Design and Development of Sensing RFID Tags on Flexible Foil Compatible With EPC Gen 2

Taking advantage of the sensor interface capabilities of a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip, the integration of different types of sensors on printed ultrahigh frequency (UHF) RFID tags is investigated. The design, development, and testing of printed smart sensing tags compatible with the RFID standard electronic product code Gen 2 is presented. Two different strategies are employed to interface the sensors: 1) passive single-chip and 2) semipassive architectures. Both strategies provide sensor data by directly answering to the RFID reader inquiries or using a data logging mechanism to store the sensor data in the RFID chip memory. Temperature readout is measured using the embedded sensor in the RFID chip. Additionally, a light sensor and pressure sensor interfaced to a microcontroller are implemented in the passive and semipassive tags versions, respectively. For the employed RFID chip, two different UHF antennas are designed and printed using inkjet and screen printing to compare their radio frequency performances. Finally, the fabricated smart tags are fully validated through measurements in an anechoic chamber and their behaviors are compared with numerical simulation. The screen printed semipassive RFID tag with loop antenna shows a better reading range than the inkjet-printed one, whereas the passive tag can be considered as the most cost-effective system.