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Design of Microstrip Antenna for 2.4/5.8 GHz RFID

Applications
Nasser Ojaroudi
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Abstract In this paper, a novel design of dual-band
monopole antenna for radio frequency identification (RFID)
systems is proposed. The proposed antenna is designed to
operate at 2.45 GHz and 5.8 GHz (ISM frequency range) and
it is fabricated on an FR4 substrate with dielectric constant of
4.4. The measured impedance bandwidth for l0dB return loss
is from 1.82 to 2.92 GHz (49%) and 5.53 to 6.36 GHz
(13.0%), covering the 2.4/5.8 GHz RFID operating bands.
Keywords Monopole antenna, RFID, wireless
communications.

I. INTRODUCTION
ADIO frequency identification (RFID) is a rapidly
developing technology which can be used in supply
chain management, access control, inventory
management and so on [1].
It is a well-known fact that printed microstrip antenna
presents really appealing physical features, such as simple
structure, small size, and low cost. Because of all these
interesting characteristics, microstrip antennas are
extremely attractive to be used in RFID applications and
growing research activity is being focused on them.
During the last years, there are various antennas with low
profile, lightweight, flush mounted for RFID applications
are proposed. These antennas include the CPW-Fed
monopole antenna [2], mender-line antennas [3-4], H-ring
antenna [5], and etc.
In this paper, a novel design of a dual-band monopole
antenna is proposed, which has many advantages such as
simple structure of a wide bandwidth and easy integration
with active devices. In this structure, by using a minder-line
strip and rotated E-shaped slit in the open-stub microstrip
line structure, the antenna achieves good dual-band
operation. Good return loss and radiation pattern
characteristics are obtained in the frequency bands of
interest. Simulated and measured results are presented to
validate the usefulness of the proposed antenna structure
for RFID applications.

connected to a 50- SMA connector for signal transmission.

The final dimensions of the designed antenna are specified
in Table 1.

II. ANTENNA DESIGN

The presented small monopole antenna fed by a
microstrip line is shown in Fig. 1, which is printed on an
FR4 substrate of thickness 1.6 mm, permittivity 4.4, and
loss tangent 0.018. The basic monopole antenna structure
consists of an open-stub microstrip line and a ground plane.
The width of the microstrip line line is fixed at 2 mm, as
shown in Fig. 1. On the other side of the substrate, a
conducting ground plane is placed. The proposed antenna is
N. Ojaroudi is with the Young Researchers Club, Ardabil Branch,
Islamic Azad University, Ardabil, Iran. (E-mail: n.ojaroudi@yahoo.com).

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Fig. 1. Geometry of the antenna (a) side view, (b) top view.
Table. 1. The final dimensions of the designed antenna

Param.
Wsub
W
L1
W3

mm
10
2
0.75
0.25

Param.
Lsub
L
W2
L3

mm
17
12.5
0.5
8.25

Param.
Lgnd
W1
L2
L4

mm
3.5
1.75
0.25
8.25

In this study, the open stub microstrip line with minderline strip structure can provide a single resonant mode at
the lower band and by adding an E-shaped slit good dualband operation can be achieved. Therefore, in the

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proposed configuration the E-shaped slit is playing an

important role in the dual band characteristics of this
antenna, because it can creates additional surface current
paths in the antenna, so an additional resonance is excited
[6-8].
III. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
In The proposed monopole antenna with various design
parameters was constructed, and the numerical and
experimental results of the input impedance and radiation
characteristics are presented and discussed. Ansoft HFSS
simulations are used to optimize the design and also in
the proposed antenna, a good agreement between the
simulation and measurement results is obtained [4]. The
HFSS is a high performance full wave electromagnetic
(EM) field simulator for arbitrary 3D volumetric passive
device modelling that takes advantage of the familiar
Microsoft Windows graphical user interface. It integrates
simulation, visualization, solid modelling, and automation
in an easy to learn environment where solutions to 3D EM
problems are quickly and accurate obtained. Ansoft HFSS
employs the Finite Element Method (FEM), adaptive
meshing, and brilliant graphics to give unparalleled
performance and insight to all of 3D EM problems. Ansoft
HFSS can be used to calculate parameters such as SParameters, Resonant Frequency, and Fields [12].
The configuration of the presented monopole antenna
was shown in Fig .1. Return loss characteristics for the
open stub microstrip line structure antenna (Fig. 2(a)), with
minder-line strip (Fig. 2(b)), and the proposed antenna
structure (Fig. 2(c)) are compared in Fig 3.

minder-line strip. Therefore, the antenna impedance

changes at this frequency due to the resonant properties of
the minder-line strip. Another important design parameter
of this structure is the E-shaped slit. Fig.5 (b) presents the
simulated current distributions of the proposed antenna at
5.8 GHz. As shown in Fig.5 (b), at the second resonance
frequency, the current flows are more dominant around of
the E-shaped slit structure. [10-12].

Fig.3. Simulated return loss characteristics for the various

antenna structures shown in Fig. 2.

Fig.2. (a) Open-stub microstrip line, (b) open-stub microstrip

line with minder-line strip, and (c) the proposed antenna
structure.

As shown in Fig.3, it is observed that the lower

fre'quency bandwidth is affected by using minder-line strip
and generation of dual-band performance is sensitive to the
E-shaped slit. Also input impedance of the proposed
antenna structure that shown in Fig. 1, on a Smith Chart is
shown in Fig. 4.
In order to known the phenomenon behind this dual-band
performance, simulated current distributions for the
proposed antenna at 2.4 GHz are presented in Fig. 5 (a). It
can be observed in Fig. 8 (a) that the currents are
concentrated on the interior and exterior edges of the

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Fig.4. Smith chart demonstration of simulated input impedance

for the proposed antenna.

The proposed antenna with final design, as shown in

Fig. 6, was built and tested. The return loss characteristic
was measured using a network analyzer in an anechoic
chamber. The radiation patterns have been measured inside
an anechoic chamber using a double-ridged horn antenna
as a reference antenna placed at a distance of 2 m. The
measured and simulated return loss characteristics of the
proposed antenna are shown on Fig. 7. The fabricated

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antenna has a frequency band of 2.05 GHz to 2.83 GHz

and 5.30 GHz to 6.32 GHz. As shown in Fig. 7, there
exists a discrepancy between the measured data and the
simulated results.

besides, SMA soldering accuracy and FR4 substrate

quality needs to be taken into consideration [13-15].

Fig.7. Measured and simulated return loss characteristics for the

proposed antenna.

Fig.5. Simulated surface current distributions for the proposed

antenna (a) at 2.45 GHz and (b) at 5.8 GHz.

Fig.6. Photograph of the realized printed monopole antenna.

This discrepancy is mostly due to a number of

parameters such as the fabricated antenna dimensions as
well as the thickness and dielectric constant of the
substrate on which the antenna is fabricated, and also the
wide range of simulation frequencies. In order to confirm
the accurate return loss characteristics for the designed
antenna, it is recommended that the manufacturing and
measurement process need to be performed carefully,

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Fig.8. Measured radiation patterns of the proposed antenna at (a)

H-plane, and (b) E-plane.

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Fig. 8 illustrates the measured radiation patterns, including

the co-polarization, in H-plane (E in x-y) and E-plane (E
in y-z) . It can be seen that quasi-omnidirectional radiation
pattern can be observed on x-z plane for the three
frequencies. The radiation patterns on the y-z plane
displays a typical figure-of-eight, similar to that of a
conventional dipole antenna. It should be noticed that the
radiation patterns in E-plane become imbalanced as
frequency increases because of the increasing effects of the
cross polarization. The patterns indicate At higher
frequencies, more ripples can be observed in both E- and
H-planes owing to the generation of higher-order modes
[16-18].
IV. CONCLUSION
A novel dual-band monopole antenna for RFID
communications is presented, in this paper. The proposed
antenna can operate from 2.05 to 2.83 GHz and 5.30 to
6.32 GHz, covering the 2.4/5.8 GHz RFID operating
bands. By applying a minder-line strip and a rotated Eshaped slit in the open-stub microstrip line structure, a
good dual band characteristic in ISM frequency range is
achieved. The designed antenna has a small size.
Simulated and experimental results show that the proposed
antenna could be a good candidate for RFID applications.

