A Novel Antenna for UHF RFID Near-Field Applications
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
I know the time and efforts that must be put into the writing of a research article, but in all honesty i cannot accept this paper. You claim that your antenna is new, but this is not true at all. You also reported a paper in the references that presented the same layout (ref. 15). The author of that paper has also published different works on IET MAP and IEEE conferences where the same antenna is reported, in different configurations (someone far more elaborate than yours). Some of these papers are not even cited in the references. In your paper there is a lack of comparison with other antennas from the scientific literature, and someone might think that this is an attempt to divert attention from the lack of novelty of your work.
Author Response
Response1: For ref15, the author designed a modular combination of a resonating circular ring slot antenna and a spiral Travelling Wave Antenna (TWA)，in order to produce strong and uniform magnetic field，effectively improve the height of magnetic label reading. They study the distribution of helix in magnetic field.
Our antennas are designed for practical applications , and the tags are mostly electrically coupled tags.Compare with the antenna designed in ref15，we focus on the electronic field distribution over the antenna surface，achieve the electronic field uniform along x-axis and y-axis.
The magnetic coupling antenna, it has characterized by close reading and writing, the electric field coupling antenna,has longer distance of reading and writing. And the similar antenna’s design all focus on the synthetic field,ignore the effect of tags placement for antenna’s reading and writing.For this phenomenon,we propose a new test method,test when the tags are placed along x-axis and y-axis,the electronic field distribution along x-axis and y-axis.
We proposed a new testing concept and method is proposed and verified.
Reviewer 2 Report
The authors presented a spiral antenna for RFID near-field applications at UHF. The reviewer has following comments.
(1) The abstract of the antenna does not cover the overall study of this manuscript. There is no discussion about antenna array in the abstract.
(2) What is the loss tangent of the substrate used in the antenna fabrication?
(3) Plot the side view for the antenna in Figure 1 to show the ground plane if it is full or partial.
(4) Indicate clearly which one is (a) and (b) in Figures 2 and 3.
(5) The overall quality and presentation of Figures are poor. The reviewer can not even see legends in most of the Figures. With these figures the manuscript can not be published in a Q1 journal. Moreover, the frequency of Figures 4, 19 and 24 should be same.
(6) Besides simulated results, plot measured gain and radiatin efficiency in Figure 5. Use percentage scale for radiation efficiency.
(7) There is no disscussion about how the antennas were feeded in array configuration. Did authors use aperture coupled feeding technigue? A bried discussion is needed about the feeding of antenna arrays.
(8) Why S11 for each array configuration (1x2, 2x2, 1x4) is different in Figure 24?
(9) The references are in random formate. Use journlas standard style for references.
Author Response
Response 1:
In order to verify the scalability of the reading area of the spiral antenna unit, it was used for array design, and simulations were conducted using a 1×2 array, 2×2 array,1×4 array, and 2×4 array. The component distribution of the electric field excited by the four array antennas in the X and Y directions is uniform and the reading area is controllable. Therefore, the proposed spiral antenna has the expand ability of the reading area, and can meet the needs of different application scenarios by changing the number of array units.When the array extension,the matching network also extension，the impedance characteristics of the array antenna are somewhat different , but they also meet the application requirements.(Line 24-31)
Response 2:the loss tangent is 0.02（Line 124）
Response 3: The dimensions of metal ground plane is the same with FR4 dielectric substrate.(Line 125-126).
Response 4:has indicated the (a) and (b).
Response 5: Figure 4、19、24 use the same frequency 860-960 MHZ，already changed.
Response 6：already changed the Figure 5
Response 7：And the feeding network adopts the form of one point two、one quarter 、one quarter、one cent eight. And side feed mode was used for feeding.（Line 391-393）
Response 8：The impedance characteristics of the array antenna were somewhat different from those of the antenna unit due to the presence of the matching network and the difference of array antenna’s effective working area.（Line 416-410）
Response 9:already changed.
Reviewer 3 Report
This work considers the design of a transceiving antenna for RFID applications in the 860-960 MHz. The reported results are quite complete although their presentation should be improved, as pointed out in the comments below. Also the part presenting the antenna design should be improved, with reference to known design equations where possible.
1) Sec. 2. Presently the section is too qualitative and quite short.
Please, provide expressions for the determination, even approximate or of limited validity, of antenna quantities such as characteristic impedance, input impedance, etc.
2) Sec. 2. Give also a description of the numeric tool used to carry out the simulations reported in sec. 3.
3) Sec. 3.2. Please, clarify the geometry of the antenna, with thee addition of the ground plane, including thickness of substrate and distance of ground plane. Regarding the use of a ground plane (or plate), resonances ad cancellation occur as a function of its distance, besides the characteristics of the interposed dielectric.
Also give results for the far-field and near-field gain, clarifying at which distance it is measured/calculated.
4) Figure 7 and 8. Readability must be improved, with larger size of figures and better resolution to allow the review. But also, please, provide good resolution images for the production of the final manuscript).
This applies also to Fig. 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, to Fig. 16, 17, 18, and to Fig. 21, 25, 26, 27, 28.
5) Line 319. Is the characteristic impedance of the spiral antenna = 50 ohm? For this size it should be a bit larger, unless the dielectric has a very large permittivity.
6) References should be in MDPI style.
Author Response
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Yes, I understand your point and it is not worth of a publication in its current state, at least in my opinion. I reported your ref 15 as an example. You cannot sell an antenna as "new" as long as the same antenna appears in several other publications. You are proposing a new test method, as claimed by yourself, NOT a new antenna. Furthermore you completely ignored my request of including similar works in the references, and you did not inserted a comparison of sort with the scientific literature. Is your method unique? No one else has obtained this kind of results? If so, why did you not focused the paper on these aspects, de-emphasizing the novelty of the antenna (which is clearly NOT new)? The paper is exactly the same of the last review to my eyes, so if i rejected it the last time, what makes you think i would accept it this time? To be worth of a publication, in my opinion, you should revise the entire structure of the paper, focusing on the real aspects that retain novelty. Your work has potential, but you have to make it transpire from the article. If you are using a known layout to obtain results that nobody else obtained (proven by a comparison with the state of the art), now that's a paper that i would accept.
Author Response
Response：For ref15 and other articles，the authors study the synthesis of electric distribution or magenetic distribution uniform,ignore the field distribution along x-axis and y-axis.It can caused misread tags in practical applications.
Compare with the traditional antennas designed,we focus on the electronic field distribution over the antenna surface,achieve the electronic field uniform along x-axis and y-axis.
For this phenomenon,we texts the tags which are placed along x-axis and y-axis,the tags can be accuracy read.
And compared with other antennas(sign in Text.1)in field distribution along x-axis and y-axis,tags text,the other antennas field distribution is nonuniform and caused tags misread.The proposed antenna can make the electric distribution uniform and accurate read.
We realize the innovation of antenna field along x-axis and y-axis distribution and have a certain breakthrough.
Table 1. Compare with other antennas
|
Ref |
Coupled mode |
Field distribution along x/y -axis |
Tags test |
|
|
|
[15] |
magenetic coupled |
nonuniform |
misread |
|
|
|
[26] |
electric coupled |
nonuniform |
misread |
|
|
|
[27] |
electric coupled |
nonuniform |
misread |
|
|
|
[28] |
electric coupled |
nonuniform |
misread |
|
|
|
[29] |
electric coupled |
nonuniform |
misread |
|
|
|
Proposed |
electric coupled |
uniform |
accurate read |
|
|
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The authors have revised the manuscript well. All the concerns of the Reviewer have been addressed.
Author Response
Response：Thank you for your review and comments.Bests wishes!
Reviewer 3 Report
Dear Authors,
thank you for the replies and changes , that have addressed thee majority of my comments, but not all.
A) I leave these comments as advisory comments for you and the Editor: comment 1) and second part of comment 3).
B) I recommend more attention to English form and typos.
Example1: lines 379-381: the sentence is not understandable, the punctuation is with non-standard characters;
Example2: Fig. 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 21, 25, 26, 27, 28 : captions refer to (a) and (b) that are not included below the left and right part.
C) Heading2 and 3 are not in MDPI style, as they are all caps.
D) References: now they are in MDPI style, almost; I don't think that TAP.T is a correct notation.
Author Response
Response A:Thank you for your review and comments.Best wishes!
Response B:I have changed the sentences in 379-381 as the Example 1:
Example 1)The number of spiral loops was changed in order to adjust the antenna resonance point. The dielectric substrate is made of FR4 with dielectric constant of 4.4. The size of the ground is 126 mm × 126 mm.
Example 2) the (a) and (b) were added below the left and right part in Fig.10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 21, 25, 26, 27, 28 .
Response C: have changed the Heading 2 and 3
Response D:the error has been changed(Line 658-659)
