R

adio-frequency identification (RFID) is a wireless

data capturing technique that utilizes radio frequency (RF) waves for automatic identification
of objects. RFID relies on RF waves for data
transmission between the data carrying device, called the RFID tag, and the interrogator [1], [2].
A typical RFID system is shown in Figure 1. An
RFID system consists of three major components:
a reader or interrogator, which sends the interrogation signals to an RFID tag that is to be identified; an RFID tag or transponder, which contains
the identification code; and middleware software,
which maintains the interface and the software
protocol to encode and decode the identification
data from the reader into a mainframe or personal
computer. The RFID reader can read tags only
within the readers interrogation zone. The reader
is most commonly connected to a host computer,
which performs additional signal processing and
has a display of the tags identity [3]. The host computer can also be connected via the Internet for
global connectivity/networking.
The vast majority of RFID transponders (or tags)
are usually comprised of an antenna and integrated
circuit (IC) [4]. The IC performs all of the data processing and is powered by extracting power from the interrogation signal transmitted by the RFID reader. These
transponders are called passive due to the fact that they
do not have any on-board power supply. RFID transponders, which use on-board power supply (such as batteries) are
called active RFID tags. Passive RFID tags offer lower prices at

Chipless RFID:
Bar Code of the Future

DIGITAL VISION

Stevan Preradovic and Nemai Chandra Karmakar

Stevan Preradovic (stevan.preradovic@ieee.org), and Nemai Chandra Karmakar (nemai.karmakar@eng.monash.edu.au) are with the
Department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering, Bldg 72 Clayton Campus, Monash University, 3800 VIC Australia.

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MMM.2010.938571

December 2010

1527-3342/10/$26.002010 IEEE

87

Clock
RFID
Reader
Global
Network

Data

RFID Tag

Host
Computer

Figure 1. Block diagram of a typical RFID system.

the cost of shorter reading ranges (up to 3 m) when
compared to the more expensive long-range active
RFID tags (read up to 100 m). Various other transponders are found on todays market and are comprehensively presented in [5].
The cost of the entire RFID system is dependent on
the cost of the tag, which is dependant on the cost of its
IC [6]. Therefore, efforts have been put in developing
chipless RFID tags with no ICs, which mean that the
main cost of the tag is being removed. So far, the only
commercially available chipless RFID tag is the surface
acoustic wave (SAW) tag (developed by RF SAW) [7].
This article presents a comprehensive review of chipless RFID tags available on the market and reported
in peer-reviewed journals and conferences. However,
in the quest to be as comprehensive as possible the
authors have also referenced online internet articles
that report novel chipless RFID technologies.

Limitations of Bar Codes and Emergence

of Chipless RFID Concepts
Bar code labels have been used to track items and
stocks for sometime after their inception in the early

ASIC Design

ASIC
Manufacturing

ASIC Testing

Antenna
Manufacture

Tag Assembly

Conversion to
Label/Package

Figure 2. RFID label/tag manufacturing process.

88

1970s. Though bar codes are printed in marks and

spaces and are very cheap to implement, they present undeniable obstacles in terms of their short-range
readability and nonautomated tracking. These limitations currently cost large corporations millions of
dollars per annum [8].
The growing tendency today is to replace bar
codes with RFID tags, which have unique ID codes
for individual items that can be read at a longer distance. The obstacles of reading range and automation would be solved using RFID. The only reason
why RFID tags have not replaced the bar code is the
price of the tag. The cost of an existing RFID tag is
still much higher when compared to the price of
the bar code.
The main cost of an RFID tag comes from the chip
embedded as the information-carrying and processing
device in the tag. Significant investments and research
have been focused on lowering the price of the RFID
chip. As a result, the price of the RFID tag has become
lower [9]. However, the price of the RFID tag is still
not competitive when compared to the cost of the bar
code. The recent development of chipless tags without
silicon ICs has lowered the cost of the tags to a level
comparable to that of the bar code. Even though the
technology is still in its infancy, a number of developments have already been made in the industry, which
we overview here.