[12] N. Ojaroudi, Small microstrip-fed slot antenna with frequency

band-stop function, 21th Telecommunications Forum, TELFOR
2013, 27 28 November, 2013, Belgrade, Serbia.
[13] N. Ojaroudi, Sh. Amiri, and F. Geran, Reconfigurable Monopole
Antenna with Controllable Band-Notched Performance for UWB
Communications, 20th Telecommunications Forum, TELFOR
2012, 20 22November, 2012, Belgrade, Serbia
[14] N. Ojaroudi, S. Amiri, and F. Geran, A novel design of
reconfigurable monopole antenna for UWB applications, Applied
Computational Electromagnetics Society (ACES) Journal, vol. 28,
no. 6, pp. 633-639, July 2013.
[15] N. Ojaroudi, H. Ojaroudi, Y. Ojaroudi, Very low profile ultrawideband microstrip band-stop filter, Microw. Opt. Technol. Lett.,
vol. 56, pp. 709-711, 2014.
[16] N. Ojaroudi and N.Ghadimi, UWB small slot antenna with WLAN
frequency band-stop function, Electron. Lett, vol. 49, pp. 1317
1318, 2013.
[17] N. Ojaroudi, Compact UWB monopole antenna with enhanced
bandwidth using rotated L-shaped slots and parasitic
structures,Microw. Opt. Technol. Lett., vol. 56, pp.175178,
2014.
[18] N. Ojaroudi, Microstrip monopole antenna with dual band-stop
function for UWB applications, Microw. Opt. Technol. Lett., vol.
56, 1045-1048.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors are thankful to Microwave Technology
(MWT) company staff for their beneficial and professional
help (www.microwave-technology.com).
REFERENCES
[1]

M. S. Bell, RFID Technology and Applications, London:

Cambridge University Press. pp. 68, 2011.
[2] M. Ojaroudi, and N. Ojaroudi, Daul-Band Coplanar WaveguideFed Monopole Antenna for 2.4/5.8 GHz Radio Frequency
Identification Applications, Microw. Opt. Technol. Lett., vol. 54,
no. 10, 2426-2429, Oct 2012.
[3] G. Marrocco, Gain-Optimized Self-Resonant Meander Line
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[4] G. Zhao, F. S. Zhang, Y. Song, Z. B. Weng, and Y. C. Jiao,
Compact ring monopole antenna with double meander lines for
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[5] N. Ojaroudi, and M. Ojaroudi, Compact H-Ring Antenna with
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[6] N. Ojaroudi, and M. Ojaroudi, CPW-Fed Slot Antenna for
Personal Mobile Communication Service (PCS) and Bluetooth
Applications, Microw. Opt. Technol. Lett., vol. 55, pp. 734737,
Feb 2013.
[7] M. Hirvonen, P. Pursula, K. Jaakkola, et al. Planar inverted-F
antenna for radio frequency identification, Electron Lett 40, pp.
848850, 2004.
[8] F.Z. Marouf, N. Hassaine-Seladji, and F.T. Bendimerad," Dual Tag
Antenna for UHF RFID Applications, International Journal of
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[9] Ansoft High Frequency Structure Simulation (HFSS), ver. 13,
Ansoft Corporation, 2010.
[10] N. Ojaroudi, Design of ultra-wideband monopole antenna with
enhanced bandwidth, 21th Telecommunications Forum, TELFOR
2013, 27 28 November, 2013, Belgrade, Serbia.
[11] N. Ojaroudi, A New Design of koch fractal slot antenna for ultrawideband applications, 21th Telecommunications Forum,
TELFOR 2013, 27 28 November, 2013, Belgrade, Serbia.

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