New Approaches For Augmented UHF RFID Textile Yarn

In the context of smart textiles, this paper addresses the evolution of the UHF RFID technology towards novel functionalities such as physical parameters sensing and tag' s integration with the identified object since the fabrication step. More precisely, the first part is dedicated to the presentation of physical parameters sensing such as temperature and humidity starting UHF RFID yarns. The second part of this paper deals with the design and the characterization of a helical antenna able to support elongation efforts and so offering a better integration with the textile wire.

I. Introduction

The popular concept of Internet of Things (IoT) is most commonly achieved using wireless systems. Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) is one solution among the plethora of radiofrequency low power consumption protocols designed for the IoT. Already deployed in wide and various range of other applications [1–2], the ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID systems are of particular interest also in this context. For RFID communication, the concept of wearables has been growing in the last years. The major requirement when designing wearable antennas is to make the technology invisible to the users, passing from the traditional idea of a tag associated to an object toward the concept of a tag integrated into the object itself [3]. Thus, in complement to the current approaches to manufacture 3D and wearable RFID tags [4–7], and based on the industrial E-thread technology [8], the approach presented in [9] re-invented the RFID tag form factor. The E-thread technology proposes a slender and conformable RFID tag able to be wound in a spool.