1824 IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 13, NO.

5, MAY 2013
Printed Humidity Sensor With Memory
Functionality for Passive RFID Tags
Jinlan Gao, Student Member, IEEE, Johan Sidn, Member, IEEE, Hans-Erik Nilsson, and Mikael Gulliksson
AbstractThis paper presents a printed UHF radio frequency
identication (RFID) sensor solution that indicates whether a
passive RFID tag has been exposed to a certain degree of
humidity. The printed sensor operates as a write-once read-many-
times resistive memory as it permanently changes its resistance
from about 2 k to less than 50 after exposure to humidity or
water. The change of the sensor resistance is used to modulate
the properties of a UHF RFID tag antenna by changing antenna
input impedance and also introducing or removing ohmic losses
in the antenna structure. The nal result is reected in the change
of the minimum transmit power required to power-up the RFID
tag. Both the sensor and the tag antenna are printed horizontally
on a paper substrate. Different geometric combinations of sensor
and antenna structures are investigated. Typical applications
include noninvasive methods for detecting wetness or humidity
levels in hidden locations, such as within construction structures.
The sensor setup can also serve to provide information as to
whether a package sent over a supply chain has exceeded a
certain level of humidity during its route.
Index TermsAntennas, humidity sensors, printed electronics,
radio frequency identication (RFID).
I. INTRODUCTION
F
OR MANY reasons, radio frequency identication
(RFID) is one of the best candidate technologies for
remote wireless identication. Passive RFID tags have been
successfully developed in industry as a replacement or com-
plement for the traditional barcodes. In order for RFID to fully
replace barcodes there is an obvious requirement to produce
the tag electronics at an extremely low cost and this is the
reason why RFID has been the driving force for research and
development projects targeting printed electronics. Reviews of
the status of printed electronics are, for example, to be found
in [1] and [2] in which the progress and the challenges for
printing passive as well as active components and displays are
discussed. Even though signicant progress has been achieved
in printed electronics during the last few years, there are
Manuscript received July 2, 2012; accepted January 16, 2013. Date of
publication January 29, 2013; date of current version April 2, 2013. This
work was supported in part by the KK Foundation and the EU FP7
Project PriMeBits under Grant Agreement 215132. The associate editor
coordinating the review of this paper and approving it for publication was
Prof. Ralph Etienne-Cummings.
J. Gao and H.-E. Nilsson are with the Department of Information Tech-
nology and Media, Mid Sweden University, Sundsvall SE-851 70, Sweden
(e-mail: Jinlan.Gao@miun.se; hans-erik.nilsson@miun.se).
J. Sidn and M. Gulliksson are with the Department of Information Tech-
nology and Media, Mid Sweden University, Sundsvall SE-851 70, Sweden,
and also with the Sensible Solutions, Sundsvall SE-851 70, Sweden (e-mail:
Johan.Siden@miun.se; Mikael.Gulliksson@miun.se).
Color versions of one or more of the gures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identier 10.1109/JSEN.2013.2244034
still signicant challenges to be overcome before enabling
commercialization of the fully printed RFID tags. This is
particularly true for tags operating at UHF frequencies. Until
the fully printed RFID has been achieved, printed electronics
will have the potential to play an important role in hybrid solu-
tions where printed electronics are combined with traditional
silicon-based electronics. Several articles have shown how
components, such as the antenna, can be printed [3], [4] and
several other examples exist in the literature which concern
printed sensors [5][10]. Other solutions have shown the
potential of using paper as substrate for RFID systems, wire-
less sensors [11], and low cost large area touch sensors [12].
RFID, as a low cost technology with a long life time,
provides great potential for transmitting sensor data in combi-
nation with the ordinary ID number. There are several RFID
sensor chips which have been introduced to the market, such
as HF RFID sensor chip MLX90129 from Melexis microelec-
tronic systems [13] and UHF RFID sensor chip SL900A from
IDS Microchip AG [14]. However, this is just the rst step for
sensor-enabled RFID tags to become widely used products.
Enabling sensor functionality for RFID is still an attractive
topic for research.
In this work we address a hybrid solution for printed RFID
sensor system which has a single event logging functionality.
The integrated system adds a resistive sensor to standard
RFID technology. In this system the specic sensor acts as
a write-once-read-many (WORM) [15] memory in order to
record the sensing event. The reason why the sensor acts as
a WORM is because its resistance value can only be leveled
down and not up. In the specic sensor setup, the resistance
is designed to have a start value of about 2 k. This work
is specically targeting a single event logging functionality of
excessive humidity. Thus, when a specic humidity value has
been reached, the sensor resistance will decrease over time
to a nal value below 50 . Even if the relative humidity
decreases again, the sensor will maintain its lowest achieved
sensor value, making it a 1-bit memory that is only able to
be set once. In this work the sensor is referred to as the
WORM. Since the WORM can record the event by changing
its state and its value can be read out at a later stage, the
WORM bridges the time gap and is thus suitable for watch-dog
applications. These applications include the smart packaging
of goods and non-invasive methods for humidity surveillance
within construction structures [16]. Smart packaging solutions
include the addition of surveillance functions to ensure that,
for example, food quality is preserved [17][20]. Packaging
logistics is another area in which smart packing solutions
based on RFID technology with future sensor functionality
1530-437X/$31.00 2013 IEEE
GAO et al.: PRINTED HUMIDITY SENSOR WITH MEMORY FUNCTIONALITY FOR PASSIVE RFID TAGS 1825
(a)
(b)
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the single event logging tag in two different
setups: (a) Normally On, where an activated sensor short-circuits the RFID
