dimensions of the tag including the ground plane are 126
mm x 126mm. To further reduce the footprint, the patch antenna is backed by an EBG
structure and then redesigned with multiple feeds. In this manner, a size reduction of almost
70% (59mmx79mm) is obtained for the multi-port patch tag antenna.
Fig.5.2 Geometry of the proposed patch antenna-based sensor. All dimensions in millimeters

5.1.2. RFID chips
Multiple RFID chips (RI-UHFIC116-00) provided by Texas Instruments are utilized.

The power sensitivity of the chip is -13 dBm and the input impedance is 8.2−j61Ω at 915
MHz. The inductive loop and inset feed provide the conjugate match between the chips and
the antenna ports. The port with an inset feed is chosen as the reference node. By changing
the length of the inset feed (L1), the imaginary part of the input impedance is adjusted to
yield a desired input impedance value. The real part is optimized by controlling
the position of the via inside the patch antenna. The second chip is connected to the antenna
via an inductive loop. The size of the matching loop is adjusted to control the imaginary part,
while the distance between the antenna and the loop affects the real part. The final
dimensions of the inset feed and the loop, as shown in Fig.1.1, are optimized using an HFSS
simulator. The sensor can be directly connected to the tag antenna (in series or in parallel) or
it can be inductively coupled to the tag . In this prototype, the sensor is directly connected to
the matching loop in parallel with the RFID chip
The reflection coefficient Γ of this port as seen by the RFID chip is :
∗
(𝑍𝐴𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑛𝑎 ‖𝑍𝑆𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑜𝑟 ) − 𝑍𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑝
𝛤= (5)
(𝑍𝐴𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑛𝑎 ‖𝑍𝑆𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑜𝑟 ) + 𝑍𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑝
If the tag antenna is designed to be conjugate matched to the chip impedance (ZAntenna =
Z∗Chip), the reflection coefficient (Γ) becomes:
∗ 2
−(𝑍𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑝 )
𝛤= 2 (6)
2𝑍𝑆𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑜𝑟 𝑅𝑒 (𝑍𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑝 ) + |𝑍𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑝 |
5.1.3. SENSOR AND REFERENCE PORT DESIGN
Adding the resistive sensor in parallel with the sensor port introduces a mismatch (|Γ|
is larger than zero) between the antenna and the RFID chip. Thus, the power harvested from
the RFID reader signals will not be completely transferred to the chip circuitry, as part of it
will be reflected (the power transfer coefficient τ = 1−|Γ|2). Compared to the reference port
that is perfectly conjugate matched to the tag antenna, the reader requires to transmit higher
power to activate the sensor port. According to Eq. 6 the reader will not be able to activate
the sensor port when (|Γ| = 1,ZSensor = 0), while the best case to activate the sensor port
(perfect conjugate matching) is when (Γ = 0,ZSensor = ∞). The proposed tag is simulated
using an HFSS simulator where normal resistors (thick film chip resistors CRCW0402) with

different resistance values (2kΩ, 1kΩ, 500Ω, 200Ω, 100Ω, 50Ω, and 20Ω) are connected one
at a time in the inductive loop as an alternative way to represent a resistive sensor (e.g. a
Write Once Read Many WORM or an NTCLE100E3681JB0 thermistor). The calculated
power transmission co-efficient results using Eq. 6 and the simulated power transmission
coefficient of the tag with these resistors are presented in Fig.5.3. In both calculations using
Eq.6 and an HFSS simulator, the chip impedance is set to be 8.2−j61Ω (provided in the
component data sheet), and the results are calculated at the center frequency of North
American band (915 MHz). As expected, when the resistor values that are connected in
parallel with the RFID chip, a mismatch between the chip and the antenna is introduced. The
mismatch increases when the value of the resistor is decreased. There is a small variation in
the power transmission coefficient at the reference port, but it is more than 94 % across the
entire North American band. Thus, the reference port chip is expected to be activated with a
minimum of power transmitted from the reader, and changing the resistance values at the
sensor port does not have any impact
Fig..5.3.Power transfer co-efficient at the port of the proposed sensor with different resistors.

