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fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TAP.2017.2684193, IEEE
Transactions on Antennas and Propagation
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. XX, NO. X, XXX 2017
D. Betancourt, M. Barahona, K. Haase, G. Schmith, A. Hübler and F. Ellinger Senior Member, IEEE
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Transactions on Antennas and Propagation
>BETANCOURT et al.: DESIGN OF PRINTED CHIPLESS-RFID TAGS< 2
𝑐 = ⌊𝑙𝑜𝑔2 (𝑁)⌋
Fig. 2. FSK encoding technique applied to the GA based RFID tag design. (1)
The working frequency band (UWB) is divided into 25 slots to codify up to 8 𝑁(𝑛, 𝑟) = 𝑛!⁄(𝑟! (𝑛 − 𝑟)!)
bits by using two resonances. The optimization objective is represented with
the solid orange line.
In this equation, N is the estimation of possible
combinations achievable in the working frequency band; n
II. THE GENETIC ALGORITHM BASED DESIGN APPROACH represent the available slots and r is the number of slots used
The GA is a widely known robust optimization technique for coding. By using tags with 2 resonances placed on
which searches in a large parameter space for a solution that different slots it is possible to obtain up to 300 different
simultaneously meets multiple design criteria. Operating based combinations, i.e. a capacity (c) of 8 bits.
on the principles of natural selection, GA mimic the
C. The optimization goal definition
evolutionary process, where a population of possible designs
is iteratively mated, weeding out poorly performing members The optimization goal is defined by setting up a desired
of the population, while retaining only the best performing |RCS| response from the tag to be designed. This |RCS| is
members until a design that meets the specific requirements is defined by several pass-band and stop-band frequencies
ultimately found [19, 20]. Next, the main components of the merged together forming a response mask in UWB
GA optimization technique are introduced and, how they are frequencies (3.1 to 10.6 GHz), as illustrated by the solid
customized to fit a chipless RFID tag design case, is orange line in Fig. 2. This desired |RCS| may include as many
explained. as resonances (stop-band) as the implementation of the
codifying technique requires. In our case, just two resonances
A. Tag’s chromosome are needed for a proof of concept. On the one hand, a level of
The tag’s chromosome describes the nature of the tag. This about -20 dBsm is defined to represent the minimum power
chromosome is evolved during the evaluation of GA until an that the tag must backscatter at one specific pass-band
optimal configuration is found. The tag’s chromosome is frequency; and on the other hand, the minimum power level
defined by the tag’s geometry. In particular, the tag to be used allowed to be transmitted at each stop-band frequency must be
within the GA optimization technique is composed of a grid of lower than -50 dBsm. In order to evaluate the best members of
K × K elements. Each grid’s element is digitalized to indicate each generation, the optimization goal (frequency mask)
the presence (“1”) or absence (“0”) of metal. The value of all alongside the fitness function are used.
elements should be rearranged to form a linear vector of size
D. The fitness function
K2, better known as the tag’s chromosome. The definition of a
GA tag and the tag’s chromosome are illustrated in Fig. 1. In The fitness of each candidate design is evaluated against the
order to introduce additional features to the GA tag, as for desired optimization goal. In particular, the electromagnetic
instance the polarization independence, an eight-fold (EM) simulated result from each tag, the |RCS|, is evaluated
symmetry is applied [15], [19]. In addition to the polarization and penalized for energy transmitted (T) at stop-bands
independence, the eight-fold symmetry allows us to reduce the frequencies and energy reflected at pass-band frequencies (R).
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Transactions on Antennas and Propagation
>BETANCOURT et al.: DESIGN OF PRINTED CHIPLESS-RFID TAGS< 3
Fig. 4. Structure of tags obtained after running the GA. The eight-fold
symmetry is highlighted in shaded area. Tag model A on the figure’s left
hand side and tag model B on the right.
𝐹𝑖𝑡𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠 = 5 ∑ 𝑇+ ∑ 𝑅 − 𝐵𝑜𝑛𝑢𝑠
𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑝−𝑏𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑝𝑎𝑠𝑠−𝑏𝑎𝑛𝑑
0018-926X (c) 2016 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
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Transactions on Antennas and Propagation
>BETANCOURT et al.: DESIGN OF PRINTED CHIPLESS-RFID TAGS< 4
Fig. 6. Screen printed GA based tag (model B): optical microscope image
(above) and 3D laser scan microscope images (below).
result=dlmread([P,F…
,'\\Result\\RCS.sig'],'',4,0);
0018-926X (c) 2016 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
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Transactions on Antennas and Propagation
>BETANCOURT et al.: DESIGN OF PRINTED CHIPLESS-RFID TAGS< 5
model B printed tag is shown in Fig. 6. In this figure the high The results obtained suggest that the information from the
fabrication accuracy of the sample can be appreciated. It printed tag can be recovered by using such method as well as
should be noticed that these tags are really low-cost with with other commonly used methods. Nevertheless, higher Q
material expenses in the range of 1 € cent per tag. Due to the resonances are required in order to improve even more the tag
variability of the resultant geometry, which is never the same, response.