Difficulties of Achieving Low-Cost RFID

The use of RFID instead of optical bar codes has not
yet been achieved due to the greater price of the RFID
tag (US$0.10) compared to the price of the optical bar
code (US$0.5) [10]. The reasons why it is difficult to
produce cheap RFID tags are comprehensively presented in [11]. Fletcher advocates that application specific IC (ASIC) design and testing along with the tag
antenna and ASIC assembly result in a costly manufacturing process. This is why it is not possible to
further lower the price of the chipped RFID tag. The
basic steps for manufacturing a chipped RFID tag are
shown in Figure 2.
The design of silicon chips has been standardized for more than 30 years, and the cost of building
a silicon fabrication plant is in the billions of U.S.
dollars [12], [13]. Since silicon chips are fabricated
on a wafer-by-wafer basis, there is a fixed cost per
wafer (around US$1,000). As the cost of the wafer is
independent of the IC design, the cost of the RFID
chip can be estimated based on the required silicon
area for the RFID chip. Significant achievements
have been made in reducing the size of the transistors, allowing more transistors per wafer area [14].
Decreasing the amount of transistors needed results
in an even smaller silicon area, hence a lower RFID
chip price. As a result, great efforts have been made
by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

December 2010

to design an RFID ASIC with less than 8,000 transistors. Although this will reduce the price of the silicon chip, its miniature size imposes limitations and
further handling costs.
The cost of dividing the wafer, handling the die,
and placing them onto a label remains significant,
even if the cost of the RFID chip were next-to-nothing.
The cost of handling the die increases with the use of
smaller-than-standard chips, simply because the electronics industry is not standardized for them.
Hence, with highly optimized low transistor
count ASICs, implemented assembly processes and
extremely large quantities (over 1 billion) of RFID
chips sold per annum, a minimum cost of US$0.05 is
the reality for chipped RFID tags.
Given the inevitable high cost of silicon chip RFID
tags (when compared to optical bar codes), efforts to
design low-cost RFID tags without the use of traditional silicon ASICs have emerged. These tags, and
therefore systems, are known as chipless RFID systems. The expected cost of chipless RFID tags is below
US$0.01. Most chipless RFID systems use the electromagnetic (EM) properties of materials and/or design
various conductor layouts/shapes to achieve particular EM properties/behavior.

Review of Chipless RFID Tags

There have been some reported chipless RFID tag
developments in recent years. However, most are still
reported as prototypes, and only a handful are considered to be commercially viable or available. The challenge for researchers when designing chipless RFID
tags is how to perform data encoding without the
presence of a chip. In response to this problem, three

general types of RFID tags can be identified as shown

in Figure 3.
Based on the open literature, it is possible to categorize chipless RFID tags in three main categories:
time domain reflectometry (TDR)-based chipless
tags
spectral signature-based chipless tags
amplitude/Phase backscatter modulation-based
chipless tags.

Time-Domain Reflectometry-Based
Chipless Tags
TDR-based chipless RFID tags are interrogated by
sending a signal from the reader in the form of a pulse
and listening to the echoes of the pulse sent by the tag.
A train of pulses is thereby created, which can be used
to encode data.
The advantages of these tags when compared to
chipped tags are low cost, greater reading ranges, and
their applicability in localization/positioning applications. The disadvantages of these tags are the number of bits that can be encoded and high-speed RFID
reader RF front-ends required for generating and
detecting short ultrawideband (UWB) pulses.
Various RFID tags have been reported using
TDR-based technology for data encoding. We can
distinguish between nonprintable and printable TDRbased tags.
An example of a nonprintable TDR-based chipless
RFID tag is the SAW tag, for example, developed by
RFSAW Inc. [15]. SAW tags are excited by a chirped
Gaussian pulse sent by the reader centered around
2.45 GHz [16][20]. A SAW tag is shown in Figure 4.
The interrogation pulse is converted to a SAW using

Chipless RFID Tags

Spectral
Signature Based

TDR
TDR Based
based

Nonprintable
SAW Tags

Printable
TFTC
Delay-LineBased Tags

Chemical

Amplitude/Phase Backscatter
Modulation Based

Planar Circuits

Left-Hand (LH)
Delay Lines

Nanometric
Materials

Capacitively
Tuned Dipoles

Stub-Loaded
Patch Antenna

Ink-Tattoo
Chipless RFID

Space Filling
Curves

Remote Complex
Impedance

LC Resonant

Carbon
Nanotube Loading

Multiresonator
Based
Multiresonant
Dipoles

Figure 3. Classification of chipless RFID tags. TDR: Time-domain reflectometry; SAW: surface acoustic wave; TFTC:
thin-film-transistor circuit.
December 2010

89

Reflectors

Antenna

Amplitude
Input Signal
011

Reflected Signal
Generated ID: 011

11

11

10

10

01

01

Pulse Position
Modulation Code
Representation

00

Figure 4. Circuit architecture of a surface acoustic

wave tag [5].

