An optically transparent analog frontend for a solar powered 24 GHz RFID transponder

This paper presents an optically transparent analog frontend of an RFID transponder which is suitable for integration on a solar cell. First, insertion losses of different configurations of microstrip lines (MS) and ground plane made of grid lines are discussed. With these knowledge a meshed analog frontend consisting of a modulator and a demodulator unit is developed. Its optical transparency is determined to 85% and the electromagnetic properties are comparable to its opaque counterparts. The achieved sensitivity of the transponder is about -39dBm input power. As low power consumption is of major interest, a discussion on the energy requirements of the used components is carried out. A prototype is realized to evaluate the simulation results.