Passive Wireless Temperature Sensor Based on Time-Coded UWB Chipless RFID Tags

Abstract

In this paper, an RF identification sensor system is developed. It comprises passive sensors and an ultra-wideband (UWB) reader. The sensors are based on time-coded chipless tags. They consist of an UWB antenna connected to a delay line that is, in turn, loaded with a resistive temperature sensor. This sensor modulates the amplitude of the backscattered signals as a function of the temperature. The sensor tags are identified by changing the length of the delay line. In this paper, the operation principle and design of time-coded tags is presented and the integration of sensors in these tags is addressed. In addition, two measurement techniques are compared to implement the UWB reader. The first one is based on frequency sweeping and uses a vector network analyzer. The second one is based on a low-cost UWB radar. A full characterization of the sensor system is provided.