Gain Uncertainty in Commercial UHF RFID Fixed Reader Antennas and Its Effect on Tag Read Accuracy
Prabakar Parthiban

Prabakar Parthiban, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand. Prabakar.
Manuscript received on 18 April 2018 | Revised Manuscript received on 27 April 2018 | Manuscript published on 30 April 2018 | PP: 1-6 | Volume-7 Issue-4, April 2018 | Retrieval Number: D5318047418/18©BEIESP
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© The Authors. Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the CC-BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Abstract: Ultra High Frequency (UHF) Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a type of RFID technology that is being widely used in recent days. The fixed UHF RFID readers use tuned antennas for far-field power transmission. The gain specified in the reader antennas’ datasheets are often not accurate and vary between manufacturers. This paper presents an experimental method to analyze the gain uncertainty through the path loss measurements. Four commercially available similar sized fixed UHF RFID reader antennas are chosen for this experimentation. The commercial antennas are also benchmarked using an RFID tag for its read rate, read count and the tag`s return signal strength. The impact on the gain uncertainty in RFID applications is also discussed.
Keywords: UHF RFID; Far-Field; Antenna Gain; Uncertainty

Scope of the Article: Smart Antenna