What output levels per antenna are possible with passive UHF RFID readers that have multiple ports supporting multiple antennas?
—Name withheld
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Each country regulates RF devices differently. In the United States, the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) limits the maximum transmitter power to 1 watt for systems that frequency-hop across at least 50 channels, which most ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) EPC Gen 2 RFID readers do. For a 1-watt reader transmitter, the maximum antenna gain is 6 decibels (6 dBI). I reached out to Sanjiv Due, the president of training and consulting firm RFID4U, to ask about readers with multiple antennas. According to Sanjiv, since every antenna in a multiport reader fires separately, thanks to multiplexing within that reader, each antenna can still have a gain of 6 dBI.
—Mark Roberti, Founder and Editor, RFID Journal
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