Compact High Gain and Bandwidth Enhanced RFID Reader Antenna for Handheld Applications

Abstract

A compact UHF RFID reader antenna, designed for handheld applications, has been proposed to meet the requirements for high gain and wide bandwidth. The designed antenna exhibits linear polarization and delivers a maximum gain of 6.46 dBi along with a radiation efficiency of more than 90%. Furthermore, it achieves a maximum front-to-back ratio (FBR) of 19.75 dB and a 10 dB impedance bandwidth of 13.77 % spanning 125 MHz (from 845 to 970 MHz), thus covering the entire UHF RFID band (860 – 960) MHz making it suitable for various real-world applications such as in logistics, inventory management, asset tracking, healthcare and supply chain management. Notably, the antenna's compact profile, measuring (100×100×1.6) mm³ or equivalently 0.3λ×0.3λ×0.004λ relative to the center frequency of the operational band (907 MHz), facilitates seamless integration within handheld readers. A prototype of the design is fabricated on an FR4 substrate and its performance is experimentally verified.