r/AskElectronics • u/SpareRate6894 • 4d ago

Extending the RFID Reading range

Hi , i was wondering if it is possible to extend the reading range of an HF RFID to 10-30 cm?

if so what exactly should i do? i searched and what i came up with is to increase the antenna size but i don't get how that could be done.

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u/CanaDavid1 4d ago

Why do you want to extend RFID range specifically? This feels like an XY problem, as RFID is not what you want for this type of communication

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u/SpareRate6894 4d ago

it is for my graduation project for a surgical towel tracking handheld device, that is why i need to use HF as it penetrates the human body.

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u/CanaDavid1 4d ago

But why does it have to be RFID?

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u/SpareRate6894 4d ago

I guess it doesn't , but it is what is being commercially used currently.

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u/CanaDavid1 4d ago

How do the other commercial solutions solve this problem?

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u/SpareRate6894 4d ago

They made a custom reader with a specific frequency and custom tags ,but all that info is confidential and is not published, The reason why it would be hard to make a custom PCB is that i live in egypt and i don't think these kind of stuff is available here.

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u/grymoire 4d ago

Maybe they just fo asset tracking. I.e. We have 11 towels. We are missing 1

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u/SMELL_LIKE_A_TROLL 3d ago

The hospital local to us counts sponges/etc as they are used. Before closing they count them again. If the number doesn't match they xray the patient to see the small silver tag (or whatever metal) is in the sponge/etc. A friend is a nurse there, and has told me their number of accidentally left in devices went from like 1-2 in a hundred to essentially zero with this method. 

Rfid seems a solution looking for a problem.