GANPAT UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY, VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1, MARCH 2011

Antenna Design of RFID Applications

P.R. Patel, Ashish Raval, Hitesh D. Patel
Abstract Passive RFID tags utilize an induced antenna coil voltage for operation. This induced AC voltage is rectified to provide a voltage source for the device. As the DC voltage reaches a certain level, the device starts operating. By providing an energizing RF signal, a reader can communicate with a remotely located device that has no external power source such as a battery. Since the energizing and communication between the reader and tag is accomplished through antenna coils, it is important that the device must be equipped with a proper antenna circuit for successful RFID applications. KeywordsRFID, Antenna Circuit, RFID, Tag, Micro ID

1. INTRODUCTION
An RF signal can be radiated effectively if the linear dimension of the antenna is comparable with the wavelength of the operating frequency. However, the wavelength at 13.56 MHz is 22.12 meters. Therefore, it is difficult to form a true antenna for most RFID applications [1]. Alternatively, a small loop antenna circuit that is resonating at the frequency is used. A current flowing into the coil radiates a near-field magnetic field that falls off with r-3. This type of antenna is called a magnetic dipole antenna. For 13.56 MHz passive tag applications, a few micro henries of inductance and a few hundred pF of resonant capacitor are typically used [3]. The voltage transfer between the reader and tag coils is accomplished through inductive coupling between the two coils. As in a typical transformer, where a voltage in the primary coil transfers to the secondary coil, the voltage in the reader antenna coil is transferred to the tag antenna coil and vice versa. The efficiency of the voltage transfer can be increased significantly with high Q circuits. This section is written for RF coil designers and RFID system engineers. It reviews basic electromagnetic theories on antenna coils, a procedure for coil design, calculation and measurement of inductance, an antenna tuning method, and read range in RFID applications.

In a special case with an infinitely long wire where: 1 = -180 2 = 0 Equation 1 can be rewritten as: Equation 2:

Fig. 1: calculation of magnetic field b at location p due to current i on a straight conducting wire

The magnetic field produced by a circular loop antenna is given by:

Equation 3:

2. REVIEW OF A BASIC THEORY FOR RFID ANTENNA DESIGN

2.1 Current and Magnetic Fields
Amperes law states that current flowing in a conductor produces a magnetic field around the conductor. The magnetic field produced by a current element, as shown in Figure 1, on a round conductor (wire) with a finite length is given by: Equation 1:

Where I = current a = radius of loop r = distance from the center of loop 0 = permeability of free space and given as 4 x 10-7 (Henry/meter) The above equation indicates that the magnetic field strength decays with 1/r3. A graphical demonstration is shown in Figure 3. It has maximum amplitude in the plane of the loop and directly proportional to both the current and the number of turns, N.[8] Equation 3 is often used to calculate the ampere-turn requirement for read range. A few examples that calculate the ampere-turns and the field intensity necessary to power the tag will be given in the following sections

Where: I = current r = distance from the center of wire 0 = permeability of free space and given as 4 K x 10 (Henry/meter)

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This is known as Lenzs law and it emphasizes the fact that the direction of current flow in the circuit is such that the induced magnetic field produced by the induced current will oppose the original magnetic field. The magnetic flux in Equation 4 is the total magnetic field B that is passing through the entire surface of the antenna coil, and found by: Equation 5:

Fig 2: calculation of magnetic field b at location p due to current i on the loop

Where: B = magnetic field given in Equation 2 S = surface area of the coil = inner product (cosine angle between two vectors) of vectors B and surface area S Note: Both magnetic field B and surface S are vector quantities.