110

Reflected Signal
Generated ID: 110

00

Interdigital
Transducer

Time

Figure 7. Interrogation and coding of delay-line-based

chipless tag [43].

Figure 5. Organic-thin-film-transistor circuit printed

on flexible plastic film. [Courtesy of National Institute
of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
(www.aist.go.jp) (www.aist.go.jp/aist_e/latest_
research/2008/20080728/20080728.html), reprinted with
permission.]

Antenna

Transmission
Delay Line

Place for
Sensor
Integration

Figure 6. Delay-line-based chipless tag with patch

antenna and delay line [43].
an interdigital transducer (IDT). The SAW propagates
across the piezoelectric crystal and is reflected by a
number of reflectors, which create a train of pulses with
phase shifts [21][28]. The train of pulses is converted
back to an EM wave using the IDT and detected at the
reader end where the tags ID is decoded [29][38].

90

Printable TDR-based chipless tags can be found

either as thin-film-transistor circuit (TFTC) or
microstrip-based tags with discontinuities. TFTC
tags are printed at high speed on low-cost plastic
film [39]. TFTC tags offer advantages over active and
passive chip-based tags due to their small size and
low power consumption. They require more power
than other chipless tags but offer more functionality. However, low-cost manufacturing processes for
TFTC tags have not yet been developed. Organic
TFTC could provide a cost-effective solution [40].
One of the institutes working on organic TFTC
development is the National Institute of Advanced
Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in Japan.
An organic TFTC printed on flexible plastic film is
shown in Figure 5. Another issue is the low electron
mobility, which limits the frequency of operation up
to several megahertz.
Delay-line-based chipless tags operate by using
a microstrip discontinuity after a section of delayline, as reported in [41][43]. A delay-line-based
chipless tag is shown in Figure 6. The tag is excited
by a short pulse (usually 1 ns) EM signal. The interrogation pulse is received by the tag and reflected
at various points along the microstrip line creating
multiple echoes of the interrogation pulse, as shown
in Figure 7. The time delay between the echoes is
determined by the length of the delay-line between
the discontinuities. This type of tag is a replica of the
SAW tag using microstrip technology, which makes
it printable. Although initial trials on this chipless
technology have been reported, only 4 bits of data
have been successfully encoded, which shows the
limited potential of this technology.

Spectral-Signature-Based Chipless Tags

Spectral signature-based chipless tags encode data
into the spectrum using resonant structures. Each data
bit is usually associated with the presence or absence
of a resonant peak at a predetermined frequency in the

December 2010

December 2010

Dipole (Conductor)

Laminate (Dielectric)

First Bit

11th Bit

Figure 8. Capacitively tuned dipoles arranged as a 11-bit

chipless RFID tag.

chipless tag consists of a number of dipole antennas,

which resonate at different frequencies. The capacitively tuned dipole tag is shown in Figure 8. When the
tag is interrogated by a frequency sweep signal, the
reader looks for magnitude dips in the spectrum as a
result of the dipoles. Each dipole has a 1:1 correspondence to a data bit. Issues regarding this technology
include tag size (lower frequency longer dipolehalf
wavelength) and mutual coupling effects between
dipole elements.
Space-filling curves used as spectral signature
encoding RFID tags were first reported by McVay [51].
The tags are designed as Piano and Hilbert curves
with resonances centered around 900 MHz. The tags
represent a frequency selective surface, which is
manipulated with the use of space-filling curves (such
as the Hilbert and Piano curves). The space-filling
curve exhibits an interesting property of resonating
at a frequency, which has a wavelength much greater
than its footprint. This is an advantage since it allows
the development of small footprint tags at UHF ranges.
Figure 9 shows the 5-bit space-filling curve chipless
tag, which comprises an array of five second-order

