Analysis of Power Transfer at UHF to RFID ICs by Miniaturized RFID Label Antennas

The manufacturing cost of RFID labels is an accumulation of IC design, IC manufacture, antenna manufacture, antenna and IC assembly and packaging costs. A significant barrier to reducing the cost is the lack of a streamlined process for attaching RFID label antennas to RFID ICs (about 0.25 mm in size). A large portion, approximately 3 – 4 cents, of the label cost is allocated to the antenna manufacture, antenna and IC assembly and packaging. Hence there is a keen interest to produce a miniaturized on chip antennas to streamline the manufacturing process. This paper considers the feasibility of such an antenna for operation in the UHF ISM band 902 MHz – 928 MHz as defined by the FCC [1], based on analysing the power required to operate an RFID label using coupling volume theory.