372

IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 3, 2004

Using Text as a Meander Line for RFID

Transponder Antennas
Mikko Keskilammi, Member, IEEE, and Markku Kivikoski, Member, IEEE

AbstractA new approach of using text as a meander line for

size reduction of dipole antennas used in passive transponders for
radio frequency identification (RFID) system is proposed. Three
different structures of text dipole antennas for 869 MHz RFID
applications have been examined numerically using a finite element method simulator. The impedance matching and the radiation properties of the fabricated antennas are measured and the
results are compared with the simulated values.
Index TermsAntennas, dipole antennas, radio frequency identification (RFID).

I. INTRODUCTION

ADIO frequency identification (RFID) is a contactless

method for data transfer in object identification. In
RFID systems, data is transferred between a transponder and
a reader unit wirelessly by means of electromagnetic waves.
Radio frequency identification system generally consists of
three components: 1) a small electronic data carrying device
including an antenna and a microchip transmitter called a
transponder or tag that is attached to the item to be identified,
2) a reader or scanner that communicates with the transponder
using radio frequency signals, and 3) a host data processing
system that contains the information of the identified item
and distributes the information between other remote data
processing systems. [1] Generally, omnidirectionality for the
transponder antenna is preferred to ensure the identification
from all directions. The structure of the transponder antenna
should also be small in size, have very low profile and be
inexpensive to manufacture. In many cases dipole or folded
dipole type antennas are used.
When labeling small objects, the size of the transponder
should be as small as possible. Meander line antennas are
an interesting class of resonant antennas and they have been
widely studied in order to reduce the size of the radiating
elements in wire antennas: monopole, dipole and folded dipole
type antennas [2][5]. In meander line antenna the wire is
continuously folded intended to reduce the resonant length.
Increasing the total wire length in antenna of fixed axial length
lowers its resonant frequency. According to [2], when made to
be resonant at the same frequency, the performance characteristics of these antennas are independent of the differencies in
Manuscript received September 11, 2004; revised November 3, 2004. This
work was supported by the Tampere University of Technology, Institute of Electronics, Rauma Research Unit, and Graduate School in Electronics, Telecommunications and Automation (GETA).
The authors are with the Tampere University of Technology, Institute of
Electronics, FIN-33720 Tampere, Finland (e-mail: mikko.keskilammi@tut.fi;
markku.kivikoski@tut.fi).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LAWP.2004.841212

Fig. 1. Geometry of NU-MLA structure [6]. Only one half of the dipole is
shown.

Fig. 2. Configurations of proposed transponder dipole antennas. (Top)

Antenna 1 and (bottom) antenna 2.

their geometry or total wire length. Marrocco has studied the

size reduction of RFID transponders using uniform (U-MLA)
and nonuniform (NU-MLA) meander line structures in [6].
The geometry of NU-MLA structure is illustrated in Fig. 1. In
U-MLA structures, the geometry is described by three parameters: the number of turns, length of the horizontal and vertical
and
). For NU-MLAs there are
sections (
no tied values for the variables.
Depending on the font used the structure of the text meander
line antenna can be close to either uniform of nonuniform geometry. Using text as an antenna element in RFID transponders
is given with good reasons, brand names or manufacturer logos
can be used to form a radiating element for the transponder,
thus giving additional value to the transponder itself as a hi-tech
advertisement.
This lettter discusses the use of text as a meander line for
dipole antennas used in RFID transponders for 869MHz frequency band. Numerical simulations and measured values are
given for three different geometries. Size reduction compared
to conventional structures is also discussed.
II. ANTENNA CONFIGURATIONS
Fig. 2 shows the antenna configurations of antennas 1 and 2
where the letters of the text Institute of Electronics are connected together in two different ways. In antenna 1, the text is

1536-1225/04$20.00 2004 IEEE

KESKILAMMI AND KIVIKOSKI: USING TEXT AS A MEANDER LINE FOR RFID TRANSPONDER ANTENNAS

Fig. 3.

