A Dual-Band HF / UHF Antenna for RFID Tags

Conventional RFID (radio frequency identification) systems operating at one single carrier frequency can hardly handle the great variety of shapes and materials that occur in products and packaging. In this contribution a dual-band antenna is presented that allows operation in the 13.56 MHz band as well as in the 868 MHz band. This provides two options to establish a data link to each object equipped with a dual-band RFID tag. The credit-card sized antenna consists of a very thin copper- plated polyimide substrate that is flexible and can be integrated into packaging. Measurements revealed that the antenna provides a quality factor of 54 in the 13.56 MHz band and a gain of -4.69 dBi in the 868 MHz band.