Low‐cost surface‐reduction technique for RFID reader antennas

A low-cost technique for surface reduction of patch antennas is presented. It is based on the slow wave phenomenon. To create slow wave, a frequency selective surface has been burned on the ground plane of a patch antenna. With this technique, a patch antenna has been designed. An antenna for RFID reader at 915 MHz has been designed and simulated. It uses a 1.6-mm-thick FR4 epoxy substrate (er = 4.5 h = 1.6 mm tan (δ) = 0.02) measures 61 mm × 65 mm. His maximum gain is 2 dB. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 52: 1469–1471, 2010; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.25241