Malgré les nombreux avantages que procure la RFID, son déploiement demeure freiné par plusieurs facteurs aussi bien économiques, que technologiques. Parmi ces freins, on peut citer le coût encore trop élevé des tags, le manque de fiabilité et de sécurité dans les informations contenues dans la puce RFID mais aussi les aspects «recyclage» des tags. Dans cette thèse nous nous focalisons sur le développement de tags RFID sans puce, qui représentent une nouvelle famille de tags bas coût. Avec cette technologie, l'information est extraite à partir de la réponse électromagnétique du tag qui dépend uniquement de sa géométrie. Différentes solutions ont été développées dans le but d'augmenter la quantité d'informations, de réduire la surface du tag ou encore d'améliorer la robustesse de détection. Des considérations pratiques tel que l'aspect réalisation sur substrat papier, le développement d'un système de détection bas coût, ou encore l'aspect mesure dans un environnement réel on été adressés afin d'établir une preuve de concept. Des travaux sur la réalisation de capteurs RFID sans puce et sur le moyen de rendre un tag sans puce reconfigurable sont présentés en guise de perspective. / Despite the many benefits of RFID, deployment is still hindered by several factors both economic and technological. Among these barriers include the cost of tags still too high, lack of reliability and security in the information contained in the RFID chip but also aspects "recycling" of tags. In this thesis we focus on the development of chipless RFID tag, which represent a new family of low cost tags. With this technology, information is extracted from the electromagnetic response of the tag which depends only on its geometry. Various solutions have been developed to increase the amount of information, reduce the surface of the tag or to improve the robustness of detection. Practical considerations such as realization using paper substrate, the development of a low cost detection system, or measurements in a real environment have been addressed in order to establish proof of concept. The last works concerning chipless RFID sensor or about the way to make a chipless tag fully reconfigurable are presented as a perspective.

The objective of this research is to explore the feasibility of a chipless RFID tag that stores a data signature in the form of complex frequency plane singularities. To this end an existing chipless RFID tag, the notched elliptical dipole tag, was analyzed first with simulations and then measurements. A pole signature was extracted from simulations, and individual poles were determined via experimentation to be attributable to specific controllable features of the tag. The poles were shown to be independent of both excitation and observation. A prototype tag was measured, and the pole signature was retrieved from the scattered fields. The tag was successfully read for different orientations showing that embedded singularities can be used as a means for encoding and retrieving data. / Master of Science

La technologie d’identification radiofréquence (RFID) est aujourd’hui une technologie mature qui est amenée à remplacer le code à barre dans un futur proche. Au milieu de toutes les familles de RFID, la technologie RFID sans puce Ultra Large Bande (ULB) est devenue un sujet incontournable. Au cours de cette thèse, nous avons contribué au développement d’un lecteur de tag RFID sans puce ULB en nous basant sur une approche impulsionnelle. Deux prototypes de lecteur ont été développés en suivant les limitations d’émissions de la technologie ULB imposées par les normes. Le premier lecteur a permis principalement de valider le principe de la lecture de tags RFID sans puce en utilisant le temps équivalent. Une deuxième version du lecteur plus aboutis a ensuite été développée. En effet, la précision de lecture a été optimisée grâce à la réduction du bruit d’échantillonnage. Le temps de lecture ainsi que le coût du lecteur ont aussi été des paramètres clés qui ont été drastiquement réduits. Pour cela, un générateur d’impulsion faible bruit bas coût ainsi que des antennes ULB et des cartes de front-end RF ont été conçus et optimisés. Enfin, une technique de lecture des tags basée sur la diversité en polarisation est proposée et validée en pratique. L’objectif étant de permettre la lecture de tag dépolarisant indépendamment de leur orientation. Ce point est un aspect