15

x
Ey

20
25
RCS (dB)

spectrum. The advantages of these tags are that they

are fully printable, robust, have greater data storage
capabilities than other chipless tags, and are low cost.
The disadvantages of these tags are large spectrum
requirements for data encoding, chipless tag orientation requirements, size, and wideband dedicated RFID
reader RF components. So far, seven types of spectral
signature-based tags have been reported, and all seven
are considered to be fully printable. We can distinguish two types of spectral signature tags based on the
nature of the tag: chemical and planar circuit.
Chemical tags are designed from a deposition
of resonating fibers or special electronic ink. Two
companies from Israel use nanometric materials to
design chipless tags. These tags consist of tiny particles of chemicals, which exhibit varying degrees of
magnetism, and, when EM waves impinge on them,
they resonate with distinct frequencies, which are
picked up by the reader [44]. They are very cheap and
can easily be used inside banknotes and important
documents for anticounterfeiting and authentication.
CrossID, an Israeli paper company, claims to have 70
distinct chemicals, which would provide unique identification in the order of 270 (more than 1,021) when
resonated and detected suitably [45]. Tapemark also
claims to have nanometric resonant fibers, which are
5 m in diameter and 1 mm in length [46]. These tags
are potentially low cost and can work on low-grade
paper and plastic packaging material. Unfortunately,
they only operate at frequencies up to a few kilohertz,
although this gives them very good tolerances to metal
and water.
Ink-tattoo chipless tags use electronic ink patterns
embedded into or printed onto the surface of the object
being tagged. Developed by Somark Innovations [47],
the electronic ink is deposited in a unique bar code
pattern, which is different for every item. The system
operates by interrogating the ink-tattoo tag by a high
frequency microwave signal (>10 GHz) and is reflected
by areas of the tattoo, which have ink creating a
unique pattern which can be detected by the reader.
The reader detection is based on spatial diversity created by the presence or absence of ink particles on the
tagged surface. The reading range is claimed to be up
to 1.2 m (4 ft) [48], [49]. In the case of animal ID, the
ink is placed in a one-time-use disposable cartridge.
For nonanimal applications, the ink can be printed on
plastic/paper or within the material. Based on the limited information available for this technology (which
is still in the experimental phase) we assume that it is
spectral signature based.
Planar circuit chipless RFID tags are designed using
standard planar microstrip/coplanar waveguide/
stripline resonant structures, such as antennas, filters,
and fractals. They are printed on thick, thin, and flexible laminates and polymer substrates. Capacitively
tuned dipoles were first reported by Jalaly [50]. The

30
35
40
45
50
0.5

0.6

0.7
0.8
Frequency (GHz)

0.9

Figure 9. Five-bit piano-curve-based tag and tag radarcross-section spectral signature [51].

91

cascaded spiral resonators, which introduce attenuations and phase jumps at particular frequencies of
the spectrum. After passing through the multiresonating circuit, the signal contains the unique spectral
signature of the tag and is transmitted back to the
transmitter using the Tx monopole tag antenna. The
Rx and Tx tag antennas are cross-polarized in order
to minimize interference between the interrogation
signal and the retransmitted encoded signal containing the spectral signature. Figure 11 shows a 35-bit
tag designed on Taconic TLX-0 (er 5 2.45, h 5 0.787
mm, tan d 5 0.0019).
The main differences between the multiresonatorbased tag and those reported in the previous sections
are that the tag encodes data in both amplitude and
phase (Figures 12 and 13), the tag operates in the UWB
region, the tag supports simple spiral shorting data
encoding [58] and the tag responses are not based
on RCS backscattering but on retransmission of the
cross-polarized interrogation signal with the encoded
unique spectral ID. The chipless tag is designed for
printing on the Australian polymer banknote as an
anticounterfeiting security feature.
The Multiresonant dipole-based chipless RFID tag
is based on a similar concept as the multiresonatorbased chipless tag. However, the tags designers seek
to build on the concept of the multiresonator tag by
replacing the stop-band spiral resonators and the second tag antenna with a novel multiresonant dipole
antenna [59]. The multiresonant dipole antenna comprises a set of parallel loop antennas, which resonate at
different frequencies. Each loop antenna corresponds
to a single bit of data. The multiresonant dipole-based
chipless RFID tag is shown in Figure 14. From Figure
14, it is clear that the tag receives the readers wideband
interrogation signal by the Rx UWB monopole antenna
and retransmits only certain frequencies, hence encoding a unique spectral signature in the response signal
sent by the Tx multiresonant dipole antenna.
The multiresonant dipole antenna comprises a
series of folded half-wave dipole antennas. The dipole
arms etched out in the bottom (ground) layer are fed by
a prolongation of the ground
plane with the prolongation
impedance being 50 V. The
half wavelength dipole antennas produce peaks in the
return loss at their resonant
UWB
frequencies. By removing
N th
Monopole
any of the half wavelength
Tx
Resonator
Antenna
dipoles, the corresponding
resonant peak disappears
without influencing the resonances of the other dipoles.
Horizontal Polarization
The main benefit of using the
multiresonant dipole antenna

