Broadband CPW-Fed Circularly Polarized Square Slot Antenna for Universal UHF RFID Handheld Reader

This paper presents a new coplanar waveguide (CPW)-fed circularly polarized square slot antenna (CPSSA). The proposed antenna uses an inverted Z-shaped feedline protruded from the signal line of the feeding CPW. Circularly polarized (CP) radiation can be achieved by adequately inserting the arc-shaped grounded strip into the upper right corner of the square slot. The widened vertical tuning stub on the L-shaped grounded strip can improve impedance matching and axial ratio (AR) performance. The measured results indicate that the 10 dB impedance bandwidth is 620 MHz (652-1272 MHz), and the 3 dB axial ratio bandwidth is 320 MHz (840-1160 MHz), which has a broadband characteristic. In the range of the universal UHF RFID band, the measured peak gain is about 4.4 dBi. The proposed CPSSA uses low-cost FR4 material as the dielectric substrate. The overall size of the antenna is 119 × 119 × 0.5 mm3. The proposed antenna has a simple structure, easy processing, good performance, wide operating bandwidth, and dual circular polarization characteristic. It can be applied to the universal UHF RFID handheld reader environment.