très important pour le développement futur de la technologie RFID sans puce car cela lève des contraintes sur la conception des tags / The RFID technology is in full development, and is intended to substitute barcode in the next future. Between all the RFID families, the UWB chipless RFID technology is a major topic nowadays. With this thesis we focus on development of UWB chipless RFID readers, based on IR-UWB approach.The international regulations that limit the UWB emission are taken into consideration, and two reader prototypes developed. The first was as a concept car, and therefore used as proof of concept. The second version represents a full optimized reader in all the key aspects. Between them, the reading precision, through sampling noise reduction, the reading time, and cost effectiveness. As part of reader development, a low noise and low cost UWB pulse generator prototype was realized, along with UWB antennas, and RF front-end boards. As prospective, a reading technique based on polarization diversity is shown, with the aim of reading cross-polarized tags independently from their orientation. This approach is valuable because does not give any constraint at the tag design level

Orientador: Leonardo Lorenzo Bravo Roger / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Tecnologia / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-26T21:14:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 SantosSouza_GilbertodeTadeu_M.pdf: 4051949 bytes, checksum: 3271a81290629f1d51c661d022a0cbd7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015 / Resumo: O projeto e a análise teórico-experimental de uma nova etiqueta sem chip para RFID com comunicação redundante é apresentado. Esta nova etiqueta poderá ser capaz de operar em duas bandas de frequências diferentes para a transmissão da informação binária, aproveitando a utilização em sua concepção de antenas dual-band. A técnica aqui mencionada é clássica, conhecida como diversidade de frequência, mas é utilizada neste trabalho pela primeira vez aplicada em etiquetas chipless de RFID visando aumentar a confiabilidade da comunicação com as leitoras de RFID. Simulações realizadas do novo dispositivo proposto com o software HFSS (High Frequency Structural Simulator) mostraram o seu desempenho adequado. A metodologia do projeto é apresentada passo a passo e os resultados são analisados e discutidos no texto / Abstract: The project and the theoretical-experimental analysis of a new chipless RFID tag with redundant communication is presented. This new tag may be capable to operate in two different frequencies bands for the transmission of binary information, taking advantage of the use in its design of dual-band antennas. The technique mentioned here is classic, known as frequency diversity, but it is used in this work for the first time applied in chipless RFID tags to increase the reliability of the communication with the RFID readers. Simulations of the proposed new device with HFSS (High Frequency Structural Simulator) software showed an adequate performance. The project methodology is presented step by step and the results are analyzed and discussed in the text / Mestrado / Tecnologia e Inovação / Mestre em Tecnologia

Malgré les nombreux avantages que procure la RFID, son déploiement demeure freiné par plusieurs facteurs aussi bien économiques, que technologiques. Parmi ces freins, on peut citer le coût encore trop élevé des tags, le manque de fiabilité et de sécurité dans les informations contenues dans la puce RFID mais aussi les aspects "recyclage" des tags. Dans cette thèse nous nous focalisons sur le développement de tags RFID sans puce, qui représentent une nouvelle famille de tags bas coût. Avec cette technologie, l'information est extraite à partir de la réponse électromagnétique du tag qui dépend uniquement de sa géométrie. Différentes solutions ont été développées dans le but d'augmenter la quantité d'informations, de réduire la surface du tag ou encore d'améliorer la robustesse de détection. Des considérations pratiques tel que l'aspect réalisation sur substrat papier, le développement d'un système de détection bas coût, ou encore l'aspect mesure dans un environnement réel on été adressés afin d'établir une preuve de concept. Des travaux sur la réalisation de capteurs RFID sans puce et sur le moyen de rendre un tag sans puce reconfigurable sont présentés en guise de perspective.

