Radar Cross Section of Chipless RFID Tags and BER Performance

The performance of different chipless RFID tag topologies is analyzed in terms of radar cross section (RCS) and bit error rate (BER). It is shown that the BER is mainly determined by the tag RCS once a standard reading scenario is considered and a fixed size of the tag is chosen. It is shown that the arrangement of the resonators in the chipless tag plays a crucial role in determining the cross-polar RCS of the tag. The RCS of the tag is computed theoretically by using array theory where each resonator is treated as a separate scatterer completely characterized by a specific reflection coefficient. Several resonators arrangements (periodic and nonperiodic) are compared, keeping the physical area of the tag fixed. Theoretical and experimental analyses demonstrate that the periodic configuration guarantees the maximum achievable RCS, thus providing a global lower BER of the chipless RFID communication system. We believe that the BER is the more meaningful and fair figure of merit (FoM) for comparing the performance of different tags than bit/cm(2) or bit/Hz since the increase in encoded information of the tag is useful only if it can be correctly decoded.