Development of a low profile conformal UHF RFID tag antenna for identification of water bottles

Development of a low profile conformal RFID tag antenna with an omnidirectional pattern when mounted on a water bottle is discussed. Results from full-wave electromagnetic simulations are presented to explain the design procedure and to evaluate the performance of the prototype tag antenna. The design uncertainty is quantified based on the expected maximum variations in the tag antenna and tag chip impedances. Wireless measurements based on the EPC Generation 2 protocol are used in experimental tag design verification. The prototype tag achieves more than two-meter maximum line of sight read range for 866.6 MHz to 954.2 MHz frequency band.