chip, and (b) Normally Off, where the activated sensor connects the chip
to the antenna.
will be able to provide transparency and traceability. The
major beneciaries in relation to this are the stakeholders
along the entire supply chain [18]. A sensor tag with single-
event logging functionality which has been integrated into
a construction structure will be able to provide information
as to whether or not an event has occurred. However by
denition, it will be unable to detect any further events of
excessive humidity, i.e. it is a one-time option. Compared to
other humidity sensors, the presented WORM sensor is simpler
to produce and has much lower cost. Important advantages
include its memory functionality and capability to be easily
integrated into a UHF RFID tag. Either the resistive-type [21]
or capacitive-type [22] humidity sensors presented in other
papers, need a stable voltage source and a special circuit for
readout. It is impossible to directly integrate these sensors into
passive UHF RFID tags. The presented WORM sensor is a
fully passive component that can be directly embedded into a
tag antenna for remote sensing.
The proposed printed RFID sensor concept consists of three
parts, as schematically illustrated in Fig. 1; the antenna, the
UHF RFID chip (868 MHz) and the printed sensor element
which acts as a switch in order to determine whether the
tag should be readable or not readable. Two approaches are
investigated in this work. One is where the tag is regarded as
Normally On as in Fig. 1(a) and the other is when the tag
is regarded as Normally Off as in Fig. 1(b). The reason for
this is that an activated sensor either short-circuits an RFID
chip to turn off the tag (Fig. 1(a)) or connects a disconnected
chip to the antenna in order to turn on the tag (Fig. 1(b)). The
challenges encountered by this concept include the design of
an RFID tag antenna which will enable the tag to respond or
not in accordance with an integrated WORM.
The starting point for this article is a description of the geo-
metrical structure and manufacturing process for the proposed
sensor element and how it will react to humidity. The article
continues with the design, simulation and characterization of
four different printed RFID antennas with integrated sensor
element. The article also describes how two fairly close RFID
tags could be used to improve the proposed concept. This is
performed by means of a differential readout method in which
the output power levels are swept in an RFID reader, in a
similar manner to that presented in [23].
II. WORM SENSOR
There are a large number of sensors available that can
provide very accurate information concerning temperature,
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
Fig. 2. Printed WORM structure with one sensor line (as shown in (a) and
(b)) and ve parallel sensor lines (as shown in (c) and (d)). (a) and (c) are
the design of the WORMs. (b) and (d) are captured photos of the WORMs.
relative humidity and many other physical quantities, but
they are relatively expensive. In the presented work, we are
targeting the detection of an event which leads to a state
shift of a physical quantity, instead of slight variation of this
physical quantity. For example, water leaks from a pipe inside
a wall can cause a rapid change in relative humidity (RH)
from 30% to 80% which means a rapid state shift from Dry
to Wet. In this case, it is unnecessary to utilize an expensive
humidity sensor with accuracy of 1% RH to detect the leak
event. In this work, we present a low cost humidity sensor
element suitable for this kind of applications. It is a 1-bit write-
once-read-many (WORM) memory printed using conductive
ink based upon nano-sized silver particles. The printed WORM
is suitable for direct integration into a printed RFID antenna
design. As a sensor component the WORM exhibits two states,
on and off, corresponding to WORM bit = 1 and WORM
bit = 0. The printed WORM memory is dened by means
of its resistance and in which a logical zero equals a high
resistance and a logical one equals a lower resistance. The
setting for this bit is accomplished by means of sintering.
A more in-depth study in relation to the performance of
printed WORMs utilizing electrical sintering can be found in
[24][26]. The focus of this work is the utilization of chemical
sintered WORMs as sensors.
The presented WORM is relatively simple in its geometry
since it consists solely of a short segment of one or several
printed narrow lines in between two pads as shown in Fig. 2.
The WORM lines are printed by means of separated dots.
The reason for this special design is that the separated ink dots
become slightly connected due to the spreading of the ink dots
when they are printed and the poor connection between them
gives the line a very high initial resistance of up to 10
6
.
Two half-round pads on both sides of the lines are printed in
order to ease the contact with other printed structures. As is
1826 IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 13, NO. 5, MAY 2013
the case in normal metallic wire, the resistance for the WORM
is decided by the length, width and thickness of the printed
line in combination with its conductivity. The reactance of
the WORM impedance is extremely small at the frequencies
of interest and that is why the WORM characterization has
been solely treated as resistive. All the WORMs in this report
were produced by using the silver ink DGP-40LT-15C from
advanced nano products (ANP) Co. Ltd and printed using
the inkjet Dimatix Material Printer DMP-2800 with a 10 pL
printer head on nano-porous photo paper. The resistances of
the WORMs were measured with an Agilent 34405A Digit
Multimeter.
A. Thermal Sintering
Sintering is a process used in order to enhance junctions
among particles and to reduce resistivity by means of oven
heating or by applying current ow, UV light, microwave or a
laser. High temperatures can cause this reduction of resistivity
by melting the encapsulating polymers of the silver nano
particles and also by evaporating the solvent and binders in the
ink, which, in turn, cause a neck formation and particle growth.
The effect of thermal sintering was studied using the ve-line
WORMs in Fig. 2(c)(d), following the concept presented
in [27]. In this work, thermal sintering has been used as a
method to preset the WORMs to a suitable start resistance.
B. Humidity Sintering