The state-of-the-art commercially available radio-frequency identification (RFID) transponders are usually composed of an antenna and an application specific integrated circuit chip, which still makes them very costly compared to the well-established barcode technology. Therefore, a novel low-cost RFID system solution based on passive chipless RFID transponders manufactured using conductive strips on flexible substrates is proposed in this work. The chipless RFID transponders follow a specific structure design, which aim is to modify the shape of the impinged electromagnetic wave to embed anidentification code in it and then backscatter the encoded signal to the reader. This dissertation comprises a multidisciplinary research encompassing the design of low-cost chipless RFID transponders with a novel frequency coding technique, unlike usually disregarded in literature, this approach considers the communication channel effects and assigns a unique frequency response to each transponder. Hence, the identification codes are different enough, to reduce the detection error and improve their automatic recognition by the reader while working under normal conditions. The chipless RFID transponders are manufactured using different materials and state-of-the-art mass production fabrication processes, like printed electronics. Moreover, two different reader front-ends working in the ultra-wideband (UWB) frequency range are used to interrogate the chipless RFID transponders. The first one is built using high-performance off-theshelf components following the stepped frequency modulation (SFM) radar principle, and the second one is a commercially available impulse radio (IR) radar. Finally, the two readers are programmed with algorithms based on the conventional minimum distance and maximum likelihood detection techniques, considering the whole transponder radio frequency (RF) response, instead of following the commonly used approach of focusing on specific parts of the spectrum to detect dips or peaks. The programmed readers automatically identify when a chipless RFID transponder is placed within their interrogation zones and proceed to the successful recognition of its embedded identification code. Accomplishing in this way, two novel fully automatic SFM- and IRRFID readers for chipless transponders. The SFM-RFID system is capable to successfully decode up to eight different chipless RFID transponders placed sequentially at a maximum reading range of 36 cm. The IR-RFID system up to four sequentially and two simultaneously placed different chipless RFID transponders within a 50 cm range.:Acknowledgments Abstract Kurzfassung Table of Contents Index of Figures Index of Tables Index of Abbreviations Index of Symbols 1 Introduction 1.1 Motivation 1.2 Scope of Application 1.3 Objectives and Structure Fundamentals of the RFID Technology 2.1 Automatic Identification Systems Background 2.1.1 Barcode Technology 2.1.2 Optical Character Recognition 2.1.3 Biometric Procedures 2.1.4 Smart Cards 2.1.5 RFID Systems 2.2 RFID System Principle 2.2.1 RFID Features 2.3 RFID with Chipless Transponders 2.3.1 Time Domain Encoding 2.3.2 Frequency Domain Encoding 2.4 Summary Manufacturing Technologies 3.1 Organic and Printed Electronics 3.1.1 Substrates 3.1.2 Organic Inks 3.1.3 Screen Printing 3.1.4 Flexography 3.2 The Printing Process 3.3 A Fabrication Alternative with Aluminum or Copper Strips 3.4 Fabrication Technologies for Chipless RFID Transponders 3.5 Summary UWB Chipless RFID Transponder Design 4.1 Scattering Theory 4.1.1 Radar Cross-Section Definition 4.1.2 Radar Absorbing Material’s Principle 4.1.3 Dielectric Multilayers Wave Matrix Analysis 4.1.4 Frequency Selective Surfaces 4.2 Double-Dipoles UWB Chipless RFID Transponder 4.2.1 An Infinite Double-Dipole Array 4.2.2 Double-Dipoles UWB Chipless Transponder Design 4.2.3 Prototype Fabrication 4.3 UWB Chipless RFID Transponder with Concentric Circles 4.3.1 Concentric Circles UWB Chipless Transponder 4.3.2 Concentric Rings UWB Chipless RFID Transponder 4.4 Concentric Octagons UWB Chipless Transponders 4.4.1 Concentric Octagons UWB Chipless Transponder Design 1 4.4.2 Concentric Octagons UWB Chipless Transponder Design 2 4.5 Summary 5. RFID Readers for Chipless Transponders 5.1 Background 5.1.1 The Radar Range Equation 5.1.2 Range Resolution 5.1.3 Frequency Band Selection 5.2 Frequency Domain Reader Test System 5.2.1 Stepped Frequency Waveforms 5.2.2 Reader Architecture 5.2.3 Test System Results 5.3 Time Domain Reader 5.3.1 Novelda Radar 5.3.2 Test System Results 5.4 Summary Detection of UWB Chipless RFID Transponders 6.1 Background 6.2 The Communication Channel 6.2.1 AWGN Channel Modeling and Detection 6.2.2 Free-Space Path Loss Modeling and Normalization 6.3 Detection and Decoding of Chipless RFID Transponders 6.3.1 Minimum Distance Detector 6.3.2 Maximum Likelihood Detector 6.3.3 Correlator Detector 6.3.4 Test Results 6.4 Simultaneous Detection of Multiple UWB Chipless Transponders 6.5 Summary System Implementation 7.1 SFM-UWB RFID System with CR-Chipless Transponders 7.2 IR-UWB RFID System with COD1-Chipless Transponders 7.3 Summary Conclusion and Outlook References Publications Appendix A RCS Calculation Measurement Setups Appendix B Resistance and Skin Depth Calculation Appendix C List of Videos Test Videos Consortium Videos Curriculum Vitae