Piano curves, which create five peaks in the radar

cross-section (RCS) of the tag. The chipless tag was successfully interrogated in an anechoic chamber. Only 5
bits of data have been reported to date. The advantage
of the tag is its compact size due to the properties of the
space-filling curves. However the disadvantage of the
tag is that it requires significant layout modifications
in order to encode data.
LC Resonant chipless tags comprise a simple coil,
which is resonant at a particular frequency. These tags
are considered 1-bit RFID tags. The operating principle is based on the magnetic coupling between the
reader antenna and the LC resonant tag. The reader
constantly performs a frequency sweep searching
for tags. Whenever the swept frequency corresponds
to the tags resonant frequency, the tag will start to
oscillate, producing a voltage dip across the readers
antenna ports. The advantage of these tags is their
price and simple structure (single resonant coil), but
they are very restricted in operating range, information storage (1 bit), operating bandwidth, and multipletag collision. These tags are mainly used for electronic
article surveillance (EAS) in many supermarkets and
retail stores [52].
The Multiresonator-based chipless RFID tag was
designed and patented by the authors at Monash University [53]. The chipless tag comprises three main
components: the transmitting (Tx) and receiving (Rx)
antennas and multiresonating circuit. A block diagram of the integrated chipless RFID tag with basic
components is shown in Figure 10.
The multiresonator-based chipless RFID tag consists of a vertically polarized UWB disc-loaded monopole Rx tag antenna, a multiresonating circuit, and a
horizontally polarized UWB disc-loaded monopole
Tx tag antenna [54][57]. The tag is interrogated by
the reader by sending a frequency swept continuous
wave signal. When the interrogation signal reaches
the tag, it is received using the Rx monopole antenna
and propagates towards the multiresonating circuit.
The multiresonating circuit encodes data bits using

UWB
Monopole
Rx
Antenna

Vertical Polarization

Multiresonator
First
Resonator

Second
Resonator

Third
Resonator

Figure 10. Chipless RFID tag circuit block diagram.

92

December 2010

Multiresonator
with 35 Spirals
Tag Rx
Antenna

Magnitude of Spectral
Signature (dB)

Tag Tx
Antenna

0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
3

Figure 11. Photograph of 35-bit chipless RFID tag

(length 5 88 mm, width 5 65 mm).

5
6
Frequency (GHz)

Figure 12. 35-bit magnitude response of the

multiresonator-based chipless RFID tag.

is that the size of the entire tag can be reduced and

spatial efficiency is enhanced.

Amplitude-Phase-BackscatterModulation-Based Chipless Tags

Amplitude/Phase backscatter modulation-based chipless RFID tags are the third type of chipless RFID
tags presented in this article. These tags require less
bandwidth for operation than TDR-based and spectral
signature-based chipless tags. Data encoding is performed by varying the amplitude or phase of the backscattered signal based on the loading of the chipless
tags antenna. The variation of the loading is not controlled by an on/off switch between two impedances,
but, instead, it is controlled by reactive loading of the
tags antenna. The antenna loading influences the RCS
of the antenna [60] in amplitude or phase, which can
be detected by a dedicated RFID reader. The reactance
of the load may vary due to the fact that the antenna
load is an analog sensor or left-handed (LH) delay
line, or that the antenna is terminated by a microstripbased stub reflector.
The advantages of this type of chipless tag are
that it operates over narrow bandwidths, and it has a
simple architecture. The disadvantages are the number of bits that can be detected, and that data encoding is performed by a lumped/chipped component
which increases its cost. Based on the data encoding
antenna loading element we can distinguish between
four types of different backscatter modulation-based
chipless RFID tags.
LH delay line loading of the chipless tags is one of
the most recent developments of chipless tag technology. It utilizes analog circuits for phase modulation
and increases the response time of the tag using the
slow-wave effect of LH delay lines [61], which also
minimizes the size of the tag. The operating principle
of the chipless tag is presented in Figure 15.
From Figure 15, it is clear that the chipless tag is
interrogated by a band-limited pulse transmitted from
the RFID reader. The interrogation pulse is received
by the chipless tag antenna and propagates through
a series of cascaded LH delay lines, which represent

December 2010

Phase of Spectral
Signature ()

80
60
40
20
0
20
40
60
3

5
6
Frequency (GHz)

Figure 13. 35-bit phase response of the multiresonatorbased chipless RFID tag.

