Title: Impact of human presence on the read zones of passive UHF RFID systems

Authors: Darmindra D. Arumugam, Ananyaa Gautham, Gaurov Narayanaswamy, Nikhil Ayer, Daniel W. Engels

Addresses: Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX 76019-0016, USA. ' Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX 76019-0016, USA. ' Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX 76019-0016, USA. ' Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX 76019-0016, USA. ' Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX 76019-0016, USA

Abstract: In this paper, we study the impact of human presence on the read zones of passive UHF RFID systems using the finite-element method (FEM) with a full length model of a homogeneous human body, consisting of 8 mm tetrahedrals and a total of 334,733 tetrahedrals. The study presented analyses UHF RFID systems operating in the FCC allowed band of 902 MHz to 928 MHz with a typical 7.4 dB gain RFID reader patch antenna located at 0°, 45° and 90° angles in the front, back, top and side of the human body. This paper presents evidence for the first time that allows a visualisation of the deformation of the RFID reader antenna read zones when in the presence of a human body and derives theory using modelling techniques from experimental as well as simulation results.

Keywords: passive UHF RFID; read zones; human body models; radio frequency identification; human presence; finite element method; FEM; modelling; visualisation; deformation; RFID reader; RFID antenna.

DOI: 10.1504/IJRFITA.2009.023482

International Journal of Radio Frequency Identification Technology and Applications, 2009 Vol.2 No.1/2, pp.46 - 64

Published online: 24 Feb 2009 *

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