Superdirective antenna arrays undergo field testing

Leti has developed a compact antenna (with a radius of just 5 cm at 868 MHz) that can selectively read RFID tags just a few centimeters away from each other. A demonstration of the antenna—retrofitted to a commercially-available portable RFID reader—was completed at the end of the French National Research Agency project Socrate. During the demo, operators were able to geolocalize RFID tags from several meters away and with a resolution of several degrees. The results—protected by two patents—confirm the technology’s potential. Here’s how it works: several coupled elements charged with complex impedances are located around a base station, delivering directionality equivalent to that of an antenna ten times its size. A Ph.D. dissertation on the research is in the works and several manufacturers have contacted Leti for R&D projects leveraging the technology.

Contact: christophe.delaveaud@cea.fr

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