
Application Note P4097
© TeraTron GmbH
Page 14 of 21
V1.1, 07.06.01
Figure 7.: Antenna peak current as function of quality factor with L as parameter
The goal is to achieve a maximum of magnetic flux to gain a large reading range. The flux is
proportional to the current and proportional to the number of windings, but the number of windings are
proportional to root of the inductivity.
To optimize the reading range the antenna current should be therefore maximized. With a given
quality factor the necessary inductivity can be found in the diagram. The inductivity as parameter is
200µH, 500µH, 1mH, 2mH and 5mH from top to bottom.
The quality factor should be as high as possible but is limited by the susceptibility against component
value deviations and the necessary bandwidth for the communication. Usually quality factors are in the
range of 10 to 15.
To maximize the current instead of maximizing the inductivity has the other advantage of avoiding
excessive high antenna voltages. This makes it easier and less expensive to find the appropriate
electronic components and results in a smaller division factor for the DEMOD_IN voltage. Therefore
the modulation ratio is kept larger.
To achieve the lowest cost for the antenna the needed resistance for the desired quality factor could
be integrated as copper resistance in the antenna. However the copper resistance has a large
temperature dependency and a large absolute tolerance. If the system qualification shows that this
tolerance in the quality factor can not be tolerated the antenna wire size has to be increased and an
external low tolerant resistor has to be used. The usage of magnetic conductive but electrical
insulating material, like ferrite, is another method to reduce the quality factor at a given geometry.
If the antenna coil is not located on the same PCB as the reader chip, it is recommended to use a
cable to the antenna which is not longer than 50cm. If a longer connection is necessary a shielded
cable may be required or the system performance will be reduced.
0,00
0,05
0,10
0,15
0,20
0,25
0,30
0,35
0,40
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Quality Factor [-]
Peak Current [A]