Fixed UHF RFID Reader Antenna Design for Practical Applications: A Guide for Antenna Engineers With Examples

An overview of Ultra High Frequency (UHF) Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) practical applications and the reader antenna design requirements are presented in this paper. As each application is different and their physical, environmental, electrical, and Radio-Frequency (RF) requirements will also differ, a design methodology is proposed by analyzing all the requirements for a practical reader antenna. Reader antenna performance measures and test procedures are also formulated. As an example, an embeddable reader antenna is designed and fabricated for self-billing kiosk application in a retail environment. The designed antenna is measured in terms of various RF and RFID performance metrics and validated that it meets all the requirements sought by the application.