2011 International Conference on Advanced Technologies for Communications (ATC 2011)

Improving Radiation Characteristics of UHF RFID

Antennas by Zigzag Structures
l
t
Van Hieu Nguyen , Hong Phuong Phan ,
l
IEEE, Manh Ha Hoang
1.

2
2
Dat Son Nguyen , Mau Chien Dang , Thuat
2'
2
2
Nguyen-Tran , Nhan Ai Tran , Anh Hoang , Eric
3
Fribourg-Blanc

Member,

Faculty of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

2.

HCMC University of Technology

Laboratory for Nanotechnology -National

University Ho Chi Minh City, Community 6, Thu

Duc district, Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

3.

phphuong@hcmut.edu.vn

CEA-LETI-MINATEC, 17, rue des Martyrs, 38054

Grenoble Cedex 9, France

(*)

Abstract-An

antenna structure for UHF RFID tag matched

to ST Microelectronics XRAG2 passive tag Ie is proposed in this

paper.

The

design

is

realized

on

PET

(polyethylene

Terephthalate) substrate that has the overall dimension of 82.5

mm

ntthuat@vnuhcm.edu.vn

have half-field radiation of 4.72 dBi and a bandwidth of about

25 MHz. However, this antenna has a big size (200mm x
55mm) and 3-dB beam width of 150 degrees shows its low
directivity. In order to mount to a tag chip with a large

45.29 mm. The simulation shows that the proposed zigzag

shaped antenna has the return loss at the resonant frequency of-

39 dB and omni-directional radiation characteristics with the

maximum gain of about 1.97 dBi that is much better than that of

inductive reactance, authors in [3] proposed a dipole antenna

enclosed by a short stub to increase its inductive reactance for
conjugate matching. However, the antenna efficiency has not

the initial meander dipole. The prototype antenna was tested by

been mentioned. In [4], the authors have proposed a special

Rohde & Shwarz ZVB Vector Network Analyzer and showed

antenna form on a flexible square Liquid Crystal Polymer

good fit with the simulation results.

(LCP) substrate in order to obtain a high efficiency. As it can

Keywords- antenna design; RFID; RFID tag; meander line

antenna;antenna radiation, antenna efficiency
I.
identification

INTRODUCTION

of

objects

by

radio

frequency

transmission which was firstly found in 1930s and had become

more popular in 1960s and 1970s [1]. Today RFID technology
is widely used in different modern and sophisticated ways with
different standards: LF (125-134 kHz), HF (13.56 MHz), UHF

find a new design of RFID antennas with high gain, large

It is known, the antenna is the most important part of an

RFID tag and its dimensions affect significantly the dimensions
of the tag. Therefore, the antenna design is in huge need in
order to have good radiation characteristics such as omni
directional radiation patterns, high efficiency, good impedance
matching, as well as decrease the antenna dimensions in order
to reduce the fabrication cost and the price of tag products.
Dipole antenna has been in fact studied previously with varied
structures and shapes [1] and each configuration had suitable
advantages for its application.

This paper will focus on enhancing the directivity and gain

of an RFID dipole antenna with a special zigzag-shape. Then,
starting with this structure, the authors will study some
approaches to build a UHF RFID dipole antenna with a better
bandwidth while its omni-directional radiation characteristics
Section II shows the design problems and the method of their
solution to design a UHF RFID tag antenna to match with a ST
Microelectronics XRAG2 passive tag Ie. Next, Section III
illustrates some simulation results obtained by using CST
Microwave Studio. A prototype has been made and tested by
the Rohde & Shwarz ZVB Vector Network Analyzer and
finally, the conclusions are given in Section IV. A description
of the research platform for RFID in our institution can be
found in [5].
II.

strong development of RFID technology

results in more professional and flexible antenna design to

meet technical and social requirements. Thus, the problem of
RFID antennas has been attracting the attention of many
experts, researchers, engineers as well as students that has been
shown in different references [2][3][4]. In [2], a special antenna
structure with a 90-degree bent patch has been proposed to

978-1-4577-1207-4/11/$26.00 2011 IEEE

increase reading range of a whole system.

are guaranteed. The paper is further organized as follows:

(860-960 MHz), etc.

