An On-Body UHF RFID Tag With DDRR Antenna for Healthcare Data Streaming Applications

Abstract

This paper describes the development of a Direct Driven Resonant Radiator (DDRR) antenna for an ultra-low power UHF RFID tag system, integrating an accelerometer for movement tracking using a passive backscattering communications link. An outline of a system intended for healthcare applications involving wireless movement detection, such as therapeutic recovery exercises is described. The tag comprises of a UHF RFID transponder connected to a 4 cm (0.115λ) diameter, 1 mm thick (0.0028λ) skin-mounted antenna. Offbody read ranges of 3.6 m with 1 kB/s data communication are achieved. The DDRR radiation pattern is a limiting factor in movement tracking, offering only limited angles of detection, which could be improved with spatial diversity in the reader antennas.

Effect of Human Body to the Read Range of Wireless Communication Devices and Wearable Antenna Worn in Close Proximity

“…The read range can be improved by incorporating metamaterials structure in the RFID devices. (Hughes, 2022). Therefore, understanding the effects of the human body to the performance of wireless RFID is required and hence this review particularly focused on the issue.…”

Transparent Epidermal Antenna for Unobtrusive Human-Centric Internet of Things Applications

“…In the recent few decades, there has been a lot of research interest in this area, especially with the rapid growth of the wearables research and industry [7], [8]. A variety of antenna topologies including coils/loops [5], [9]- [14], dipoles [15]- [17], monopoles [18], slots [19], [20], and even arrays [21] have been explored, in conjunction with the implementation of different materials as well as manufacturing techniques. These explorations have resulted in successful demonstrations of various applications in the context of Internet of Things (IoT) for human-centric systems, such as finger augmentation devices for pressure [16] and dielectric sensing [15], batteryless breathing [13], [17], temperature [14], and sweat [9], [22] monitoring systems, biotelemetry [5], and smart indoor human tracking [23], to name a few.…”