Fig 3: decaying of the magnetic field b vs. Distance r

3. INDUCED VOLTAGE IN AN ANTENNA COIL

Faradays law states that a time-varying magnetic field through a surface bounded by a closed path induces a voltage around the loop. Figure 4 shows a simple geometry of an RFID application. When the tag and reader antennas are in close proximity, the time-varying magnetic field B that is produced by a reader antenna coil induces a voltage (called electromotive force or simply EMF)[4] in the closed tag antenna coil. The induced voltage in the coil causes a flow of current on the coil. This is called Faradays law. The induced voltage on the tag antenna coil is equal to the time rate of change of the magnetic flux [5] Equation 4:

The presentation of inner product of two vectors in Equation 5 suggests that the total magnetic flux that is passing through the antenna coil is affected by an orientation of the antenna coils. The inner product of two vectors becomes minimized when the cosine angle between the two are 90 degrees, or the two (B field and the surface of coil) are perpendicular to each other and maximized when the cosine angle is 0 degrees. The maximum magnetic flux that is passing through the tag coil is obtained when the two coils (reader coil and tag coil) are placed in parallel with respect to each other. This condition results in maximum induced voltage in the tag coil and also maximum read range. The inner product expression in Equation 5 also can be expressed in terms of a mutual coupling between the reader and tag coils. The mutual coupling between the two coils is maximized in the above condition.

where: N = number of turns in the antenna coil = magnetic flux through each turn The negative sign shows that the induced voltage acts in such a way as to oppose the magnetic flux producing it.
Fig 4: a basic configuration of reader and tag antennas in rfid applications

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Using Equations 3 and 5, Equation 4 can be rewritten as:

Equation 6:

Where: f = N = S = Q = Bo = a =

frequency of the arrival signal number of turns of coil in the loop area of the loop in square meters (m) quality factor of circuit strength of the arrival signal angle of arrival of the signal

In the above equation, the quality factor Q is a measure of the selectivity of the frequency of the interest.

Where V= voltage in the tag coil i1 = current on the reader coil a = radius of the reader coil b = radius of tag coil r = distance between the two coils M = mutual inductance between the tag and reader coils, and given by:
Equation 7:

Fig 5. Orientation dependency of the tag antenna

The induced voltage developed across the loop antenna coil is a function of the angle of the arrival signal. The induced voltage is maximized when the antenna coil is placed in parallel with the incoming signal where a = 0. Example 1: calculation of b-field in A tag coil

The above equation is equivalent to a voltage transformation in typical transformer applications. The current flow in the primary coil produces a magnetic flux that causes a voltage induction at the secondary coil.

The MCRF355 device turns on when the antenna coil develops 4 VPP across it. This voltage is rectified and the device starts to operate when it reaches 2.4 VDC. The B-field to induce a 4 VPP coil voltage with an ISO standard 7810 card size (85.6 x 54 x 0.76 mm) is calculated from the coil voltage equation

VO= 2fNSQBocos = 4

As shown in Equation 6, the tag coil voltage is largely dependent on the mutual inductance between the two coils. The mutual inductance is a function of coil geometry and the spacing between them. The induced voltage in the tag coil decreases with r-3. Therefore, the read range also decreases in the same way. From Equations 4 and 5, a generalized expression for induced voltage Vo in a tuned loop coil is given by:

Where the following parameters are used in the above calculation: Tag coil size = (85.6 x 54) mm2 (ISO card size) = 0.0046224 m2 Frequency = 13.56 MHz Number of turns = 4 Q of tag antenna = 40 coil AC coil voltage to = 4 VPP turn on the tag Cos = 1 (normal direction, = 0). Example 2: turns) number of turns and Current (ampere-

Equation 8:

Assuming that the reader should provide read range of 15 inches (38.1 cm) for the tag given in the previous

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example, the current and number of turns of a reader antenna coil is calculated from Equation 3:

wire increases. This results in higher impedance to the current density in the region. Therefore, the charge moves

= 0.43 ampere-turn Equation 12:

away from the centre of the wire and towards the edge of the wire. Equation 13:

Where a = radius of coil r= read range The result indicate that optimum loop radius a is 1.414 times the demanded read range r

4. WIRE TYPES AND OHMIC LOSSES

4.1 DC Resistance of Conductor and Wire Types The diameter of electrical wire is expressed as the American Wire Gauge (AWG) number. The gauge number is inversely proportional to diameter, and the diameter is roughly doubled every six wire gauges. The wire with a smaller diameter has a higher DC resistance. The DC resistance for a conductor with a uniform cross-sectional area is found by:
Equation 13:

Where: f =frequency = permeability (F/m) = 0 r 0 = Permeability of air = 4 re x 10-7 (h/m) r = 1 for Copper, Aluminum, Gold, etc = 4000 for pure Iron = Conductivity of the material (mho/m) = 5.8 x 107 (mho/m) for Copper = 3.82 x 107 (mho/m) for Aluminium = 4.1 x 107 (mho/m) for Gold = 6.1 x 107 (mho/m) for Silver = 1.5 x 107 (mho/m) for Brass

8. CONCLUSION
Passive RFID tags utilize an induced antenna coil voltage for operation. Review of basic theory of antenna design by ampere and farads law. This induced AC voltage is rectified to provide a voltage source for the device. As the DC voltage reaches a certain level, the device starts operating. By providing an energizing RF signal, a reader can communicate with a remotely located device that has no external power source such as a battery. Since the energizing and communication between the reader and tag is accomplished through antenna coils, it is important that the device must be equipped with a proper antenna circuit for successful RFID applications. Calculation of b-field in a tag coil and number of turns, Current (ampere-turns) and wire types and ohmic losses.

Where: l = a = S = a =

total length of the wire conductivity of the wire (mho/m) cross-sectional area = K r2 radius of wire

For the resistance must be kept small as possible for higher Q of antenna circuit. For this reason, a larger diameter coil as possible must be chosen for the RFID circuit. Table 5 shows the diameter for bare and enamelcoated wires, and DC resistance.

REFERENCES
4.2 AC Resistance of Conductor
At DC, charge carriers are evenly distributed through the entire cross section of a wire. As the frequency increases, the magnetic field is increased at the centre of the inductor. Therefore, the reactance near the centre of the
[1] Hailong Zhu, Shengli Lai, Hongyue Dai Solutions of Metal Surface Effect for HF RFID, Pervasive Computing, ieee, volume 5, issue 1, Jan.-March 2006, pp. 25-33. V. G. Welsby, The Theory and Design of Inductance Coils, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1960.

[2]

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[3]

[4] [5] [6] [7] [8]

Frederick W. Grover, Inductance Calculations Working Formulas and Tables, Dover Publications, Inc., New York, NY., 1946. Keith Henry, Editor, Radio Engineering Handbook, McGrawHill Book Company, New York, NY., 1963. H.M. Greenhouse, IEEE Transaction on Parts, Hybrid, and Packaging, Vol. PHP-10, No. 2, June 1974. K. Fujimoto, A. Henderson, K. Hirasawa, and J.R. James, Small Antennas, John Wiley & Sons Inc., ISBN 0471 914134, 1987 James K. Hardy, High Frequency Circuit Design, Reston Publishing Company, Inc.Reston, Virginia, 1975. Simon Ramo, Fields and Waves in Communication Electronics, John Wiley, 1984.

First A. Author Mr. P.R.Patel is presently working as a Head in the E. C. engineering department at the B. S. Patel Polytechnic College, Ganpat University, Kherva, Mehsana, and Gujarat, India. He has master degree in electronics and communication engineering system. His research interest is wireless communication and telecommunication. He has 13 year academic and industrial experience. He is member of different technical bodies in India. Second B. Author Jr. Mr. Hitesh D. Patel is presently working as a senior lecturer in the E. C. engineering department at the B. S. Patel Polytechnic College affiliated to Ganpat University, Kherva, Mehsana, Gujarat, India. He has master degree in electronics and communication engineering system. His research interest is optical communication and industrial electronics system. He is member of different technical bodies in India. Third C. Author Mr. Ashish R Raval is presently working as a lecturer in E.C. engineering department at the B. S. Patel Polytechnic College affiliated to Ganpat University, Kherva, Mehsana, Gujarat. India. His research interest is microcontroller and wireless communication system. He is member of different technical bodies in India.