Furthermore,

its size, but also has some weaknesses. Hence, it is necessary to

bandwidth and omni-directional radiation patterns in order to

RFID - Radio Frequency Identification is a technology of

automatic

be seen, the meandering shape of a dipole antenna can reduce

102

THE DESIGNED ANTENNA CONFIGURATION

For the design, STMicroelectronics XRAG2 passive tag IC

compatible with the EPC Global Class-l Generation-2 UHF
RFID specification was used. The impedance of the IC is 10j245 Ohms. However, the impedance for the design is chosen
to be 20-j250 Ohms in order to compensate some parasitic
resistance and capacitance of the contact between the antenna
and the chip. The substrate PET (86mm x 54mm) with

thickness of h=0.08 mm, relative dielectric permittivity of 8r=3

constructed on a PET substrate (8r=3, tano=0.02) with thickness

and tano=0.02 is chosen to realize the design idea.

of 0.08 mm.

We need to design an antenna for conjugate matching with

the tag IC, i.e. the input impedance of the antenna should be
20+j250 Ohm at 868 MHz. The initial design was based on a
haft-wavelength straight dipole that the beam patterns are
known as omni-directional (Fig. 1).

Figure 4 Cancelled current effect reduction [I]

...

___ .
, ....
.. -II....-II

.-......

Figure I The radiation pattern of a haft-wavelength straight dipole antenna

Although these characteristics are good, the antenna is still

too big and its input impedance does not match with the chip.

'''''NIt
,_
.....,_,. __ fd.)' II
.. 1'\) ,,,

Therefore, we need to increase impedance by reference from

::,01.'."

::::...

r.:ui :..:p

[1], an inductive reactance was created by a meander line that

..

...... , .

reduces the dimension at the same time. As a result, the

_1-10'.

.. ,.. .,

antenna radiation patterns are no longer omni-directional. The

Figure 5 The radiation pattern of dipole antenna with zigzag shape.

configuration of this antenna and its simulated radiation

patterns and gain obtained by using CST Microwave Studio are
shown in Fig. 2 and Fig.3.

"1

Figure 2 The meander line antenna structure

Pltll,"."1
,,''' .....1
PI-.'

1"',"11

-" .. ,.
. u.

n.40ldn.
n,IoU".

.. . .

12.5,

..

u.s

Figure 6 The structure of proposed RFID UHF antenna

'.'"''
___ , __ ._ I ,
__
.. "', ... _,'1
"""....
'-

, ...... ,
... ..... ,

..... " .....

.- ......

""

.. _10.

Figure 3 The radiation patterns of the meander line dipole antenna

However, as mentioned in [6], the current in neighboring

arms flows in opposite directions and does not radiate so that
the radiation efficiency decreases resulting in reduction of the
antenna gain. To avoid this effect, a zigzag shape taken from

111""""'",,"

the idea of a zigzag wire antenna [7] is applied, and 90-degree

-,

bent line is used in the antenna structure only to adiust its input

C-l

impedance

(Fig.4).

Radiation

pattern

returned

as

omni

directional (Fig.5).

From the relatively good properties of the impressive

,..

zigzag structure, we could apply it to design more effective

RPID antenna. In order to improve the bandwidth, a triangular
frame has been added [8]. The configuration of the proposed

4QOLL--------U.-,---L--
,-,,,,"

antenna using a zigzag-shaped dipole is shown in Fig. 6. It is

Figure 7 The real and imaginary parts of impedance for different

triangle frame open angles

103

Fig. 7 shows the real and imaginary parts of the input

impedance for different triangle frames. After some simple
adjustments for impedance matching, by changing size of the
zigzag angles and the open-angle of triangle frame, based on
the results of analysis to obtain the desired impedance (20 +
j250 Ohms) to match with the complex conjugate of the chips,
finally,

we

obtained

dimension of 82.5 mm
III.

the

antenna

structure

with

overall

45.29 mm.

