This paper presents a numerical study of the thermal effects induced by a commercial RFID antenna in vials filled with blood plasma. The antenna is located under a conveyor belt which transports cardboard boxes bearing test tubes or pooling bottles. Part of the energy used to read the RFID tags penetrates into the vials and heats the plasma. Our aim is to assess if the RFID technology can alter the quality of the blood plasma by increasing excessively its temperature. To do so, we first compute the specific absorption rate inside the vials with the finite element method. Then, assuming that no heat dissipation process is present, we estimate the number of continuous reading cycles required to increase the plasma temperature 0.1°C in the worst-case scenario. Finally, we compare this number with the number of reading cycles required to obtain all the data from the tags under normal usage conditions.
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