Rx UWB
Monopole
R

Feed
Extension
Tx Multiresonant
Dipole Antenna
Spacing

Figure 14. Multiresonant-dipole-based chipless RFID

tag [59] (redtop layer, yellowbottom layer) ( 2009
EuMA, reprinted with permission).
periodical discontinuities. The received interrogation
pulse is reflected upon reaching each discontinuity and the information is coded by the phase of the
reflected signal with respect to a reference phase. The
envelope of the reflected signals with encoded data
maintain similar magnitudes (envelopes) while the
phase variation differs due to different G1, G2, and
G3 with phase values w0, w1 and w2, respectively. The
LH delay line-based chipless tag encodes data using

93

1
1
e j1

2
2

3
3

T e j0

T e j0

Delay Line
Section

3 + 2(1 + 2)+ 60

1 + 20
Carrier Phase

Reflection
Section

2 + 21 + 40

Carrier
Envelope

Figure 15. Operating principle of left-hand-delay-linebased chipless RFID tag [61].

Free Space
Loss
Zfreespace

S21

Zfreespace

S22

S11

Z0

S12

Inductive/
Reactance
Load

Scattering
Antenna

RFID Reader

Phase Ripple ()

Figure 16. 2-port model of chipless RFID system based on

remote measurement of complex impedance.

60
40
20
0
20
40
60
6.9

7.1

7.3
7.5
7.7
Frequency (GHz)

7.9

Figure 17. Variation of the chipless tags phase signature

with inductance loading [67] ( 2007 EuMA, reprinted
with permission).
a higher order modulation scheme, such as quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK), which enables greater
throughput but requires a higher signal-to-noise ratio
for successful tag detection [62]. The QPSK modulator used within the chipless tag is based on a variable reactive element, which minimizes the variation
of the amplitude and maximizes the phase variation.
Remote complex impedance-based chipless RFID
tags comprise a printable antenna, which is loaded/
terminated with a lossless reactance. The tag
antenna is chosen to be a scattering antenna (such
as a patch antenna) instead of a typically used mini-

94

mum scattering antenna (such as a dipole) [63]. The

difference between scattering and minimum scattering antennas is that, when terminated with an
open or short, the scattering antenna should scatter
back the same power, irrespective of the type of lossless termination (including open and short), while
the minimum scattering antenna will scatter almost
no power back in open circuit conditions [64], [65].
This property of scattering antennas is reported by
Mukherjee et al. in [66] to encode data by means
of loading a scattering antenna with microstrip
stubs, which represent different inductances, and
therefore manipulating the phase component of the
antennas RCS and backscattered signal. The chipless RFID system based on remote measurement of
complex impedance can be modeled as a two-port
network where the reader is considered to be the
source while the reactive impedance is considered
to be the load. Figure 16 shows the model of the chipless RFID system. The transmitted interrogation
signal is defined by the S21 parameter while the S12
parameter is the backscattered chipless tag response
signal with phase signature.
By having chipless RFID tags with different inductive loadings of their antennas, it is possible to create different phase signatures in the backscattered
signal, which can be used to identify each tag at the
reader end [67]. The reactive loadings are designed
to be microstrip stubs in order to make the tag fully
printable and low-cost. Figure 17 shows the phase signatures of different chipless RFID tags with different
inductive loadings.
Stub-loaded-patch-antenna (SLPA)-based chipless RFID tags reported by Balbin et al. in [68] are
a newer generation backscatter phase signature tags
similar to the remote complex impedance based tag
presented earlier. However, the SLPA-based tags are
more robust and industry-suited since they incorporate another degree of diversity, such as crosspolarization diversity (besides the phase variation
of the backscattered signal due to reactance loading)
and multiple tag antennas. The operating principle
of the SLPA chipless RFID tag is based on basic principles of vector backscattered signals from multiple
planar reflectors. The SLPA-based tag is shown in
Figure 18.
The chipless tag antennas are multiple patch
antennas, which are suited due to their scattering
antenna properties as described earlier. The planar
reflectors are in the form of meander stubs in order to
minimize area and cost. The numbers of bits that can
be encoded by the tag vary depending on the number
of patches (n) and the available meander line inductances. The chipless tag is interrogated by transmitting n different continuous wave (CW) signals from
the reader at n frequencies corresponding to the operating frequencies of each patch antenna. When the tag

