¤ About project:

Abstract. Aim of the present Postdoc project is to propose a „smart” Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) system, operating in the X band (i.e. in the 8 - 12 GHz frequency range), thus extending the classical microwave range of RFID systems, by exploiting the last (and often unknown) 2D materials, especially the so-called 2D chalcogenides.

This aspect will be the most challenging issue of the project and, to the proponent’s knowledge, no solution has been proposed so far to integrate 2D materials in RFID/Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) systems. Another important issue is represented by the so-called Time-Modulated Arrays (TMAs).

The main advantage of such devices is the achievement of ultra-low Side Lobe Levels (SLLs) in the far-field pattern.

The exploitation of TMAs, in combination with antenna re-configurability based on 2D materials, will give a large number of degrees of freedom in obtaining optimized and high-performance „smart” RFID systems, with practical applications in WSNs.

The rigorous design of the TMAs via a combined electromagnetic/nonlinear technique, based upon the effective electrical characteristics of 2D materials for both antennas and switches, will provide a robust platform for the successive fabrication of the TMAs and their experimental characterization.

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Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) technology is strictly related to Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs): the former is used to identify the presence and position of objects, whereas WSNs finds a large exploitation in sensing and monitoring techniques, for both environment and body-centric applications.

The combination of these two technologies enhances their potentialities, allowing the tags to become „smart”: in fact, a sensor can provide information about a plethora of physical, chemical and biological phenomena (such as temperature, humidity, pressure, substance concentrations, heart rate, blood pressure, breath rate, skin temperature, etc.), and the integration with RFID technology allows the tags attached to sensors becoming traceable and communicating among them, thus providing an intelligent sensing network. Nowadays, the best performance in RFID technology is achieved in the Ultra High Frequency (UHF) and microwave bands, i.e. 868 MHz (Europe) / 915 MHz (USA) / 950 MHz (Japan), 2.45 GHz and 5.8 GHz.
The present Postdoc project will focus on the following issues.

1. Exploitation of the last (and often unknown) 2D materials, especially the so-called 2D chalcogenides, for integration with the „smart” RFID tag. In detail, 2D materials will be used for both the linear (antennas) and nonlinear (switches) components involved in the project. To the proponent’s knowledge, no solution has been proposed so far to integrate 2D materials in RFID/WSNs systems.
2. Design of a „smart” RFID (semi-) passive tag, in the sense specified above, operating in the X-band (i.e. in the 8 - 12 GHz frequency range) [1], thus extending the classical microwave range of RFID systems. The tag project will be based upon the so-called Time-Modulated Arrays (TMAs).

¤ Project coordinated by: National Institute for Reseatch and Development in Microtechnologies- IMT Bucharest http://www.imt.ro/

¤ Project financed by: