UHF RFID Tag With Slot Antenna Integrated Into Blister Medicine Package

Passive UHF radio frequency identification (RFID) tag is proposed for integration into aluminum blister medicine package. To fit the very limited space left on aluminum foil and inevitable errors in hot-press fabrication, an antenna of multiple-fold slot is optimized in terms of normalized tag performance index and Latin hypercube sampling model of fabrication errors in hot-press. It is shown that the antenna of one-fold slot provides the largest read range, while the antenna of zero-fold slot (single rectangular slot) provides the best tolerance to fabrication errors. Prototypes of UHF tag with zero-fold and one-fold slot antenna are fabricated and tested, respectively. For 50 tags with zero-fold slot antenna, an average maximum read range of approximately 1.18 m is measured by using a UHF reader of 4 W EIRP at 915 MHz. For 50 tags with one-fold slot antenna, an average maximum read range of 3.19 m is measured.