Study of fractal pattern antennas for RFID tags

• Grant number: 15/11890-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2015
• End date: July 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Electrical Engineering - Telecommunications
• Principal Investigator: Hugo Enrique Hernández Figueroa
• Grantee: Arthur Zanatta da Costa
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Engenharia Elétrica e de Computação (FEEC). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The goal of this research is the design and fabrication of a microstrip antenna (patch antenna) with fractal geometry to be used as a passive UHF RFID tag in Brazil, coupled to the Impinj Monza R6 chip. The attention will be directed to antennas with FR-4 substrate, mounted over metallic surfaces, operating in the second Brazilian band, Band 2, allocated to RFID - 915 MHz - 928 MHz. The project will start studying and selecting some fractal forms that have interesting properties for the design of patch antennas. Afterwards, for each selected fractal form, a reference patch antenna will be designed with the proper feeding mechanism in the electromagnetic simulator CST Studio Suite". The intention is to try to match the reference antenna's impedance with the impedance of the chip in Band 2.The best reference antenna will be selected based on the following figures of merit: patch's area, IEEE gain and bandwidth. Once the choice is made, the corresponding fractal form will be embedded in the reference antenna. Some iterations of the fractal will be realized together with some fine tunings in order to optimize the performance of the antenna over the Band 2.Based on the same figures of merit used for the choice of the fractal, the best iteration will be selected for fabrication and experimental characterization. In this final step, tests will be held in order to determine the maximum reading distance of a single tag and the behavior of a set of tags together in the same surroundings.