A novel compact microstrip antenna is presented for tri‐band RFID applications.The antenna consisting of a monopole like bent arm with a capacitively coupled small patch, printed on the alternative side of the ground plane, which might be common for multi‐layer reader circuitry. By adjusting the dimension of the bent arm as well as the embedded bent and capacitive coupling, tri‐band antenna has obtained in a small profile. The prototyped antenna shows broad impedance bandwidths (10 dB ≤ return loss) of 17.5, 32.7, and 25.5% accordingly in UHF (902–928MHz), 2.45GHz and 5.8GHz RFID bands with stable radiation characteristics. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett, 2011; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.26044