Factors Affecting the Synthesis of Autonomous Sensors with RFID Interface

• Main Authors: Mariusz Węglarski, Piotr Jankowski-Mihułowicz
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-10-01
• Series: Sensors
• Subjects: rfid technology; semi-passive transponder; sensor; sensor network; autonomous sensor node; antenna; chip parameter; interrogation zone; ink-jet printing technology
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/19/20/4392

A general view on the problem of designing atypical battery-free, autonomous semi-passive RFID transponders-sensors (autonomous sensors with RFID interfaces) is presented in this review. Although RFID devices can be created in any of the electronic technologies, the design stage must be repeated each time when the manufacturing processes are changed, and their specific conditions have to be taken into consideration when modeling new solutions. Aspects related to the factors affecting the synthesis of semi-passive RFID transponder components on the basis of which the idea of the autonomous RFID sensor was developed are reflected in the paper. Besides their general characteristics, the operation conditions of modern RFID systems and achievements in autonomous RFID sensor technology are revealed in subsequent sections—they include such issues as technological aspects of the synthesis process, designing antennas for RFID transponders, determining RFID chip and antenna parameters, creating the interrogation zone IZ, etc. It should be pointed that the universal construction of an autonomous RFID sensor, which could be use in any application of the automatic object identification system, cannot be developed according to the current state of the art. Moreover, a trial and error method is the most commonly used in the today’s process of designing new solutions, and the basic parameters are estimated on the basis of the tests and the research team experience. Therefore, it is necessary to look for new inventions and methods in order to improve implementations of RFID systems.