A miniature RFID sensor for biological warfare agents (BWAs) detection

In this proposal, Intelligent Automation Inc. (IAI) and the University of California at Davis (UC Davis) detail the development of a novel miniature RFID sensor for BWA tracking and identification at a standoff distance. The key innovations of our approach include: a)The design of a planar inverted- F antenna (PIFA) on the RFID chip to receive and transmit RF signal. The compactness, good impedance and radiation performance, and ease of fabrication make PIFA well suited for the current application.; b)The use of a DNA decorated carbon nanotube (CNT) resonator as the chemical sensing element.; c)A compact reader will be implemented with Conventional-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) elements to allow portable applications; and d)The application of similarity measure algorithms to detect minute changes in the detected signal, thus increasing the detection probability and standoff range. Consequently, it is an attainable goal to realize a miniature RFID sensor with a compact and portable reader for long range identification purpose. We expect that the RFID chip will be smaller than 1 cm2, the reader will be manportable, and the total cost of the RFID sensor and the reader will be less than $1K if produced in small volume.