RFID Tag Design and Range Improvement

Abstract

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a short range radio technology for communication between two objects namely, a reader and a tag. Design of an RFID tag with the best range is always the motive of an RFID designer. In this thesis two RFID tags were simulated, designed and manufactured. The first one is a semi-passive RFID tag, which also serves as a discrete prototype tag for the research group to master RFID tag designs. The user can program and further extend the use of this tag according to the requirements. This RFID tag is provided with JTAG interface to program and debug. The read range of this prototype tag is found to be 1m with reader EIRP of 30dBm. The second design is a passive tag which can be commercialized. It achieves a competitive read range of 2.9m for reader EIRP of 21dBm. The read range when measured in a practical implementation inside a building corridor was 15m.