Glove integrated solenoid antennas for near-field UHF RFID applications

Glove integrated solid and segmented solenoid antennas are investigated in this paper. Enhancement in the magnetic field strength by using various techniques such as placement of a parasitic solenoid loop close to the driven solenoid, lumped capacitor loading, and placement of a reflector are also discussed. The detailed study is done for choosing a proper segment length in segmented solenoid antennas to obtain higher magnetic field close to the solenoid structure. Three prototypes (solid solenoid, segmented solenoid, and segmented solenoid with parasitic loop) are fabricated on a stretchable fabric by using copper tape. Performance in terms of impedance matching and magnetic field strength are measured and compared with the simulated ones. Further, a simple method is investigated to feed the segmented solenoid antennas. Proposed segmented solenoid antenna with parasitic loop is suitable for near-field UHF RFID applications.