Exploring the Correlation Between Drug Formulation and RFID-enabled Pharmaceutical Products

December 2023

Dr. Bahar Aliakbarian, Ethan Claucherty, and Danielle Cummins of Michigan State’s Axia Insitute were recently published in the International Journal of RF Techologies.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a burgeoning technology pivotal for optimizing intricate supply chains. Surprisingly, limited research has probed RFID performance on pharmaceutical products and their packaging. This study aims to explore the influence of diverse liquid drug formulations on RFID performance, utilizing a pre-optimized Ultra High Frequency (UHF) RFID tag. Five distinct drug formulations, encompassing water, saline, and lipids, were studied, alongside deionized (DI) water and empty vials as control subjects. Performance evaluations, including Threshold Sweep, Orientation Sweep, and Population Analysis, were conducted to assess tag readability, focusing on sensitivity, backscatter, and theoretical read range. The results underscore how the composition of different pharmaceutical drug formulations significantly impact RFID tag readability in a controlled, reflection-free environment. These findings provide valuable insights for designing intelligent packaging to enhance the readability of RFID-tagged pharmaceutical products.