373

Simulated and measured return loss of antennas 1 and 2.

in contact with a straight dipole structure underneath the letters,

whereas in antenna 2, the letters are joined together from the top
and from the bottom of the letters alternately to form a meander
line structure. The text meander line antennas 1 and 2 can be
classified as nearly uniform meander line structures where the
lengths of the vertical and horizontal sections are nearly constant throughout the structure.
In [2], the size reduction when using a meander line antenna
instead of a conventional half-wave dipole antenna was analyzed using the shortening ratio. The shortening ratio (SR) is
defined as

Fig. 4. Simulated and measured radiation patterns of antenna 1.

(1)
In (1),
is the wavelength of the operational frequency on
is the
the substrate where the antenna is manufactured and
axial length of the meander line dipole antenna. It is reported
in [6] that reduction in antenna gain exists when U-MLA or
NU-MLA structures are used. The reduction is notable when
is more than 0.40.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The proposed antennas were first analyzed using FEM simulator. The meander line structure was simulated with 0.035-mm. The structhick copper having conductivity
substrate with
ture was placed on the
the relative dielectric constant
. The axial size of antenna 2 was first optimized for the 870 MHz frequency and the
was then used as the axial
same axial size
size of antenna 1.
Both transponder antennas were then fabricated on a substrate
having the same dimensions and dielectric properties as the simulated models. The resonant frequencies and the radiation patterns of the antennas were then measured. Fig. 3 shows the simulated and measured return losses as a function of frequency
for antennas 1 and 2. It can be seen that the resonant frequency
of antenna 1 is 70-MHz higher than the resonant
of antenna 2 having the same axial
frequency
length. The measured values agree well with the simulations.

Fig. 5. Simulated and measured radiation patterns of antenna 2.

As a reference, the axial length of the conventional half-wave

dipole having the resonant frequency of 870 MHz on the same
and for the
substrate is simulated to be
. The shortening ratios
940-MHz frequency
and
, respecof antennas 1 and 2 are
of antenna 2 compared to antenna 1 is
.
tively.
In Figs. 4 and 5, simulated and measured radiation patterns
of antennas 1 and 2 are shown. Simulated radiation patterns correspond to the radiation pattern of the conventional dipole antenna. The measured values agree with the simulations. The simand
.
ulated maximum gains were
Handwriting font was also tested as a text meander line antenna (Fig. 6). Handwriting fonts are suitable for text meander
line antennas, as the connection of letters can be made without
discontinues. The axial length of the antenna was again

374

Fig. 6.

IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 3, 2004

Configuration of antenna 3.

. The simulated resonance frequency for antenna 3

. The shortening ratio
and the
was
. This structure has the best shortening ratio
gain
of these three proposed structures. Thus, the shortening ratio is
increased at the expense of antenna gain.
IV. CONCLUSION
A new approach of using text as a meander line for miniaturized dipole antennas for UHF band RFID applications is proposed. The three different structures of text dipole antennas have
been examined numerically using a finite element method simulator. The impedance matching and the radiation properties of
the fabricated antennas were also measured and the results were
compared with the simulated values. Shortening ratios of 16%
and 22% were reported for antennas 1 and 2, respectively. By

joining the letters of the text to form a meander line antenna, the
shortening ratio was increased. Handwriting fonts are suitable
for text meander line antennas, as the connection of letters can
be made without discontinues. If the height of the text used for
meander line compared to the length of the text or the text has
only a couple of letters like RFID the shortening ratio could
be larger.
REFERENCES
[1] K. Finkenzeller, RFID Handbook, 2nd ed. New York: Wiley, 2003.
[2] S. Best, On the resonant properties of the Koch fractal and other wire
monopole antennas, IEEE Antennas Wireless Propagat. Lett., vol. 1,
pp. 7476, 2002.
[3] M. Takiguchi and Y. Yamada, Input impedance increase of a very small
meander line antenna, in Proc. IEEE Antennas and Propagation Soc.
Int. Symp., June 2227, 2003, pp. 856859.
[4] J. Rashed and C.-T. Tai, A new class of resonant antennas, IEEE Trans.
Antennas Propagat., vol. 39, pp. 14281430, Sep. 1991.
[5] H. Nakano, H. Tagami, A. Yoshizawa, and J. Yamauchi, Shortening
ratios of modified dipole antennas, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat.,
vol. AP-32, pp. 385386, Apr. 1984.
[6] G. Marrocco, Gain-optimized self-resonant meander line antennas for
RFID applications, IEEE Antennas Wireless Propagat. Lett., vol. 2, pp.
302305, 2003.