In the case of the ANP ink used, the polymer shells include
polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) which is soluble in water. Thus,
water is expected to interact with the printed WORMs. Mag-
dassi et al. provided an in-depth study of chemical sintering
in relation to silver nano-particles [28]. They discovered that
silver nano-particles behaved as soft-particles when in contact
with oppositely charged polyelectrolytes. The result of this is
self-sintering with clear neck formations in the nano-particle
array. The sintering mechanism can thus be utilized in order
to set the presented WORM bit by exposure to chemical
substances. In this work we illustrate such sensor functionality
for humidity sensing. The relative humidity can be used to
activate the reaction between the silver nano-particles and the
pre-coated layers of an activating chemical substance such
as the poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) PDAC used
in [28]. Molecules of this type are often included in the coating
layer of photo papers in order to enhance the printability. For
example, the Epson photo paper used in [28] had such a pre-
coating. In this work another brand of photo paper with a much
slower on-set in relation to the chemical sintering process was
used and it was discovered that the printed WORM memory
could be sintered by exposure to humidity [29].
Fig. 3(a) shows how the one-line WORM in Fig. 2(a)(b)
and the ve-line WORM in Fig. 2(c)(d) reacts when water
drops are applied by a pipette so that they cover the WORM.
The water drops were applied at ve minutes intervals between
each drop. This time-frame was observed in order to signif-
icantly diminish a drop by being partially absorbed by the
paper and partially evaporated. Both thermally pre-sintered and
non pre-sintered samples were investigated. The results show
(a)
(b)
Fig. 3. Results of chemical sintering with H
2
O at room temperature for,
respectively, the one- and the ve-line WORMs in Fig. 2. It is seen that (a)
the one- and ve-line WORM responds similar to direct appliance of H
2
O,
while (b) the ve-line WORM is superior when the WORMs are exposed to
80% RH. The sintered WORM resistance stays at its lowest achieved value
when the WORM is placed back to a dry condition. The WORM resistance
values were obtained by averaging that of ten samples and the standard
deviations are shown in the gures.
that for the intended RFID sensor application it is possible
to use either the one-line or ve-line WORM. There is no
obvious requirement for pre-sintering as all graphs converge to
approximately 10 when water drops appear on the WORMs.
Fig. 3(b) shows the corresponding results for the one-line
and ve-line WORMs when exposed to 80% RH. In this
case there is a signicant difference between the two as the
ve-line WORM converges to one order of magnitude less
than that for the one-line WORM. The ve-line WORM is
thus the preferred choice and is thus used in the subsequent
experiments. Fig. 3 also shows that the sintered WORM
resistance stays at its lowest achieved value if the WORM is
placed back to a dry condition. That is, the humidity sintering
effect is irreversible. The results in Fig. 3 were obtained by
averaging the resistance of ten samples. The small standard
deviations indicate that the humidity sintering of the WORM
has good repeatability.
Fig. 4 shows the behavior of the ve-line WORMs for a
relative humidity between 20% and 80% and for two levels
GAO et al.: PRINTED HUMIDITY SENSOR WITH MEMORY FUNCTIONALITY FOR PASSIVE RFID TAGS 1827
(a) (b)
Fig. 4. Change in resistance for different humidity levels at room temperature
for the ve-line WORM in Fig. 2(c)(d). (a) Performance of WORM pre-
sintered to 12 k. (b) Performance of WORM pre-sintered to 1020 k.
Fig. 5. Combined sintering effect of temperature and relative humidity.
of pre-sintering. It is possible to see that the order of nal
resistance after humidity sintering is related to the order of
pre-sintering, especially at lower humidity. There is a signif-
icant increase in the sintering effects from 60% to 70% RH,
indicating that this region is a threshold value for setting the
WORM bit.
The combined sintering effect of temperature and relative
humidity was investigated and the results are shown in Fig. 5.
The sensitivity to both temperature and humidity indicates that
the sensor solution is most suitable as humidity sensor for
reasonably stable temperature conditions, for example indoor
applications.
III. PRINTED RFID TAG ANTENNA DESIGNS FOR
WORM SENSORS
A. Detuning of the Antenna
It is well-known that antennas change their input impedance
according to the surrounding medium [30]. It has been shown
how this fact can be used by allowing antennas to act as
humidity sensing elements when they are buried in different
(a)
(b)
(c)
Fig. 6. Schematics of the tags and their electrical equivalents with (a) normal
tag, (b) sensor tag with parallel WORM, and (c) sensor tag with serial WORM.
mediums [31], [32]. In [33] and [34] Bhattacharyya et al.
showed that it is possible to use changes in the antenna char-
acteristics in order to measure the mechanical displacement
and the liquid levels in a beverage glass respectively. In [35],
Bhattacharyya et al. also presented a mechanical method for
logging events involving excessive temperatures.
In this work, an alternative approach is chosen by allowing
the introduced WORM to detune the UHF RFID tag antenna
by means of directly modulating its electrical properties. The
aim is to change the tag from readable to unreadable or vice
versa and have the tag remain in this new state. The most
straightforward detuning approaches are to set the WORM to
be either in parallel with the silicon chip or in series with
the chip and the antenna. This is illustrated in Fig. 1 and
Fig. 6(b)(c) where an activated WORM either short-circuits
the RFID chip or connects it to one of the two antenna
elements. The RFID tag performance is ideally detuned 100%
from the fully functional to the totally malfunctioning for the
parallel structure (normally on) and the other way around for
the serial structure (normally off).
In order to quantify the detuning of the antenna due to
impedance change, the schematics in Fig. 6 are used to
calculate the voltage reection coefcient () for a general tag
without the WORM (as presented in (1)) [36], a tag with a
parallel WORM (as presented in (2)) and with a serial WORM
(as presented in (3)).
=
Z
A
Z