alternative fabrication technologies, e.g., ink-jetting, also
might be considered. IV. CONCLUSION
The samples were measured in the anechoic chamber. For In this paper, the basic principles of GA optimization
this purpose, a bi-static radar measurement setup to obtain the technique applied to the chipless RFID tag design were
complex RCS from the tag is implemented. Measurement presented. An application of GA was customized to fit the
equipment includes an Agilent’s PNA E8364B set to 0 dBm specific characteristics of a chipless RFID tag design. For this
and two linear polarized Horn antennas (1 to 18 GHz purpose, an automatic iteration between MATLAB® and CST
bandwidth, with 10 dBi gain (GT)). During the measurement MWS was implemented. A tag with 8 bits capacity and
campaign, the measurement antennas always remained in a complex appearance was developed. The outcomes of the
vertical position. Furthermore, the measurement distance (r) optimization procedure were fabricated by means of mass
was set to 80 cm. The radar cross section (𝜎 𝑡𝑎𝑔 ) of the GA printing technologies and experimentally verified. The
based printed chipless RFID tag is estimated (at boresight) by measurements results suggest that this process is useful to
using either the procedure described in [17] or experimentally design high capacity frequency-based chipless low-cost RFID
by following equation [21]: tags.
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0018-926X (c) 2016 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TAP.2017.2684193, IEEE
Transactions on Antennas and Propagation
>BETANCOURT et al.: DESIGN OF PRINTED CHIPLESS-RFID TAGS< 6
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Diego Betancourt was born in Bogota, Georg Schmidt received the Diploma
Colombia, in 1975. He received the B.S. degree in microtechnologies and
degree in Electrical Engineering and the mechatronics and the Ph.D. (Dr. Ing.)
M.S. degree in Electronic Engineering degree from Chemnitz University of
from Los Andes University, Bogota, Technology, Chemnitz, Germany. He is
Colombia in 1998 and 2002 respectively. currently a Scientific Staff Member with
He received his Ph.D degree from the the Institute for Print and Media
Public University of Navarra, Spain, in 2009. Technology, Chemnitz, working on
From 2009 to 2013 he worked as RF Engineer for the different topics related to printed
ADITECH Advanced Innovation & Technology Corporation electronics like chipless RFID tags, organic field effect
at Navarra, Spain. Since 2013, he has been postdoc at the transistors and piezoelectric thin-film loudspeakers.
Chair for Circuit Design and Network Theory, Dresden
University of Technology, Dresden, Germany. Arved Hübler was born in Bonn,
Germany, in 1960. He received the
Marvin Barahona was born in Tegucigalpa, Diploma degree in Physics and Applied
Honduras, in 1982. He received the B.S. Physics from the Berlin University of
degree in electrical engineering from the Technology and University of Heidelberg
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de in 1986, and the Ph.D degree from the
Honduras in 2006 and the MSc. in Electrical Berlin University of the Arts, in 1992.
Communication Engineering from Kassel Since 1997, he has been Full Professor
University in 2011. He held several positions and head of the Institute for Print and Media Technology at
with Telefónica Celular S.A. in Honduras Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz, Germany.
from 2004 to 2009. He is currently working From 1994 to 1997 he has been the technical director at
as a research assistant with the Chair for Circuit Design and Bertelsmann AG, Mohndruck, one of the leading media
Network Theory at the Dresden University of Technology, companies in Germany. He has participated in several EU
Dresden, Germany. funded projects such as PolyApply, SELEAC and CustomDP
Prof. Hübler has more than 90 scientific publications and 14
Katherina Haase received the M.Sc. patents and has been awarded twice for his Ph.D thesis.
degree in media production from
Technische Universität Chemnitz, Frank Ellinger (S’97–M’01–SM’06)
Chemnitz, Germany and the M.Sc. degree was born in Friedrichshafen, Germany,
in printing and media technology from in 1972. He received the Diploma degree
Manipal University, Manipal, India. in electrical engineering from the
She is currently with the Chair for Organic University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany, in
Devices at the Electrical and Computer 1996, and the MBA degree and Ph.D.
Engineering Department of the Dresden degree in electrical engineering, and
University of Technology, Dresden, Germany. Habilitation degree in high-frequency
circuit design from ETH Zürich (ETHZ),
Zürich, Switzerland, in 2001 and 2004, respectively.
He was the Head of the RFIC Design Group with the
Electronics Laboratory, ETHZ, and a Project Leader with the
IBM/ETHZ Competence Center for Advanced Silicon
Electronics, IBM Research, Rüschlikon, Switzerland. Since
0018-926X (c) 2016 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TAP.2017.2684193, IEEE
Transactions on Antennas and Propagation
>BETANCOURT et al.: DESIGN OF PRINTED CHIPLESS-RFID TAGS< 7
2006, he has been a Full Professor and the Head of the Chair
for Circuit Design and Network Theory with the Dresden
University of Technology, Dresden, Germany. He has been
the Coordinator of the projects, such as RESOLUTION,
MIMAX, ADDAPT, and FLEXIBILITY funded by the
European Union. He coordinates the cluster project FAST
with more than 60 partners, most of them from the industry,
and has been a member of the Management Board of the
German Excellence Cluster Cool Silicon since 2009. He has
authored or co-authored over 300 refereed scientific papers.
He has authored the book entitled Radio Frequency Integrated
Circuits and Technologies (Springer, 2008). Prof. Ellinger was
a recipient of several awards, including the IEEE Outstanding
Young Engineer Award, the ETH Medal, the Denzler Award,
the Rohde&Schwarz/Agilent/Gerotron EEEf-COM Innovation
Award (twice), and a Young Ph.D. Award of ETHZ. He was
an Elected IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society
Distinguished Microwave Lecturer from 2009 to 2011.
0018-926X (c) 2016 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.