Miniature Livestock RFID Tags

Customer – Datamars

“We believe information is the way to a better, more sustainable world.”

Problem Statement

Datamars, one of the world’s largest RFID manufacturers, needed a smaller, more robust tag that sheep would not rip off on fences!

Solution

We sold two patents and designs to Datamars for miniature UHF antennas that measured less than 20mm x 4mm and can be made with standard FR4 substrates. All this, while still achieving 3m+ range on animal.

Challenges

1. The most common challenge with wearable tags is the antenna detuning caused by muscle and fat. We designed our antenna to take advantage of these effects.
2. The impedance of standard RFID ICs throws off Electromagnetic Simulation softwares. We developed our own recalibration routine with data from over 50 designs!