C
Z
A
+ Z
C
ZA=Z

C
==== = 0 (1)

=
(Z
A
Z
W
) Z

C
(Z
A
Z
W
) + Z
C
ZA=Z

C
====

=
(Z

C
)
2
2Z
W
Re(Z
C
) +|Z
C
|
2
(2)

+
=
(Z
A
+ Z
W
) Z

C
(Z
A
+ Z
W
) + Z
C
ZA=Z

C
====
+
=
Z
W
Z
W
+2 Re(Z
C
)
. (3)
Z
A
, Z
C
and Z
W
in (1)(3) are the impedance of the
antenna, the chip and the WORM respectively. If the antenna
is originally designed to perfectly match the chip without
1828 IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 13, NO. 5, MAY 2013
Fig. 7. Power transfer coefcient versus WORM resistance calculated
using (2) for the WORM in parallel with the RFID chip (dashed line) and (3)
for the WORM in series with the RFID chip (solid line).
a WORM, i.e. Z
A
= Z

C
where * denotes the complex
conjugate, the voltage reection coefcient in (1) thus equals
zero and the power transfer coefcient , ( = 1||
2
), equals
one. That is, no power reection occurs and all incoming
power is transferred to the RFID chip.
By adding a WORM with resistance Z
W
in parallel or
in series to the RFID chip, the magnitude of the reection
coefcient becomes larger than zero and it is possible to
calculate the exact value according to (2) and (3). A reection
coefcient larger than zero implies that all incoming power is
not transferred to the RFID chip and a certain amount, deter-
mined by ||
2
, is reected back into the surrounding medium.
The maximum read range of the RFID tag thus becomes lower
than for the situation in which the tag is perfectly matched.
Another way of describing the same situation is that, for a xed
distance between the tag and the RFID reader unit, the reader
has to transmit higher power in order to read a mismatched
tag than it does for a perfectly matched one. The worst case
scenario for the tags occurs when || = 1, which will happen
when Z
W
= 0 in Fig. 6(b) and when Z
W
= in Fig. 6(c),
thus making the tag totally unreadable. If, on the contrary,
Z
W
= in Fig. 6(b) and Z
W
= 0 in Fig. 6(c), || = 0 the
tags will be working perfectly. The sequence of Z
W
going
from innity to zero would thus create an optimal sensor
switch producing 100% increase or decrease in the degree of
detuning the tag antenna.
Previous sections have shown that the WORMs will have
a resistance from a few kilo Ohms to a few tens of Ohms
for ve-line pre-sintered WORMs. Fig. 7 shows the power
transfer coefcient () for different WORM resistances (Z
W
)
calculated from (2) and (3). The results in Fig. 7 are for both
parallel and serial structures in a case when the RFID chip
has an input impedance Z
C
= 30 j 130 and Z
A
= Z

