The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 06, 2001
Filed:
Dec. 31, 1996
R. Anthony Shober, Red Bank, NJ (US);
Eric Sweetman, Princeton, NJ (US);
You-Sun Wu, Princeton Junction, NJ (US);
Lucent Technologies Inc., Murray Hill, NJ (US);
Abstract
In accordance with the present invention, a general antenna system is disclosed suitable for applications in which an RFID Tag passes by an Interrogator. We then disclose a specific antenna design that uses a single planar antenna for transmit and a multi-element planar antenna array for receive. The multi-element planar antenna array is spaced such that each of the planar elements is four inches apart, center-to-center, thus defining a narrow 30° receive beamwidth in the horizontal plane. The vertical receive bandwidth is much greater than 30°, facilitating the Interrogator receiving signals at a variety of elevations. Furthermore, a multi-way microstrip combiner is used to sum the signals received from each of the planar antennas. To block interference from the transmit antenna and to improve receive sensitivity, this multi-way microstrip combiner is shielded using, in one embodiment, copper tape along its edges. In a specific embodiment, a four element receive antenna design is disclosed.