5.2. CONCLUSION
Suitable designing of the system is necessary inorder to make the sensed physical
quantity accurate .As the sensed physical quantity is determined from the ratio of minimum
power from the reader required to activate the reference and sensor nodes, the reference
nodes and sensor nodes are designed. This chapter gives information about designing of
RFID tag, reference & sensor nodes

CHAPTER 6
RFID TAG BASED-SENSOR EVALUATION
The proposed tag-based sensor is fabricated and experimentally evaluated. The

measured results demonstrate that the sensed data can be extracted using a commercial RFID
reader by recording and comparing the difference in the reader output power required to
power up the reference port and the power required to power the sensor ports. To improve the
reading range of the proposed sensor it is also designed using various parameters. Inorder to
study about the working of an RFID tag based sensor power sensitivity, reading range,
radiation pattern, sensor measurements should be measured. It is important to evaluate the
power sensitivity measurement in consumer products, this is done by an experimental setup.
These measurements are done using a tagformance which is measurement system
6.1.EVALUATION OF RFID TAG BASED-SENSOR

6.1.1.POWER SENSITIVITY MEASUREMENTS
Since sensor operation is based on measuring the relative activation power of the
sensor and reference port chips, the power sensitivity measurement must be conducted in
order to generate the calibration curve of the power-up levels. In addition, measuring the
power sensitivity of the assembled tag provides information about the optimum operation
frequency. Thus, any shifts in the resonance frequency because of antenna fabrication
tolerances or RFID chip impedance tolerances due to parasitic effects, process variations or
packaging can be observed. This test used a commercial RFID measurement
system(Tagformance).The measurement system is shown in Fig.6.4., where the reader is
connected to a computer to control the operation frequency band, the sweeping frequency
step, and the maximum output power. The measurement system also includes a wide band
circulator for monostatic radar measurements with over 20 dB port isolation through a range
of 800 to 1000 MHz.

Fig.6.4. Tagformance Measurement System
Tagformance was selected to perform the power sensitivity measurements because it

covers broad operation frequency bands compared to a commercial RFID reader, e.g. GAO
216010, which only operates in a narrow band from 865 to 868 MHz, European band, and
902 to 928 MHz, North America band. With this commercial reader (e.g. GAO 216010), the
optimum operation frequency cannot be predicted if it shifts out of the reader’s operational
bands. The tag is placed on the top of the foam holder at a 0.45 m distance from the reader, as
shown in Fig.6.4. The power sensitivity for the integrated RFID chips is then measured with
different thick-film chip resistors (CRCW0402), i.e, 2kΩ, 1kΩ, 500Ω, 200Ω, 100Ω, 50Ω, and
20Ω, soldered one at a time for each port and each test to represent the resistive sensors. This
process allows the power sensitivity of the sensor to be measured without the need for a
climate room. The proposed sensor is measured across the 800-1000 MHz frequency band.
The system starts by transmitting low power (-5 dBm) and then increases the output power by
0.1 dBm until the reader detects a tag response. The minimum transmit power needed to
activate the sensor port was recorded for different resistance values and is plotted in Fig.6.5.

Fig.6.5: Measured minimum transmit power required to activate RFID chip at the sensor port with different
resistance values.
Fig.6.6: Measured minimum transmit power required to activate RFID chip at the reference port with different
resistance values.
It can be observed that the minimum power required from the reader (Pt) to activate
the sensor port is inversely proportional to the sensor resistance. The sensor port is activated
with a transmit minimum power of 2.5dBm when the sensor resistance is high (2kΩ), while
higher power (18.5 dBm) is needed when the sensor resistance is very low (20Ω). The
required transmit power of the reference port is also measured for different resistance values

connected at the sensor port. The measured results are presented in Fig.6.6. The changes in
the resistance values at the sensor port cause small changes in the transmit power required for
activation (e.g., 1.5 dBm at 915 MHz when R = 2kΩ, and -0.98dBm when R = 20Ω) of the
reference port due to the coupling effect between the two ports. These changes are already
included in the calibration curve of the power-up levels and will not degrade the sensor
accuracy. It can be seen that the optimum operation frequency of the proposed tag occurs at
the center frequency of the North American band, 915 MHz. At this operation frequency, a
minimum transmitted power of -0.98 dBm is required to activate the RFID chip at the
reference port. Thus, the differential power-up curve can be calculated using Eq.6.4 at the
operation frequency of (915 MHz), as presented in Fig.6.7
Fig.6.7: Measured transmit power difference between sensor port and reference port at 915 MHz.
6.1.2.READING RANGE MEASUREMENT.

The other important parameter in evaluating an RFID tag is its maximum reading
range. A tag’s reading range can be easily measured using any commercial RFID reader. The
same commercially-available measurement system (Tagformance) used above to measure the
power consumption is used here for measuring the reading range. The maximum reading
range (with an EIRP of 3.28 W at the reference port) using the proposed tags is 9 m. The
calibrated curves of the differential power-up levels of the proposed sensor with a resistive
sensor are measured at a distance of 0.45 m from the reader. A solar powered tag-based
sensor was developed to enhance the reading range of the whole system.

6.1.3.RADIATION PATTERN MEASUREMENTS

RFID tag antennas are loaded with the complex impedance of RFID chips, which is
highly capacitive. This is not the standard setting (50Ω) in conventional pattern
measurements, and therefore it is important to investigate the radiation pattern of the RFID
tag antenna with an assembled and activated chip to observe any pattern deterioration. The
Tagformance measurement system is used in an anechoic chamber to extract the radiation
pattern from the power sensitivity measurements without any physical feed connection. The
radiation pattern of the proposed tag antenna at the operation frequency of 915 MHz is
measured when both sensor and reference chips are connected. The measured results are
presented in Fig.6.8.
Fig.6.8: Measured radiation pattern of the proposed sensor at 915 MHz.
The measured front-to-back ratio is 9.8 dB at 915 MHz. The realized antenna gain can be
determined by using the power method. The realized gain of the proposed tag is presented in
Fig.6.9. The realized gain of the proposed tag antenna is 4.8 dB at 915 MHz.

Fig.6.9: Measured realized gain for the proposed tag-based sensor.
TABLE 6.1: Physical characteristics of Thermistors - NTCLE100E3681JB0
6.2.SENSOR MEASUREMENT RESULTS

In the first subsection of this tag-based sensor evaluation (Power Sensitivity
Measurements), the proposed tags showed that they can successfully operate with a resistive
sensor with a range of 2KΩ to 20Ω. Currently, many different passive, compact and low-cost
sensors that have similar resistance variations are available and suitable for direct integration
with the proposed tag antennas. An example of a printed low-cost humidity or temperature
sensor is a 1-bit write-once-read many (WORM) presented. In our measurements, the

proposed tag is integrated with another sensor available in our lab (Thermistors - NTC) that
has a similar resistance variation range to those described, i.e., 1.9KΩ at 00C to 196Ω at
600C. These types of sensors are not equipped with discrete electronic components that
would increase the cost of the integrated sensor unit in the RFID tag; making them suitable
for integration in a variety of consumer products in the proposed RFID tag sensor designs
described earlier. Some of the physical characteristics of Thermistors - NTCLE100E3681JB0
are summarized in Table6.I. From Table 6.I, it can be seen that at room temperature 250C,
the available sensor has a resistor value of 680Ω. Since no climate room was available during
the time of these measurements, the temperature sensor was only used to extract the power
sensitivity of the proposed RFID sensor and to demonstrate the sensing principle of the RFID
tag-based sensor operation, and not for the actual temperature measurements. The power
sensitivities of the RFID chip at the sensor port and reference port are presented in Fig.6.10.
It can be seen that the sensor port requires higher power than the reference port, and that the
ratio of the power transmitted to the sensor port to that transmitted to the reference port, can
be extracted to determine the temperature if a calibration table or a climate room are
available.
Fig.6.10: Measured minimum transmit power required to activate RFID chip at the sensor port of the proposed
RFID sensor with Thermistor - NTC NTC sensor.

6.3.POWER SENSITIVITY MEASUREMENTS ON CONSUMER PRODUCTS

To demonstrate the use of the proposed tags-based sensor, measurements were
conducted using two different types of packages. The measurement system (Tagformance)
described in the earlier sections was also used to evaluate the performance of the proposed
sensor with two different types of consumer products. As shown in Fig.6.11, the proposed
sensor is attached to a box (200×200×200mm) containing plastic items, and then the RFID
tag is attached to a box that filled with metallic cans.
Fig.6.11: Measured packages with Thermistors- NTCLE100E3681JB0
The tag is placed on top of the box at a distance of 0.45m from the reader antenna of
the measurement system. Since the principle method of sensing depends on the power
sensitivity measurements, the tag is therefore first measured in free space and then attached to
the two different packages. The measured results of the required minimum power for both
ports in these two tests are presented in Figs.6.12 and 6.13.

