Passive UHF RFID sensor/transponder antenna optimization for backscatter operation by electromagnetic-circuital co-simulation

The reliability of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems is of major importance in open supply chain systems for tracking andtracing. Therefore, the maximization of the backscattered signal strength from a sensor/transponder is of major interest in many of these application use-cases. This paperwork presents a methodology for performance optimization of passive UHF RFID sensors/transponders based on antenna-and-chip co-simulation (electromagnetic circuital). The tag antenna is optimized by using a simplified backscatter goal function for an optimized antenna layout. The work is based on a simplified RFID system model including reader, RFID tag, and physical channel model which are verified by electromagnetic circuital co-simulation. The results have shown that a backscatter maximization is feasible but on the cost of the sensor/transponder power reception capabilities.