The effect of antennae configuration, product and tag type on readability of passive UHF RFID transponders

Many advances are being made in the supply chain world at this time. One of the more prevalent additions is the use of radio frequency identification (RFID). With mandates being issued by powerful retailers and government agencies, numerous companies are being forced into implementing this technology. The use of 915 MHz RFID systems is rapidly growing and there is a need to better understand its use in certain applications.; The purpose of this research is to determine if the number of read antennae used and the location of these antennae has an effect on the readability of passive UHF RFID tagged cases on a stretch wrapper. The variables for this testing were number of read antennae, location of read antennae, case contents (empty, rice and water), and tag type (Alien Class 1 and Symbol Class 0).; The research found that there was a significant difference in the read rate of reads for both number and location of antennae. There was also a significant difference in the read rate of reads for different case contents with both rice and water decreasing reads, though water was shown to have the greatest impact. The tag type was not found to have a significant difference with respect to total reads; however there were differences seen within specific combinations of variables.