December 2010

Meandering O/C Stubs

118 mm

L1 Inset
Width
Element 1

15 mm

SWCNT
L2

Spacing

27 mm

Inset
Length
L3

36 mm

25 mm
(a)

Element 2 Element 3
E-Plane
H-Plane
SWCNT

December 2010

125

75

100

50

75

25

50

25

25

0.2

0.4
0.6
0.8
Frequency (GHz)

Resistance in NH3
Resistance in Air

Resistance ()

Figure 19. Carbon-nanotube-loaded chipless RFID tag

on flexible laminate with (a) dimensions and (b) actual
photograph [69].

Resistance ()

is read by directive reader antennas, a bit sequence

can be detected using the relative phase difference of
the backscattered signals. The relative phase refers to
the phase difference between the E-plane and H-plane
signals at the reader, adding another degree of differentiation. It is important to notice that this type of
chipless RFID tag requires interrogation and reading
with a directional dual polarized reader antenna and
not circularly polarized due to the tags operating
principles. The SLPA-based chipless tag is suitable for
conveyor belt applications due to the cascaded placement of its antennas.
Carbon-nanotube-loaded (CNL) chipless tags
are a novel and unique example of RFID technology and nanotechnology combining to create a
novel RFID tag and sensor module. The CNL chipless RFID tag comprises a conformal UHF RFID
antenna and a single-walled carbon nanotube
(SWCNT) designed for toxic gas detection [69].
The CNL chipless RFID tag is shown in Figure 19.
It is important to note that both the antenna and
SWCNT were printed using inkjet printing technology for the first time. The chipless tag antenna is a
bowtie meander-line dipole antenna. The SWCNT
is placed between at the input port of the antenna
in order to enable data encoding.
The SWCNT is highly sensitive to the presence
of ammonia (NH3), and its impedance characteristics when placed in air and NH3 are shown in Figure 20. From Figure 20, it is clear that the impedance
of the SWCNT varies depending on the presence or
absence of NH3 in the environment. The CNL chipless RFID tag operates by varying the amplitude
of the backscattered signal, depending on the concentration of NH3, as shown in Figure 21. Amplitude variation of the backscattered signal is due
to the RCS variation influenced by the change of
the impedance of SWCNT. The amplitude variation of the backscattered power from the tag can be
detected at the reader end and decoded to estimate
the level of NH3.

(b)

50

Resistance in NH3
Resistance in Air

Figure 20. Measured impedance characteristics of

single-walled carbon nanotube in air and ammonia [69].

Power Reflection Coefficient (dB)

Figure 18. Stub-loaded-patch-antenna-based chipless

RFID tag comprising three patch antennas loaded with
meander line stubs [68].

0
Air
NH3 Flow

5
10
15
20
0.6

0.7

0.8
0.9
Frequency (GHz)

Figure 21. Power reflection coefficient of the carbonnanotube-loaded chipless RFID tag before and after gas
flow [69].

Conclusion
An overview of reported chipless RFID tags in open
literature and on the market has been presented. As
the requirement for cheaper RFID tags for various

95

applications grows, there are a greater number of different chipless RFID tags that can be classified in a
wide range of different types. This article reports the
first classification of chipless RFID tags, which classifies 14 different chipless tags in three main categories.
The main classification of chipless tags is based on
modulation techniques, which are TDR-based, spectral signature-based and amplitude/phase backscatter
modulation-based chipless RFID tags. All three types
of tags can be either printable or nonprintable, which
determines their eligibility for certain applications,
robustness and cost.
Although the majority of chipless tags are still in
prototyping stage it remains to be seen whether they
will make it into the mainstream market. However, the
progress of chipless RFID technology in recent years
enthusiastically suggests that the best of chipless RFID
is yet to come.

Acknowledgment
This work was supported in part by the Australian
Research Council under Discovery Grant DP0665523:
Chipless RFID for Bar code Replacement.

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