Fig.6.13: Measured required minimum power

Fig.6.12: Measured required minimum power for the
for the reference and sensor ports of the tag in
reference and sensor ports of the tag in Fig.6.11
Fig.6.11 attached to a box containing metallic
attached to a box containing plastic items.
items.
When the proposed sensor is attached to the top of a box containing plastic items, the
minimum power needed to activate the RFID chips at the reference and sensor ports are very
close to those of pertinent ports in free standing tag measurements. Thus, the loading effects
of these types of items are negligible. However, when the proposed sensor is attached to the
packages containing metallic objects, a small change in the minimum power for RFID chip
activation is observed compared to the power required for free standing tags. For example,
the required minimum power at 920 MHz for a sensor port is 8.4 dBm in a free standing tag,
while it is 7 dBm when it is on the box containing metallic cans. The measured transmitted
power difference between the sensor port and the reference port of free standing tags is 8.45
dB, while it is 8.05 dB when it is located on the box of metallic cans. Fig.6.14 presents the
loading effect of the two different packages on a sample monopole RFID tag described in.
The loading effects of a box containing plastic items causes a large shift in the resonance
frequency and increases the required minimum power compared to the proposed RFID tag
based sensor. The monopole antenna tag has a dramatically diminished performance when
placed on the box containing metallic cans. Therefore, it can be observed that the proposed
tag sensor is more immune to the loading effects of consumer products compared to RFID
tags that use wire antennas for their sensor implementation.

Fig.6.14: Measured required minimum power for the monopole tag antenna placed to the top of a box containing
plastic and metallic items.
6.4.CONCLUSION
Evaluation of RFID tag based sensor is presented on this chapter. Various

measurements like power sensitivity, reading range, radiation pattern were explained. Also
gives idea about sensor measurements and power sensitivity measurements on consumer
products

CHAPTER 7
SOLAR –POWERED RFID TAG-BASED SENSOR
To improve the reading range of the proposed sensor, a dual-port solar powered RFID
sensor is used. The reading range of the sensor is increased by two times compared to a
similar prototype without solar energy harvesting.
7.1.SOLAR POWERED RFID TAG BASED SENSOR
As mentioned in the previous section, sensor data is extracted from the power ratio
described in Eq. 4. The power sensitivity measurements also confirm that the introduced
mismatch due to the resistive sensor reduces the power sensitivity of the sensor port, with the
reading range of the sensor port reduced accordingly. In fact, these types of sensors are
general only suitable for use in short range applications, e.g., of 1 m. Nonetheless, the reading
range of the proposed sensors can be extended by improving the power sensitivity of both the
reference and the sensor ports. Therefore, an improved design was developed herein. In this
prototype, the power sensitivity of the IC is increased by including an additional energy
source (solar cells). A Monza X RFID chip with two pins for DC connection is used in the
tag, which is designed to operate at the North American bandwidth (902 MHz to 928 MHz).
A Rogers RO4350B substrate (εr = 3.66 and 1.524 thickness) is considered for implementing
the tag antenna. At 915 MHz, the length and width of the radiating patch is optimized by
using an HFSS simulator, yielding L=83 mm and W= 82.8 mm. The inductive loop matching
technique is used to feed the RFID chip. The dimensions of the inductive loop are optimized
for conjugate matching, resulting in L1=18.8 mm, L2=8.5mm, d=0.6 mm. A thin film of solar
cells are attached on the top of the patch antenna, as shown in Fig.7.15. The dimensions of
the solar panel are 64mm×37mm×0.2mm, yielding an active area of 23cm2. As shown in
Fig.7.15, the DC+ and DC of the solar panel are connected to the RFID using tiny wires

Fig.7.15: Picture of the prototyped solar powered RFID tag-based sensor.
The same system (Tagformance) that was used in the previous tag measurements is
utilized here to evaluate the performance of the solar powered tag-based sensor. The reading
ranges for the reference and sensor ports are measured with and without being connected to
the solar energy source. First, the reading range of the RFID chip is measured without the
external solar power source. Next, it is measured with two different external power sources
connected, one at time: a small battery and the solar panel overlay. The measured reading
range results for the reference port are presented in Fig.7.16. The maximum reading range
without any additional energy source is obtained at 932 MHz (11.2 m), while with a small
battery the maximum reading range is 25.6 m at 932 MHz (with an EIRP of 3.28 W). When
the solar panel is used to power up the RFID chip under typical indoor office illumination
conditions, a maximum reading range of 21.5 is achieved at 937 MHz (with an EIRP from
932 MHz to 937 MHz). These measurements were repeated with a resistive thermal sensor,
i.e., a Thermistor NTCE100E3221JB0, connected in parallel with the RFID chip as shown in
Fig.7.15. The measured results of the maximum reading range are presented in Fig.7.17. The
reading range of the sensor port without an additional energy source is 2.4 m at 928 MHz.
When the small battery and solar panel are used to power up the RFID chip, the reading
ranges are 5.4 m at 928 MHz and 4.6 m at 934 MHz, respectively. It can be clearly observed
that the effective reading range of the tag is almost doubled when an additional energy source
is used to power up the RFID chip

Fig.7.14: Measured required minimum power for the monopole tag antenna described in [29] placed to the top
of a box containing plastic and metallic items.
Fig.7.16: Maximum reading range of the reference port with and without external energy sources.