C
. It
can be observed that signicant changes occur in both cases
when the WORM resistance decreases below 400 and that
has switched almost completely from one to zero or vice
versa for Z
W
below 50 .
The WORM resistance will also affect the antennas radia-
tion efciency with regard to ohmic losses as heat dissipation
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Fig. 8. Four antennas used for investigating the possibility of combining
printed antennas with printed WORMs acting as resistive sensors. (a) and (c)
are referred to as normally on since a WORM that is not triggered should
not affect the antenna while (b) and (d) are referred to as normally off as
the WORM needs to be triggered for the antenna structure to be completely
connected.
will take place in the WORM when current ows through
it. These ohmic losses further increase the WORM equipped
tags on/off ratio, i.e. creating a higher degree of detuning.
The exact amount of power dissipation is dependent on the
specic antenna structure used and is characterized in the next
subsection, after the introduction of the proposed antennas.
B. Antenna Designs
To prove and to carry out the proposed concept, the main
focus was directed toward antenna designs that utilize dipole-
based UHF antenna structures. The reason for this choice is
its simple geometrical structure which can be easily tuned
to the desired input impedance and can be manufactured by
horizontal printing technologies. Four sensor tag antenna struc-
tures were designed with geometries shown in Fig. 8(a)(d).
They are denoted respectively as Antenna I, II, III and IV.
Antenna I is referred to as being normally on since a
WORM that is not triggered should not affect the antenna
signicantly while a triggered WORM will short-circuit the
RFID chip.
Antenna II can be regarded as the opposite of Antenna I
and is thus referred to as normally off. The sensor tag with
Antenna II works in such a way that one of the RFID chips
two ports connects to a negligible antenna element until the
WORM is triggered to act as a conductive bridge to the
remaining parts of the antenna structure.
The setup in Fig. 8(c), Antenna III, is also referred to as
normally on and this option allows a triggered WORM to
bridge to a parasitic antenna element that detunes the total
antenna.
Finally, Antenna IV in Fig. 8(d) proposes a structure similar
to Antenna II and whose aim is to investigate whether the
positioning of the WORM outside the antenna loop creates
GAO et al.: PRINTED HUMIDITY SENSOR WITH MEMORY FUNCTIONALITY FOR PASSIVE RFID TAGS 1829
Fig. 9. Power transfer coefcient versus WORM resistance from computer
simulations of the antenna structures in Fig. 8.
a higher on/off ratio for respectively set and not set WORM
bits. Antenna IV is thus also categorized as normally off.
The antenna structures with WORMs were simulated in
Ansoft HFSS 9.2. A sheet resistance of 80 m/sq was used
for the antenna pattern, with the assumption being that the
antenna has been printed and cured before the printing process
of the WORM. Photo paper was planned to be used as the
printing substrate at an experimental stage (see Section IV).
The substrate considered in the simulations was set to have
thickness of 260 m, dielectric constant of 3.2 and loss tangent
of 0.077 [37]. Comparing the results of the power transfer
coefcient produced by the HFSS simulations for Antennas
I and II in Fig. 9 with the corresponding results in Fig. 7
calculated using (2) and (3), it is possible to note that they
have a rather good agreement.
The simulation results of Antennas III and IV, on the other
hand, are not able to be directly compared to the calculated
results presented in Fig. 7, since the equivalent circuits of these
antennas are much more complex and an analytical calculation
of these falls outside the scope of this work. The simulation
results in Fig. 9 show that the Antennas III and IV produce
a much lower on/off ratio as compared to that for Antennas
I and II.
Total efciency is, however, not only dependent on
impedance matching but also involves ohmic losses, polar-
ization mismatch, directivity deviations, etc. [38]. The intro-
duction of the WORM to the antenna structures modulates
the total efciency with regards to input impedance, ohmic
losses and changes in directivity. Ohmic losses, i.e. dissipation
as heat, will occur in the resistive WORM in a similar
manner to that which occurs for any other resistor. Fig. 10
provides the radiation efciency due to ohmic losses retrieved
from computer simulations for the respective antennas in
Fig. 8.
Even at the relatively high WORM resistance of Z
W
= 2 k
the radiation efciency due to ohmic losses for Antenna I has
already dropped to approximately 50% of its maximum value.
Simulation results have indicated that this is mainly caused
