Design of a Small-Size, Low-Profile, and Low-Cost Normal-Mode Helical Antenna for UHF RFID Wristbands

Emerging RFID applications in the UHF band in some cases require very specific antenna solutions. This letter considers the identification and tracking of patients inside hospital facilities using wristbands, which impose strict tag size and cost limitations. We propose a solution for passive tags based on a normal-mode helical antenna as an alternative to bulky and/or expensive solutions that can be found in the literature. The robustness of the resulting wristband will be assessed in a particular implementation by measuring the maximum read range for a variety of subjects with different physical constitutions.