:::..,_, .. :':::!-I"'' 'I

....."".1,"'1111
,- 11#,,'1,,11,

SIMULATION AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

_II..
_...

t,.;;;::.. .;:::" ..

The return loss of the proposed antenna at the resonant

' ... . fl\

tt,.

frequency is -39 dB after the impedance matching with the chip

I.K'"
..HI.'

Figure 9 The 3D radiation pattem of the proposed antenna

(Fig. 8). The radiation patterns of the proposed antenna are

quite similar to that of a straight dipole antenna and the
maximum gain is about 1.97 dBi as shown in Fig. 9 which was
considerably improved as compared to that of the initial
meander dipole.
10

Rnub\ISI

"
dB

I ..
25

yv
i

'-1

."

QJ---1

I :::::::::I
,

....
o

:
i

w/ (

---------------------------------- I
.
.

fT/GMf

Figure 10 The 34 MHz bandwidth at -IOdB of the proposed antenna

frequef\Cy/GHz
'"

Figure 8 The return loss coefficient before and after matching with chip

The

bandwidth

of

the

proposed

antenna

design

was

34MHz, covering the frequency range from 866 to 868 MHz

(which is

allowed in Vietnam for UHF RFID systems)

(Fig.lO), and the obtained input impedance is 49+j248.5 Ohm

(Fig.13 a).
The 3-dB beamwidth is 87.3 degrees (Fig.11) resulting in good
directivity of the antenna which could increase the reading

"_ ....
Pb/Orgr ........

In order to test the simulation results, a prototype has been

successfully

fabricated

at

Laboratory

the antenna was connected to the balun followed by a cable to

Rohde & Shwarz ZVB Vector Network Analyzer.

layer [9]. On this prototype, a thickness of Iflm was fabricated

in order to rapidly compare the experimental results with

The simulation and measured input impedance of the

simulation. Further experimental works will be carried out to

prototype are shown in Fig. 13 a) and b). As it can be seen, the

thicken the copper layer by means of low cost batch production

measured impedance is 76 + j256 Ohms that is greater than the

electrodeposition procedures so that 10 flm of thickness can be

simulation value by 26+j8 Ohms. It can be explained by the

obtained. The prototype is tested by using Rohde & Shwarz

fact that the copper layer thickness of the fabricated antenna is

ZVB Vector Network Analyzer. Since PET substrate cannot

only 0.001 mm while the value used in simulation is 0.01 mm

stand high temperature, the measurement was done using a

balun

[10]

designed

,t.

The measurement was set up as shown in Fig.12 b), where

(LNT) - Ho Chi Minh City National University by using

quarter-wavelength

...

"_IQIbc6r. "O.Odrg
...... -t>u.,. If"_

Figure II The 3-dB beamwidth of the proposed antenna

for Nanotechnology

photolithography followed by wet etching on sputtered copper

broadband

.o. ..

distance of the UHF RFID system.

as the fabrication target.

and

fabricated by the authors to characterize various broadband

dipole antennas (Fig. 12 a)).

104

Besides, the errors can be caused by other factors such as

non-perfect measurement environment, SMA connectors and
RF cable effects [11] that the authors are trying to solve. At the
moment, due to some limited facilities, only the antenna
impedance can be measured. The authors are carrying out the
measurement of other radiation characteristics of the antenna,
then mounting the chip on it to test the reading distance of the
whole system.
IV.
a)

CONCLUSIONS

The proposed zigzag-shaped antenna has a return loss at the

resonant frequency of -39 dB and omni-directional radiation
characteristics with the maximum gain of about l.97 dBi. The
structure is easy to adjust for conjugate matching to various
commercial RFID tag chips. Based on the first proposed
antenna, some other RFID antenna structures can be developed
in order to have desired characteristics to adapt to various
applications. Apart from measuring the antenna itself, the
authors are going to mount the chip on it and test the reading
distance of the whole tag.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This work is supported by the Ministry of Sciences and

Technology, Vietnam.

b)
Figure 12 Measurement of the prototype a). The broadband balun used for the

REFERENCES

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12Q9fl010.':5PM

b)
Figure 13 The resulted input impedance of antenna (a) simulation and (b)
measured

105