by the printed antenna structures limited sheet resistance and
Fig. 10. Radiation efciency due to ohmic losses for the antennas in Fig. 8.
Fig. 11. Change of antenna directivity (dimensionless) for the respective
antennas in Fig. 8 in the direction perpendicular to the antenna drawings.
slightly caused by substrate absorption. At the other end of
the resistance spectrum for Antenna I it can be seen that the
radiation efciency reduces to below 20% for Z
W
< 300 .
Antenna II on the other hand has an extremely low radiation
efciency for Z
W
> 400 and achieves approximately 50%
efciency for the intended WORMs with a few tens of Ohms.
The graphs in Fig. 10 for Antennas I and II do show similar
characteristics to those for the corresponding graphs in Fig. 9
and the combination of them will thus further increase the
respective tags on/off ratios. The characteristics for the ohmic
losses of Antennas III and IV are similar to the results for the
respective ohmic losses for Antennas I and II.
The nal change factor in relation to the total efciency
considered here is the deviation of directivity. It is assumed
that the sensor tags are read from a direction perpendicular to
the antenna drawings in Fig. 8, i.e. in the direction straight out
of the paper. Fig. 11 presents the directivity for the antennas in
Fig. 8. The change in directivity for Antennas I and II was only
of the order of 5%, which is small compared to the changes
introduced by the impedance mismatch and ohmic losses. The
deviation of directivity for Antennas III and IV is slightly
1830 IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 13, NO. 5, MAY 2013
larger but this still does not produce a major contribution to
the tags on/off ratio.
The total efciency is achieved based on the product of
all efciencies under consideration. By denoting the power
transmission coefcient () as the efciency due to mismatch,
= e
Mismatch
, the total efciency obtained is
e
Total
= e
Mismatch
e
Ohmic
e
Directivity
. (4)
The degree of detuning introduced by a WORM (d
Detuning
)
can be dened by means of the ratio of the total efciency for
a WORM equipped sensor antenna (e
Total_s
) and for a normal
antenna (e
Total_n
). A normal antenna refers to an antenna
with the same dimensions and sheet resistance as the sensor
antenna, but without the WORM.
d
Detuning
= 1
e
Total_s
e
Total_n
(5)
Applying (4) to (5), we get
d
Detuning
= 1
e
Mismatch_s
e
Ohmic_s
e
Directivity_s
e
Mismatch_n
e
Ohmic_n
e
Directivity_n
. (6)
The ratio of directivity efciency between the sensor
antenna and the normal antenna directly equals the ratio of
directivity between them. The degree of detuning can therefore
be written as:
d
Detuning
= 1
e
Mismatch_s
e
Ohmic_s
Directivity_s
e
Mismatch_n
e
Ohmic_n
Directivity_n
. (7)
Using gain to replace the product of radiation efciency
due to ohmic losses and directivity, the degree of detuning is
simplied to
d
Detuning
= 1
e
Mismatch_s
Gain_s
e
Mismatch_n
Gain_n
. (8)
Since the normal antenna was originally designed to be well
matched with the RFID chip, the efciency due to mismatch
for the normal antenna equals one. Further denoting the ratio
of gain between the sensor antenna and the normal antenna as
relative gain, the degree of detuning obtained is
d
Detuning
= 1 e
Mismatch_s
Gai n
relative
. (9)
The calculated relative gain for each antenna in Fig. 8 is
shown in Fig. 12.
Friis transmission formula (10) [39] states that tag antenna
received power, P
r
, is proportional to the reader transmit
power, P
t
, and the tag antenna gain. The power thereafter
transferred from the tag antenna to the RFID chip is pro-
portional to the power transfer coefcient, i.e. proportional
to e
Mismatch
. The minimum power required for IC power-up
(P
c
) is a constant for chips of the same type. According to
formula (10) and the condition (11), it is clear that the required
minimum transmit power P
t
min
is inversely proportional to the
power transfer coefcient and the gain of tag antenna. This
implies that the ratio between the required minimum transmit
power for a sensor tag and for a normal tag is determined by
the inverse ratio of the power transfer coefcient and the gain
of tag antennas, supposing that the sensor tag and the normal
tag are interrogated at the same reading distance. That is, in
this work, the relative required minimum transmit power of
Fig. 12. Relative gain for the respective antennas in Fig. 8 in the direction
perpendicular to the antenna drawings.
Fig. 13. Relative required minimum transmit power versus WORM resis-
tance for the RFID antenna structures in Fig. 8. Results are obtained from
simulations of antenna efciencies.
a sensor tag compared to a normal tag is determined by the
degree of detuning, as presented in (12) ((13) produces results
in dB units).
P
r
= P
t
G
t
G
r