Ce travail de thèse a été réalisé dans le cadre d'un contrat avec l'ANR (ANR-09-VERS-013 « THID ») et porte sur le développement d'une nouvelle génération de tags Chipless à bas coûts fonctionnant dans le domaine THz, pour des applications d'identification et/ou authentification unitaire des articles commerciaux, des papiers d'identités, des personnes pour le contrôle d'accès... Les structures proposées, constituées d'un empilement périodique de couches diélectriques d'indices de réfraction différents, utilisent les propriétés particulières des cristaux photoniques 1D de présenter une réponse électromagnétique entrecoupée de bandes interdites photoniques (BIP). Toute perturbation de la périodicité de la structure engendre des pics dans les bandes interdites qui sont utilisés pour coder une information binaire. Cette structuration particulière des matériaux permet donc de manipuler précisément une signature électromagnétique. Pour des raisons liées à l'industrialisation (facilité de fabrication en masse) et aussi de coût, nous avons retenu des matériaux de base déjà couramment utilisés dans l'industrie papetière : le papier et le polyéthylène. Le choix de ces matériaux, qui doivent allier contraste d'indice élevé et faible absorption, représente une étape cruciale dans ce travail. Ainsi, à partir des résultats expérimentaux obtenus par spectroscopie THz dans le domaine temporel (THz-TDS) sur un grand nombre de matériaux, nous avons pu concevoir deux familles de tags sur la base de ces différents matériaux. Par ailleurs, nous avons développé deux méthodes de codage d'une information binaire, toutes deux basées sur l'absence ou la présence de pics dans une BIP, pics dont la position et le nombre dépendent bien évidemment des défauts de périodicité introduits. Pour des applications liées à l'identification, des capacités de codage de près de 20 bits ont été démontrées. Nous avons aussi montré que la richesse d'information contenue dans la réponse électromagnétique de ces Tags THz peut être utilisée pour les applications liées à l'authentification unitaire, en utilisant comme critère de discrimination le coefficient d'autocorrélation. Nous avons ainsi pu évaluer les performances d'un test d'authentification basé sur ce critère dans différents domaines d'analyse : temporel, fréquentiel et temps-fréquence. Nous avons montré qu'une étude du spectrogramme (combinant temps et fréquence) est ainsi bien plus pertinente qu'une étude dans les seuls domaines temporel ou fréquentiel. / This thesis work deals with the development of a new generation of low-cost Chipless tags operating in the THz frequency domain, it has been supported by the french national agency for research (ANR-09-VERS-013 « THID » ). It covers a wide area of applications such as the identification and/or unitary authentication of commercial items, identity papers, access control…To manufacture these tags, we proposed to use a periodic stack of dielectric material layers with different refractive index and whose thickness is of the order of the wavelength, commonly known as a one dimensional photonic crystal. The electromagnetic signature of such a structure exhibits photonic bandgaps (PBG), i.e. frequency windows in which light propagation is prohibited. We suggested modifying the periodicity of the crystal to create defect levels (peaks) for example in the 1st PBG to encode binary information. This particular structure allows to precisely tuned an electromagnetic signature. To ensure a mass and cost effective industrialization, we retained basic materials which are widely used in the pulp and paper industry: paper and polyethylene. The choice of these materials, which must combine high index contrast and low absorption, represents the first and a crucial step in this work. We characterize a wide range of materials using classical THz time domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) and we propose two families of tags based on paper and polyethylene. Furthermore, we developed two methods to encode binary information, both based on the absence or presence of peaks in a PBG, peaks whose number and position depend on the introduced defects of periodicity. In a real identification test, a coding capacity of nearly 20-bit has been demonstrated. We also showed that the information contained in the electromagnetic response of these THz tags can be used for other applications related to the unitary authentication and by using the correlation coefficient as criterion for discrimination of the different signatures. Therefore, we evaluate the performance of an authentication test based on this criterion in various analysis domains: time, frequency and time-frequency. We showed that a study of the spectrogram (combining time and frequency representation) is much more relevant than a study in the only time or frequency domain.

