A low cost fully integrated single-chip UHF radio frequency identification (RFID) reader SoC for short distance handheld applications is presented in this paper. The SOC integrates all building blocks—including an RF transceiver, a PLL frequency synthesizer, a digital baseband and a MCU—in a 0.18um CMOS process. A high-linearity RX front-end is designed to handle the large self-interferer. A class-E power amplifier with high power efficiency is also integrated to fulfill the function of a UHF passive RFID reader. The measured maximum output power of the transmitter is 20.28dBm and the measured receiver sensitivity is -60dBm. The digital baseband including MCU core consumes 3.91mW with a clock of 10MHz and the analog part including power amplifier consumes 368.4 mW. The chip has a die area of 5.1mm*3.8mm including pads.