4r

2
(10)
P
r
P
c
(11)
P
relative
t
min
=
P
t
min _s
P
t
min _n
=
1
1 d
Detuning
(12)
P
relative
t
min
(dB) = 10 log
10

1 d
Detuning

(13)
The application of the previously calculated antenna power
transfer coefcient and relative gain to (9) and (13), provides
the predicted relative required minimum transmit power in dB
as shown in Fig. 13. It should however be mentioned that
the proposed model for predicting received power presents
a simplistic approximation to an ideal situation and is thus
optimistic. Equation (10) is only really accurate for free-space
propagation and anechoic environments. A more exact model
needs to account for additional factors such as multipath and
small- and large-scale fading [40], [41].
GAO et al.: PRINTED HUMIDITY SENSOR WITH MEMORY FUNCTIONALITY FOR PASSIVE RFID TAGS 1831
Fig. 14. Illustration of the twin tag concept.
IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
All the antennas in Fig. 8 were printed on nano-porous
photo paper using the Dimatix printer and ANP ink. In order
to minimize sheet resistance and to also investigate the impact
of the printed layer thickness, each antenna pattern was printed
with one, two and three printed silver ink layers respectively
on top of each other. Temperature sintering was performed at
120 C for 30 min and the result of this was that the one,
two and three layer antennas had sheet resistances of 250,
80 and 50 m/sq respectively. The experimental comparison
showed that the two and three layer antennas have a rather
close performance while the one layer antenna proved to
have a slightly lower performance. Increasing the number of
layers beyond the three printing passes and thus decreasing
the sheet resistance below 50 m/sq would therefore not
signicantly increase the performance. From the viewpoint
of both economy and antenna performance, all the following
experiments are therefore based on two layer antennas.
In a secondary print step the WORMs were directly printed
over the gaps which remained for them in the antenna struc-
tures. The WORMs were pre-sintered at 90 C for 30 min to
achieve a resistance of a few kilo Ohms. Finally the RFID
chips were connected to the antennas by manually applying
drops of a exographic silver ink consisting of micro-meter
sized particles. The exographic ink does not require the same
high temperature to create good conductive bridges as is the
case for the nano-ink since it cures at room temperature.
To facilitate the acquisition of the relative transmit power,
two identical RFID tags were applied within the same sensor
label, thus allowing for the differential power readout as
described in [23]. In such a twin tag setup, one of the tags is a
sensor tag, as previously presented, and the other is a normal
tag which is used as a reference tag. The reference tag has an
antenna with the same dimensions and sheet resistance as that
in the sensor tag, but with no WORM. Fig. 14 illustrates this
method for the case in which a sensor label is read inside a
house wall.
A 1.0 m
2
hermetically sealed demonstrator house wall was
built and a PID-regulated humidier was used to control the
relative humidity inside the wall. Sensor labels with 40 mm
Fig. 15. Measured transmit power difference between sensor tag and
reference tag when the WORM sensor was replaced by a normal variable
resistor. The label was located inside a laboratory wall and the RFID reader
positioned perpendicular 1.0 m from the label.
between the respective antennas were placed inside the wall.
A SAMSys RFID reader is used to interrogate the RFID tags.
It is controlled by an internally developed PC software to
sweep output power from 12 to 28 dBm and thus to record the
minimum power levels needed to read each tag within a label.
The power sweep can be set as a single action or periodic
action. For example, the data in Fig. 16 was recorded every
5 min.
All the sensor tag structures were tested with both the
WORM sensors and normal resistors. Fig. 15 shows the
performances of the sensor tags using normal resistors to
replace the WORM sensors. The results in Fig. 15 can be
compared to the theoretical results in Fig. 13 and they have
high similarity in the measurable range of 016 dB. Fig. 16
exemplies the results of the sensor tags with embedded
WORM sensors when the wall was set to hold 80% RH. The
WORM resistance converges to approximately 20 at 80%
RH in Fig. 4(b). Looking at the 20 WORM resistance for
the theoretical results in Fig. 13, Antenna II, for example,
provides a power difference of the order of 3 dB, which is very
similar to the corresponding experimental result for Antenna II
in Figs. 15 and 16. Figs. 4(b), 15 and 16 verify that the WORM
sensor does work as a variable resistor in presence of high
humidity. It is also clear from Fig. 16 that the change in power
difference is more rapid for the sensor tags with Antennas
I and II which means these two tags have higher sensitivity
than the other two. The data in Figs. 15 and 16 was obtained
when the RFID reader antenna was positioned perpendicular
to the wall at 1.0 m distance from the tags. The normal tag
with no WORM could be read at 1.0 m distance with an
output power marginally above 12 dBm. Figs. 15 and 16 thus
also provides the approximate absolute value of the minimum
output power required to read the sensor tags by adding
12 dBm to the values on the vertical axis.
The maximum measurement errors of power difference for
the RFID sensor tags are 0.5 dB. These errors were caused
by uncertainties from the environment. Based on the notice of
1832 IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 13, NO. 5, MAY 2013
Fig. 16. Measured difference in minimum transmit power between sensor
tags and reference tag when located inside a laboratory wall with 80% RH at
room temperature and with the RFID reader positioned perpendicular 1.0 m
from the labels. Two-layer printed antennas were used and it is clear that
the best On/Off ratios are realized with the normally on Antenna I and the
normally off Antenna II. Red markers indicate the response time for each
sensor tag, which is the minimum time period for identifying the presence of
high humidity. The data for each sensor tag was recorded every 5 min.
measurement errors, it was decided to set 2 dB of change
in power difference as the minimum value for identifying
the presence of high humidity. Therefore, we can dene the
response time as the time when the power difference changes
2 dB compared to the value at the start point. As indicated
in Fig. 16 (red markers), the response time is 30, 70, 60 and
100 min for the tags with respectively Antenna I, II, III and IV
when they are placed in 80% RH. The response time for the
tag with Antenna II should be the lowest one in theory (see
Fig. 13). However, the maximum measurable power difference
is 16 dB for the RFID reader. Therefore the response time for
the tag with Antenna II is dened as the time when the power
difference gets into the measurable range.
In Fig. 16 it can also be noted how the normally on tag
with Antenna I is no longer readable after 90 min in 80%
RH and how the normally off tag with Antenna II becomes
readable after 70 min using the same exposure. This clear
switch effect of turn-on or turn-off is in accordance with
the denition of this concept as described at the start of this
article. The sensor tags with Antennas III and IV, however,
presented no clear turn-on or turn-off switch in this
example experiment. However, this would occur if the labels
had been located at positions which were further than 1.0 m
from the reader.
Different antennas also react differently in relation to dif-
ferent underlying substrates and this is particularly important
in RFID since the nal location of a tag is seldom known at
the point when the tag is being designed [42]. Antenna III
proved to be very sensitive to the underlying substrate as a
thicker plastics substrate signicantly lowered its already low
on/off ratio, while the remaining structures were less sensitive
to underlying substrates.
Antennas I and II are the best candidates for this concept
and will thus be used in future work on optimization.
V. DISCUSSION
