Abstract: In order to track the medical equipment effectively, especially to monitor the scalpel′s quantity before and after operation, a miniature ultra-high frequency (UHF) metal skin radio frequency identification (RFID) tag antenna is designed, which can be applied to the scalpel. The antenna has a short-ended stub structure, and can be embedded in metal or applied to the metal surface. This tag antenna is composed of radiant surface, short-ended stub, metal ground and tag chip, the antenna miniaturization is achieved by using a high dielectric constant substrate. The resonant frequency and impedance of the antenna can be adjusted by adjusting the radiation surface size, the short-ended stub and opening size of the antenna. The overall size of antenna is 66 mm×5 mm×0. 8 mm. The maximum read range is 1 m when the tag antenna is embedded in the scalpel. Based on the simulation optimization results, we fabricate the antenna. The test data of the tag antenna matches the simulation results, the measured results of the antenna show that the antenna can be applied to the scalpels.