Validating IFA Design via Measurement

This application note presents a design of a printed inverted-F antenna (IFA) used in a radio-frequency identification (RFID) reader verified through the measurements. The IFA was built and simulated using WIPL-D Pro CAD environment – the highly advanced method-of-moments (MoM) based EM simulation tool that allows simulation of complex EM devices in seconds or minutes on inexpensive regular desktop or laptop configurations. Various real-life EM effects if IFA environment, such is influence of neighboring metallic objects, were taken into the account. The simulation of the designed IFA used in RFID reader is carried out on a regular desktop PC in approximately one minute per frequency point. The simulation time is higher than the expected owing to presence of very thin flexible substrate (100um) used to fabricate the antenna and the complex details of a realistic environment surrounding the antenna.

The inverted-F antenna was prototyped to verify compliance with the customer specification through the measurements. The measurement of the fabricated IFA was carried out at the School of Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade. The measurement is in an excellent agreement with the simulated data. The good agreement and successful fulfilment of all design requirements have resulted in the antenna becoming a part of a commercial RFID product.

Besides the core business of the WIPL-D company which is the development of the state-of-the-art full wave EM simulation tools, the consulting services are also the important asset of the company. This is the result of high competence and expert knowledge gained over the years and accumulated throughout customer support, continued education, collaboration with the universities, literature surveys, involvement in many consulting services and collaborative projects etc.

Section: Antenna Design

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