A multi-mode radio frequency identification (RFID) tag (20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 38, 68) comprises: a configurable coupling circuit that, when the multi-mode RFID tag is in a near field mode, provides electromagnetic coupling to an RFID reader (14, 16, 18) and, when the multi-mode RFID tag is in a far field mode, provides radio frequency coupling to the RFID reader; a power generating and signal detection module coupled to the configurable coupling circuit, wherein the power generating and signal detection module converts an inbound receive signal into a supply voltage and recovers encoded data from the inbound receive signal; a baseband processing module coupled to: decode the encoded data to produce a decoded signal; process the decoded signal; when the processing of the decoded signal indicates generating a response signal, generate the response signal; and encode the response signal to produce outbound encoded data; a transmit section coupled to the configurable coupling circuit, wherein the transmit section converts the outbound encoded data into an outbound transmit signal, and wherein the configurable coupling circuit comprises: a first capacitor coupled to an antenna in the far field mode and open or coupled to ground in the near field mode; an inductor to provide the electromagnetic coupling in the near field mode and to provide an inductance value for impedance matching in the far field mode; and a second capacitor coupled to the inductor to provide a capacitance value to tune the impedance matching for the far field mode or to tune at least one of: bandwidth, quality factor, gain and roll-off of the configurable coupling circuit in the near field mode. a configurable coupling circuit that, when the multi-mode RFID tag is in a near field mode, provides electromagnetic coupling to an RFID reader (14, 16, 18) and, when the multi-mode RFID tag is in a far field mode, provides radio frequency coupling to the RFID reader; a power generating and signal detection module coupled to the configurable coupling circuit, wherein the power generating and signal detection module converts an inbound receive signal into a supply voltage and recovers encoded data from the inbound receive signal; a baseband processing module coupled to: decode the encoded data to produce a decoded signal; process the decoded signal; when the processing of the decoded signal indicates generating a response signal, generate the response signal; and encode the response signal to produce outbound encoded data; decode the encoded data to produce a decoded signal; process the decoded signal; when the processing of the decoded signal indicates generating a response signal, generate the response signal; and encode the response signal to produce outbound encoded data; a transmit section coupled to the configurable coupling circuit, wherein the transmit section converts the outbound encoded data into an outbound transmit signal, and wherein the configurable coupling circuit comprises: a first capacitor coupled to an antenna in the far field mode and open or coupled to ground in the near field mode; an inductor to provide the electromagnetic coupling in the near field mode and to provide an inductance value for impedance matching in the far field mode; and a second capacitor coupled to the inductor to provide a capacitance value to tune the impedance matching for the far field mode or to tune at least one of: bandwidth, quality factor, gain and roll-off of the configurable coupling circuit in the near field mode. a first capacitor coupled to an antenna in the far field mode and open or coupled to ground in the near field mode; an inductor to provide the electromagnetic coupling in the near field mode and to provide an inductance value for impedance matching in the far field mode; and a second capacitor coupled to the inductor to provide a capacitance value to tune the impedance matching for the far field mode or to tune at least one of: bandwidth, quality factor, gain and roll-off of the configurable coupling circuit in the near field mode.