High gain lightweight array for harmonic portable RFID radar

Single fed, high gain and lightweight patch arrays of size 12"times9" are designed and proposed for integration with a harmonic portable RFID radar so as to track the behavioral patterns of invasive Emerald Ash Borer insect. Serial interconnections of the array elements are tapered in order to suppress sidelobe level. With these additions, the proposed harmonic insect tracking radar system offers new features like improved portability, cost effectiveness and ease of fabrication as well as inheriting the attributes like low power output and novel tiny tag from. A prototype of the system is built and is expected to detect a tag of size 9.5 mm times 9.5 mm (0.19lambda
₀
times 0.19lambda
₀
) up to more than 190 feet when the unit transmits 0.1W with newly developed 22 dBi transmit and 21 dBi receive patch antennas operating at 5.9/11.8 GHz, respectively.