A study of multi-conductivity dipole antenna for printed UHF RFID

In this paper, we propose a multi-conductivity dipole antenna design for a printed UHF RFID, in which the printed conductive layer of the antenna has a flat layer thickness and comprises of multiple conductive areas fabricated by conductive ink with different conductivity. High-conductivity ink is printed near the feed areas and low-conductivity ink is used for other areas. The proposed antenna structure may be printed in just one printing cycle using an adapted multi-color ink cartridge in an inkjet printing system. Thus, the costly and time-consuming reprinting process is avoided. The simulation results illustrate that the proposed multi-conductivity dipole antenna can achieve higher antenna efficiency performance. The total cost of conductive materials required for the proposed dipole antenna design can also be lower when the conductivity and price characteristics are properly selected.