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TABLE 3
MAXIMUM READ RANGE COMPARISON OF TWO CARTONS ON TOP OF EACH OTHER

Cartons on top of Packs with Packs without Empty carton
each other foils foils
0.35 m 0.65 m 0.50 m
Integrated patch
0m 0.45 m 1.25 m
Folded dipole

4. CONCLUSIONS

This paper presents a case study of identification of cigarette cartons with passive RFID technology.
Two types of tags are tested and the achieved read ranges are compared. The aluminium foil in the
cigarette packs makes the identification of the cartons difficult. Therefore, a novel microstrip patch-
type tag antenna for passive RFID of cigarette cartons was designed.

The performance of the new tag antenna design was compared to that of the conventional, folded
dipole-type tag antenna. It was observed that the aluminium foil in the cigarette packs affects the read
ranges significantly. With the novel patch-type tag antenna the maximum read range was 1.05 m when
the foils were in the cigarette packs. When the folded dipole tag was tested, the read range was 0 m
when the foils were in the packs. Removing the foils from the cigarette packs lengthens the read
ranges to approximately 2 m. It was also observed that two cartons next to or on top of each other can
be read simultaneously. Reading both tagged cartons simultaneously shortens the read ranges.

5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Authors would like to thank William R. Sweeney from Philip Morris USA for support.

6. REFERENCES
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