Wide-Angle RCS Enhanced Tag Based on Dielectric Resonator – Lens Combination

In a novel mm-wave localization system, dielectric resonators (DR) have been proposed as passive chipless RFID tags to mark fixed reference nodes. To counter clutter and improve the limited read range due to the low RCS level of a DR at millimeter-wave frequencies we propose a combination of several DRs with a dielectric spherical lens which allows improvement of up to 30 dB. The paper presents the design principle and shows simulation results and experimental verification of a scaled tag operating in the 10–12 GHz range and covering a range of incidence angle of the reader signal of ± 50°. A frequency sweeping RF reader can identify the tag (information) by the peak of the RCS level at its DR resonant frequency. For a multiple-tag scenario we can realize up to 12 different tags which can be discriminated unambiguously by their resonant frequencies in a 1: 1.2 frequency bandwidth.