Fig.7.17: Maximum reading range of the sensor port with and without external energy sources.
7.2.CONCLUSION
The reading range of the proposed sensors can be extended by improving the power
sensitivity of both the reference and the sensor ports. RFID tags do not contain any power
sources instead they harvest the power required to operate the IC from the RF signal
transmitted from the reader. So a solar system is connected to the reader inorder to increase
the reading range

CHAPTER 8
CONCLUSION
The design and experimental evaluation of RFID tag-based sensors operating at UHF
band were presented. The proposed sensor was designed to cover North America operation
frequency band (902-928 MHz). Multiple RFID chips with operating frequencies from 840
MHz to 960 MHz and input impedances of 8.2 − j61Ω at 915 MHz (North American band),
were incorporated with the patch antenna. To achieve maximum power transfer between the
chip and the antenna, unique matching mechanisms were implemented in the antenna layout.
Utilizing these matching networks (inset feed and inductive loop), the patch antenna was
conjugate matched to multiple RFID chips operating at an operation band of 902928 MHz.
To augment the sensing capability, resistive sensors were integrated in the same tags. The
proposed tag-based sensor was fabricated and experimentally evaluated using a commercial
measurement system. The measured front to back ratio is 9.8 dB at operation frequencies of
915 MHz, reducing the background tag materials’ sensitivity. Thus, the proposed tag sensor
is more immune to the loading effects of consumer products compared to RFID sensors based
on wire antennas. The power sensitivity of the proposed sensor was also tested, and the
preliminary calibrated curves of the differential power up levels were obtained by measuring
the differential power between the sensor and the reference ports. The maximum power ratio
achieved by the proposed sensor is more than 23 dB at 0.45 m from the reader. To improve
the reading range of the proposed sensor, a dual-port solar powered tag was fabricated and
experimentally evaluated. The reading range was increased by two times compared to a
similar prototype without solar energy harvesting. The measured results demonstrate that
multi-port single tag antennas can reliably provide identification and sensing ability by
monitoring the transmitted power of the reader. Thus, the proposed multi-port patch antennas
equipped with resistive sensors are capable of serving as low-cost remote sensors for various
applications including supply chain operations and the transportation of sensitive items.

REFERENCES
[1] A.E.Abdulhadi, Member, IEEE, and Tayeb A. Denidni , Senier Member, “ Self-powered
Multi-Port UHF RFID Tag-based-Sensor” IEEE Journal of Radio Frequency Identification
Vol.1, Issue: 2, June 2017 2469-7281.
[2] ] A. E. Abdulhadi and R. Abhari, “Multiport UHF RFID-tag antenna for enhanced energy
harvesting of self-powered wireless sensors,” IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics,
vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 801–808, 2016.
[3] S. Kim, Y. Kawahara, A. Georgiadis, A. Collado, and M. M. Tentzeris, “Low-cost inkjet-

printed fully passive RFID tags for calibration-free capacitive/haptic sensor applications,”
IEEE Sensors Journal, vol. 15, no. 6, pp. 3135–3145, 2015
[4] A. E. Abdulhadi, S. Mandev, and R. Abhari, “Signal integrity and EMI evaluations of
an RFID-sensor tag for internet-of-things applications,”in 2015 IEEE Symposium on
Electromagnetic Compatibility and Signal Integrity, 2015, pp. 128–132.
[5] J. Gao, J. Siden, H. Nilsson, and M. Gulliksson, “Printed humidity sensor with memory
functionality for passive RFID tags,” IEEE Sensors Journal, vol. 13, no. 5, pp. 1824–1834,
2013
[6] Z. Jiang and F. Yang, “Reconfigurable RFID tag antenna for wireless temperature
monitoring,” in Proceedings of the 2012 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and
Propagation, 2012
[7] J. Gao, J. Sidn and H.-E. Nilsson, “Printed temperature sensors for passive RFID tags,”
in Proc. 27th Conf. PIERS, pp. 845–849, 2010.
[8] R. Bhattacharyya, C. Floerkemeier, and S. Sarma, “RFID tag antenna based temperature
sensing,” in IEEE International Conference on RFID, 2010, pp. 8–15.
[9]L.Catarinucci,R.Colella ,and L.Tarricone,“ A cost-effective UHF RFID tag for
transmission of generic sensor data in wireless sensor networks,” IEEE Transactions on
Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol. 57, no. 5, pp. 1291–1296, 2009.
[10] G. Marrocco, “The art of UHF RFID antenna design: impedance matching and size-
reduction techniques,” IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 66–79,
2008.

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SELF-POWERED MULTI-PORT UHF RFID TAG-BASED-

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Degree of

(Reg No: VAK15EC002)

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Degree of

(Reg No: VAK15EC002)

MS. DIVYA KUMARAN A K

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION

Certified that this is a bonafide record of seminar entitled on ‘Self-Powered

Prof. Divya Kumaran A K Prof.Muhammed Anshad P Y

Asst. Professor, Asst. Professor,

Prof.Amlu Anna Joshy Prof.Saheeda P A

I extend my heartfelt gratitude to our respected principal Dr. MATHAVRAJ

I would like to express my sincere thanks to Ms. SAHEEDA P A the Head of

LIST OF FIGURES vii

CHAPTER TITLE PAGE

4.1 Idea and Framework 17

FIG.NO TITLE PAGE NO

SCHEMATIC DIAGRAM OF THE PROPOSED RFID

GEOMETRY OF THE PROPOSED PATCH ANTENNA

POWER TRANSFER CO-EFFICIENT AT THE PORT OF

6.4 TAGFORMANCE MEASUREMENT SETUP 25

MEASURED MINIMUM TRANSMIT POWER REQUIRED

MEASURED MINIMUM TRANSMIT POWER REQUIRED

MEASURED TRANSMIT POWER DIFFERENCE

MEASURED RADIATION PATTERN OF THE

MEASURED REALIZED GAIN FOR THE PROPOSED

MEASURED MINIMUM TRANSMIT POWER REQUIRED

MEASURED REQUIRED MINIMUM POWER FOR THE

MEASURED REQUIRED MINIMUM POWER FOR THE

PICTURE OF THE PROTOTYPED SOLAR POWERED

MAXIMUM READING RANGE OF THE REFERENCE

𝜆0 Free Space Wavelength

𝑃𝑡𝑆𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑜𝑟 Sensor Transmit Power

𝑃𝑡𝑅𝑒𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 Reference Transmit Power

𝜏𝑅𝑒𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡 Power Transmission Co-Efficient Of Reference Port

UHF Ultra High Frequency

RFID Radio Frequency Identification

NTC Negative Temperature Co-efficient

HFSS High Frequency Structure Simulator

WORM Write Once Read Many

RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION

1.1. HISTORY OF RFID AND EARLY BEGINNINGS

1.2. NEXT RFID DEVELOPMENT

Vidya Academy Of Science And Technology-Technical Campus, Kilimanoor Page 1

1.4. UHF RFID HISTORY

1.5. PROPOSED SYSTEM

Vidya Academy Of Science And Technology-Technical Campus, Kilimanoor Page 2

Fig.1.1. Schematic Diagram Of Proposed RFID Tag-Based System

Vidya Academy Of Science And Technology-Technical Campus, Kilimanoor Page 3

Vidya Academy Of Science And Technology-Technical Campus, Kilimanoor Page 4

2.1. EXISTING WORKS – AN OVERVIEW

1.Multiport UHF RFID-Tag Antenna For Enhanced Energy Harvesting Of Self-

Vidya Academy Of Science And Technology-Technical Campus, Kilimanoor Page 5

2.Low-Cost Inkjet-Printed Fully Passive RFID Tags For Calibration-Free Capacitive/

A fully passive, compact, and low-cost capacitive wireless RFID-enabled sensing

3.Signal Integrity And EMI Evaluations Of An RFID-Sensor Tag For Internet-Of-

Vidya Academy Of Science And Technology-Technical Campus, Kilimanoor Page 6

Vidya Academy Of Science And Technology-Technical Campus, Kilimanoor Page 7

5.Printed Temperature Sensors For Passive RFID Tags.

A concept is presented where a temperature sensitive printed nano structure is

Vidya Academy Of Science And Technology-Technical Campus, Kilimanoor Page 8

6.RFID Tag Antenna Based Temperature Sensing.

Temperature monitoring is important in a number of fields, particularly cold supply