The operating principles of RFID antennas should be considered differently than it is applied in the classical theory of radio communication systems. The procedure of measuring the radiation pattern of antennas that could be applied to RFID transponders operating in the UHF band is seldom discussed correctly in the scientific literature. The problem consists in the variability of the RFID chip impedance that strongly influences measurement results. The authors propose the proper methodology for determining the radiation pattern with respect to an individual transponder as well as an electronically tagged object. The advantage of the solution consists in the possibility of using components of different measuring systems that are available in typical antenna laboratories. The proposed procedure is particularly important in terms of parameter validation - the identification efficiency and costs of an RFID system implementation can be evaluated properly only on the basis of real values of considered parameters.

The authors paid particular attention to the problem of antenna impedance measurements in the RFID technique. These measurements have to be realized by using two ports of a vector network analyzer and dedicated passive differential probes. Since the measurement process and estimated parameters depend on the frequency band, operating conditions, type of the system component and antenna designs used, appropriate verification of the impedance parameters on the basis of properly conducted experiments is a crucial stage in the antenna synthesis of transponders and read/write devices. Accordingly, a systematized procedure of impedance measurements is proposed. It can be easily implemented by designers preparing antennas for different kinds of RFID applications. The essence of indirect measurements of the differential impedance parameters is discussed in details. The experimental verification has been made on the basis of a few representative examples.

A mixed pseudo-orthogonal frequency coding (Mixed-POFC) structure is proposed as a new spreadspectrum technique in this paper, which employs frequency and time diversity to enhance tag properties and balances the spectrum utilization and code diversity. The coding method of SAW RFID tags in this paper uses Mixed-POFC with multi-track chip arrangements. The cross-correlation and auto correlation of Mixed-POFC and POFC are calculated to demonstrate the reduced overlap between the adjacent center frequencies with the Mixed-POFC method. The center frequency of the IDT and Bragg reflectors is calculated by a coupling of modes (COM) module. The combination of the calculation results of the Bragg reflectors shows that compared with a 7-chip POFC, the coding number of a 7-chip Mixed-POFC is increased from 120 to 144 with the same fractional bandwidth of 12%. To demonstrate the validity of Mixed-POFC, finite element analysis (FEA) technology is used to analyze the frequency characteristics of Mixed-POFC chips. The maximum error between designed frequencies and simulation frequencies is only 1.7%, which verifies that the Mixed-POFC method is feasible.

The operation of an anti-collision RFID system is characterized by the interrogation zone which should be estimated in any direction of 3D space for a group of electronic transponders. The interrogation zone should be as large as possible. However, the many problems in this area are due to the fact that energy can be transferred to transponders only on a limited distance. The greatest flexibility in developing RFID applications and shaping the interrogation zone can be achieved using the system with an antenna multiplexer. Therefore the problem of the interrogation zone determination in HF RFID systems with two orthogonal RWD antennas is presented in the paper. The perceived issues have been effectively dealt with and the solution has been proposed on the basis of the elaborated model. Conducted studies have been used to develop the software tool JankoRFIDmuxHF in the Mathcad environment. The research results are analysed in an example system configuration. The specialized measuring stand has been used for experimental verification of the identification efficiency. The convergence of the measurements and calculations confirms a practical usefulness of the presented concept of interrogation zone determination in anti-collision systems. It also shows the practical utility of the developed model and software tools.

Temperature change is one of key factors which should be taken into account in logistics during transportation or storage of many types of goods. In this study, a passive UHF RFID-enabled sensor system for elevated temperature (above 58°C) detection has been demonstrated. This system consists of an RFID reader and disposable temperature sensor comprising an UHF antenna, chip and temperature sensitive unit. The UHF antenna was designed and simulated in an IE3D software. The properties of the system were examined depending on the temperature level, type of package which contains the studied objects and the type of antenna substrate.

The three-dimensional (3D) coordinate measurement of radio frequency identification (RFID) multi-tag

networks is one of the important issues in the field of RFID, which affects the reading performance of

RFID multi-tag networks. In this paper, a novel method for 3D coordinate measurement of RFID multitag

networks is proposed. A dual-CCD system (vertical and horizontal cameras) is used to obtain images of

RFID multi-tag networks from different angles. The iterative threshold segmentation and the morphological

filtering method are used to process the images. The template matching method is respectively used to

determine the two-dimensional (2D) coordinate and the vertical coordinate of each tag. After that, the

3D coordinate of each tag is obtained. Finally, a back-propagation (BP) neural network is used to model

the nonlinear relationship between the RFID multi-tag network and the corresponding reading distance.

The BP neural network can predict the reading distances of unknown tag groups and find out the optimal

distribution structure of the tag groups corresponding to the maximum reading distance. In the future work,

the corresponding in-depth research on the neural network to adjust the distribution of tags will be done.

The paper discusses possible applications of wireless technologies in support of lean manufacturing tools. The typology of lean tools is provided. It distinguishes three main categories, which are identification and analysis of waste, improvement implementation, and process monitoring. The set of lean tools was analyzed in terms of information requirements. On the other hand, the typology of wireless technologies was discussed including RFID and Wi-Fi. The literature review of wireless technology applications for support of lean tools was conducted. The literature was systematically reviewed from the point of view of specific technologies and specific tools which were the subjects of the analyzed publications. Both typologies were synthesized to establish a framework for wireless technologies applications in the context of lean manufacturing implementation. It also could serve as a guideline for lean practitioners and implies future research directions. This paper is an extended version of paper published by [1].