An ID generating circuit is unquestionably the core of a chipless RFID tag. For convenience of printing process and cost consideration, the circuit should be kept as simple as possible. Based on the cognition, an 8-bit time-domain based ID generating circuit that merely consists of a ML and eight capacitors was offered, and implemented on photo-paper substrates via inkjet printing process. In addition to the experimental measurements, the circuit was also input into circuit simulators for cross-validation. The good agreement between simulations and measurements is observed, exhibiting the tag technical feasibility. Besides of low cost, the tag has wide compatibility with current licensed RFID spectrum, which will facilitate the future deployment in real applications. Compared   to  time-domain   based  chipless   tags,  frequency   signatures   based chipless RFID tags are expected to offer a larger coding capacity. As a response, we presented a 10-bit frequency-domain based chipless RFID tag. The tag composed of ten configurable LC resonators was implemented on flexible polyimide substrate by using  fast  toner-transferring  process.  Field  measurements  revealed  not  only  the practicability  of  the  tag,  but  also  the  high  signal  to  noise  ratio  (SNR).  Another frequency domain tag consists of a configurable coplanar LC resonator. With the use of all printing process, the tag was for the first time realized on common packaging papers.  The tag feasibility was confirmed by subsequent measurements. Owing to the ultra-low cost potential and large SNR, The tag may find wide applications in typical RFID solutions such as management of paper tickets for social events and governing of smart documents. Ultra wide band (UWB) technology possesses a number of inherent merits such as high speed communication and large capacity, multi-path immunity, accurate ranging and positioning, penetration through obstacles, as well as extremely low-cost and low- power transmitters. Thus, passive UWB RFIDs are expected to play an important pole in  the future identification applications for IoT. We explained the feature difference between  UWB  chipless  tags  and  chip  based  tags,  and  forecasted  the  applications respectively  based on the comparison  between the two technologies.  It is expected that the two technologies will coexist and compensate each other in the applications of IoT. Lastly, the thesis ends up with brief summary of the author’s contributions, and technical prospect for the future development of printable chipless RFID tags. / <p>QC 20140304</p>

Radio frequency identification (RFID) and sensing are two key technologies enabling the Internet of Things (IoT). Development of RFID tags augmented with sensing capabilities (RFID sensor tags) would allow a variety of new applications, leading to a new paradigm of the IoT. Chipless RFID sensor technology offers a low-cost solution by eliminating the need of an integrated circuit (IC) chip, and is hence highly desired for many applications. On the other hand, printing technologies have revolutionized the world of electronics, enabling cost-effective manufacturing of large-area and flexible electronics. By means of printing technologies, chipless RFID sensor tags could be made flexible and lightweight at a very low cost, lending themselves to the realization of ubiquitous intelligence in the IoT era. This thesis investigated three construction methods of printable chipless RFID humidity sensor tags, with focus on the incorporation of the sensing function. In the first method, wireless sensing based on backscatter modulation was separately realized by loading an antenna with a humidity-sensing resistor. An RFID sensor tag could then be constructed by combining the wireless sensor with a chipless RFID tag. In the second method, a chipless RFID sensor tag was built up by introducing a delay line between the antenna and the resistor. Based on time-domain reflectometry (TDR), the tag encoded ID in the delay time between its structural-mode and antenna-mode scattering pulse, and performed the sensing function by modulating the amplitude of the antenna-mode pulse. In both of the above methods, a resistive-type humidity-sensing material was required. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) presented themselves as promising candidate due to their outstanding electrical, structural and mechanical properties. MWCNTs functionalized (f-MWCNTs) by acid treatment demonstrated high sensitivity and fast response to relative humidity (RH), owing to the presence of carboxylic acid groups. The f-MWCNTs also exhibited superior mechanical flexibility, as their resistance and sensitivity remained almost stable under either tensile or compressive stress. Moreover, an inkjet printing process was developed for the f-MWCNTs starting from ink formulation to device fabrication. By applying the f-MWCNTs, a flexible humidity sensor based on backscatter modulation was thereby presented. The operating frequency range of the sensor was significantly enhanced by adjusting the parasitic capacitance in the f-MWCNTs resistor. A fully-printed time-coded chipless RFID humidity sensor tag was also demonstrated. In addition, a multi-parameter sensor based on TDR was proposed.The sensor concept was verified by theoretical analysis and circuit simulation. In the third method, frequency-spectrum signature was utilized considering its advantages such as coding capacity, miniaturization, and immunity to noise. As signal collision problem is inherently challenging in chipless RFID sensor systems, short-range identification and sensing applications are believed to embody the core values of the chipless RFID sensor technology. Therefore a chipless RFID humidity sensor tag based on near-field inductive coupling was proposed. The tag was composed of two planar inductor-capacitor (LC) resonators, one for identification, and the other one for sensing. Moreover, paper was proposed to serve as humidity-sensing substrate for the sensor resonator on accounts of its porous and absorptive features. Both inkjet paper and ordinary packaging paper were studied. A commercial UV-coated packaging paper was proven to be a viable and more robust alternative to expensive inkjet paper as substrate for inkjet-printed metal conductors. The LC resonators printed on paper substrates showed excellent sensitivity and reasonable response time to humidity in terms of resonant frequency. Particularly, the resonator printed on the UV-coated packaging paper exhibited the largest sensitivity from 20% to 70% RH, demonstrating the possibilities of directly printing the sensor tag on traditional packages to realize intelligent packaging at an ultra-low cost. / <p>QC 20150326</p>

L’essor considérable de la RFID s’accompagne actuellement par le développement de nombreuses technologies qui viennent compléter l’offre déjà présente tout en cherchant à répondre à de nouvelles problématiques. La RFID sans puce (ou chipless) en est un exemple ; l’objectif affiché est de réduire considérablement le prix du tag ainsi que d’augmenter significativement la quantité d’information qu’il contient de manière à pouvoir concurrencer le code à barres tout en conservant les bénéfices d’une approche de lecture flexible basée sur une communication par ondes radio. Pour répondre à la problématique de la quantité d’information d’un tag, ce travail de thèse propose une nouvelle méthode de codage basée sur la forme globale du RCS du tag. Pour ce faire, il faut être capable de réaliser des tags dont le RCS est donné, ce qui consiste à résoudre un problème inverse. Une méthode de conception basée sur l’assemblage de motifs résonants est proposée. Les principales caractéristiques de ces éléments de base (amplitude, fréquence, coefficient de qualités) sont contrôlées par des paramètres géométriques. / The important growth of RFID goes along with the development of many technologies which complement the current offer by adding new possibilities. The chipless RFID is a perfect example of such technology. The purpose of the approach is to considerably reduce the price of the tag while increasing the data encoding capacity in order to compete with the barcode. The RF link between the tag and the reader also permit a flexible reading. In order to increase the coding capacity of a chipless tag, this PHD work proposes a new coding method based on the overall shape of the electromagnetic signature. To do this, we must be able design tags for which the RCS is given in advance, which amounts to the resolution of an inverse problem. A method based on the decomposition of the RCS on a base of resonators is proposed. The main characteristics of these base elements (amplitude, frequency, quality factor) are controlled by geometric parameters.