TY - JOUR
T1 - RFID-Based Wireless Passive Sensors Utilizing Cork Materials
AU - Gonçalves, Ricardo
AU - Rima, Sergi
AU - Magueta, Roberto
AU - Pinho, Pedro
AU - Collado, Ana
AU - Georgiadis, Apostolos
AU - Hester, Jimmy
AU - Carvalho, Nuno Borges
AU - Tentzeris, Manos M.
PY - 2015/12
Y1 - 2015/12
N2 - This paper presents the design of low-cost, conformal UHF antennas and RFID tags on two types of cork substrates: 1) natural cork and 2) agglomerate cork. Such RFID tags find an application in wine bottle and barrel identification, and in addition, they are suitable for numerous antenna-based sensing applications. This paper includes the high-frequency characterization of the selected cork substrates considering the anisotropic behavior of such materials. In addition, the variation of their permittivity values as a function of the humidity is also verified. As a proof-of-concept demonstration, three conformal RFID tags have been implemented on cork, and their performance has been evaluated using both a commercial Alien ALR8800 reader and an in-house measurement setup. The reading of all tags has been checked, and a satisfactory performance has been verified, with reading ranges spanning from 0.3 to 6 m. In addition, this paper discusses how inkjet printing can be applied to cork surfaces, and an RFID tag printed on cork is used as a humidity sensor. Its performance is tested under different humidity conditions, and a good range in excess of 3 m has been achieved, allied to a good sensitivity obtained with a shift of >5 dB in threshold power of the tag for different humid conditions.
AB - This paper presents the design of low-cost, conformal UHF antennas and RFID tags on two types of cork substrates: 1) natural cork and 2) agglomerate cork. Such RFID tags find an application in wine bottle and barrel identification, and in addition, they are suitable for numerous antenna-based sensing applications. This paper includes the high-frequency characterization of the selected cork substrates considering the anisotropic behavior of such materials. In addition, the variation of their permittivity values as a function of the humidity is also verified. As a proof-of-concept demonstration, three conformal RFID tags have been implemented on cork, and their performance has been evaluated using both a commercial Alien ALR8800 reader and an in-house measurement setup. The reading of all tags has been checked, and a satisfactory performance has been verified, with reading ranges spanning from 0.3 to 6 m. In addition, this paper discusses how inkjet printing can be applied to cork surfaces, and an RFID tag printed on cork is used as a humidity sensor. Its performance is tested under different humidity conditions, and a good range in excess of 3 m has been achieved, allied to a good sensitivity obtained with a shift of >5 dB in threshold power of the tag for different humid conditions.
KW - UHF RFID
KW - cork characterization
KW - passive sensor
KW - humidity sensor
KW - wireless sensor
KW - inkjet printing
KW - DESIGN
KW - TAGS
KW - PERMITTIVITY
KW - CONSTANT
U2 - 10.1109/JSEN.2015.2472980
DO - 10.1109/JSEN.2015.2472980
M3 - Article
SN - 1530-437X
VL - 15
SP - 7242
EP - 7251
JO - IEEE Sensors Journal
JF - IEEE Sensors Journal
IS - 12
ER -