RFID smart shelf system design

Abstract

Radio Frequency Identification System (RFID) technology is evolving as a major technology enabler for items tracking and inventory management. It is an automated data-capture technology that can be used to electronically identify, tract and store information about groups of products or individual items. The great appeal of RFID technology is that it allows information to be stored and read without requiring either contact or a line of sight between the tag and the reader. Because such technology conveniently dispenses with manual counting of items, it greatly reduces man-made errors and thus improves the accuracy of information. In this report, a brief introduction into RFID technology will be given. On top of that, the main components that build up a RFID system will be listed and elaborated. After that it will be followed by a discussion of basic principle behind an RFID operation. The focus for this report will be the design of antenna, because the antenna is the most crucial factor that determines the performance of an RFID system. To give a better understanding about antenna design, few fundamentals about antenna theory and principles will be discussed. After that, few antenna designs for RFID system will be proposed, constructed, and tested. These antenna designs will be implemented for two different RFID systems. The first one is RFID Smart Shelf System, and the second one is RFID Smart Cabinet System.