On Increasing of Read Range of Miniaturized UHF Tags

This paper presents a passive booster to improve the read range of miniaturized UHF RFID tags attached to small metallic objects. The improvement is realized by coupling the tag antenna to an auxiliary radiating dipole-based radiating structure. A cost-effective prototype of the radiating element was realized on FR4, kept at the right distance from the miniaturized tag by means of a properly optimized low-permittivity 3D-printed support structure. Measurement results show that the read range is increased by a factor of 24, passing from 0.35 m without the booster up to 8.4 m with the booster.