Low-profile antennas for near-field UHF RFID systems: Design, measurements and system-level characterization

This paper deals with the analysis of different parameters to characterize the behavior of reader antennas for near-field UHF RFID systems. When dealing with near-field applications, the classical antenna parameters as radiation pattern, input impedance matching, etc., are not useful. The design of reader antennas for these near-field applications require the use of other parameter that provide information about the field distribution in the near-field region of the antenna. In this paper, the agreement between the near-field distribution (simulated and measured), the simulated Power Transfer Efficiency (PTE) and the measured Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) is presented to show the possibility for using these simulated parameters in the antenna design procedure.