The presented hybrid solution of silicon chips and printed
electronics for low cost wireless sensors has focused on
utilizing chemical sintering as the triggering mechanism for
a one-bit WORM memory. The readout solution is based on
a twin tag approach in which one tag will be turned off or on
by the WORM and the other will be a reference. The readout
technology as such is therefore very robust. These monitor
stickers or labels can be used to add surveillance functionality
for smart packaging, for example to conrm that food quality
is preserved in logistics chains. They can also, for example, be
left inside a wall or a construction after repair work has been
carried out which is in relation to humidity or water damage.
In real applications, e.g. when the sensor tags are embedded
into construction materials, specic consideration should be
given to the dielectric properties of the materials in order to
preserve the tag antenna gain and achieve remote sensing.
Low cost, small volume and simple usage are key advan-
tages associated with the concept which has been introduced
during this work. The disadvantages associated with the single
event logging sensor naturally include the fact that it is a one
time option. In addition, the sensitivity to both temperature
and humidity determines that the WORM cannot be used as
a humidity sensor at high temperature.
The life time of the WORM may not be the most critical fac-
tor since the single event logging function has been determined
as being of prime interest only during a short period of time.
This time period could be for some time after the completion
of construction work or it could be during the lifetime of food
packaging. In the rst scenario, for the owner of a facility
this may reveal mistakes in the construction work or for the
entrepreneur it may be used to check the status of repair work
before the nal completion phase takes place. In relation to
the long term usage in construction structures, the focus is
more on measuring the instantaneous humidity status and the
memory effect is not so critical. In this case, a solution such
as that presented in [23] could prove to be more useful, or,
possibly, the combination of instantaneous measurement and
single event logging. Therefore, the long term observation of
the WORM is not presented in this paper. However, the tests
on the WORMs which have been situated in dry conditions
at room temperature for two years showed that the WORMs
had satisfying stability and their performances of humidity
sintering were just as good as the fresh WORMs.
An important aspect, however, is preserving the WORM in
a non-triggered state before it is placed inside a construction
or on a package. The chemically sintered WORM cannot be
protected by an electrical start function as in the case of an
electrically triggered sensor function. The only option for the
chemically sintered WORM memory is storage in a sealed
package together with moisture absorbent materials such as
silica before it is put into use. Such packaging solutions are
available at reasonable price levels and are not considered
as being a major problem. However, the triggering of the
WORM should be arranged to occur above 70% RH and this
demands the tuning of the WORM memory beyond what has
yet been achieved in this work. The currently available WORM
GAO et al.: PRINTED HUMIDITY SENSOR WITH MEMORY FUNCTIONALITY FOR PASSIVE RFID TAGS 1833
technology allows for the demonstration of the concept and
serves as a stepping stone towards a new type of sensors.
Driven by RFID solutions which enable track and trace
solutions in different industry supply chains, a selection of
different mobile hand-held RFID readers is available in the
market. The robust design of these products makes their
adoption in harsh environments a relatively easy process
for, e.g. construction sites and package loading docks. The
successful standardization work driven by EPC/GS1 for the
UHF RFID in addition to the majority of these devices being
based on the Windows Mobile OS offers a clear advantage
in the commercialization of new sensor solutions. This has
been exemplied in this work by the Sense Sweep software
developed for the Motorola hand-held RFID readers by Sen-
sible Solutions Sweden AB. The optimized software enables
the averaging of the required minimum output power levels to
occur within approximately one second and then presents the
results graphically.
VI. CONCLUSION
This paper introduces a new member to the family of
antenna-based RFID sensor tags. Antenna-based sensor tags
proposed in previous works utilize the sensitivity of an
antennas electrical properties to the surrounding medium.
The concept presented in this paper presents a solution for
RFID sensor tag with a single event logging functionality by
means of direct integration of a printed 1-bit WORM memory
into the antenna structure. The integrated WORM modulates
the antennas electrical properties, including the impedance,
directivity and radiation efciency due to ohmic losses. The
printed WORM memory works as a sensor by changing its
resistance during high humidity. The work has proven that the
minimum transmit power required for a sensor tag could be
used as the readout parameter related to the WORM sensor
state. It was also shown that a reference tag could be used in
a twin tag approach in order to increase the readout reliability
by avoiding the requirement of a xed reader to tag distance.
Four integration schemes of sensor tags were investigated and
two of them proved to have a superior performance with the
largest detuning scope. Since the WORM memory records an
event by changing its state and its value can be read out at a
later occasion, the WORM is bridging the time gap and is thus
suitable for watch-dog applications. The presented concept has
been veried for detecting and logging the events involving
excessive humidity. However, it is possible for this concept to
be extended to other applications with the aid of other printed
elements.
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Jinlan Gao (S11) received the B.Sc. degree in electronics and information
technology from China Agricultural University, Beijing, China, in 2006, and
the M.Sc. degree in electronics from Mid Sweden University, Sundsvall,
Sweden, in 2009. She is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree in electronics
with Mid Sweden University.
Her current research interests include RFID technology, antenna design,
and printed electronics.
Johan Sidn (M00) received the M.Sc. degree in telecommunication, the
Licentiate of Technology in electronics, and the Ph.D. degree in electronics
from the Department of Information Technology and Media, Mid-Sweden
University, Sundsvall, Sweden, in 2000, 2004, and 2007, respectively.
He is currently an Assistant Professor with Mid-Sweden University and
part time as an Applications Engineer with Sensible Solutions Sweden AB,
Sundsvall. His current research interests include RFID technology, wireless
sensor networks, antenna technology, and printed passive electronics, includ-
ing sensors and batteries.
Hans-Erik Nilsson received the Ph.D. degree in solid state electronics from
the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, in 1997.
He was a Senior Research position with Mid-Sweden University, Sundsvall,
Sweden, in 1997, focusing on modeling of advanced semiconductor devices. In
2002, he became a Full Professor of electronics. His current research interests
include quantum transport in electron devices, radiation imaging detectors,
RF electron devices, printed RFID antennas, printed sensor technology, and
wireless sensor networks.
Mikael Gulliksson was born on 1959. He received the Licentiate degree from
the University of Ume, in 1998.
He is active in media technology research focusing on business models for
interactive paper and magazines, smart packaging, and digital media solutions.
He has a part-time position with Mid Sweden University, Sundsvall, Sweden,
as a Research Coordinator from 2008 to 2011. In 2004, he was one of
the founders of Sensible Solutions Sweden AB, Sundsvall, where he is a
Managing Director.