Apparatus is disclosed for coupling electrical energy into and/or out of a surface acoustic wave (SAW) device, such as a transponder. The SAW device (10) has a piezoelectric substrate (12) with an exposed surface; at least one SAW transducer (14), disposed on the substrate surface, for converting between electrical energy and SAW energy; and a conductive loop (22) disposed on said substrate surface and electrically connected with said transducer. The conductive loop forms an inductive element for coupling energy into and/or out of the SAW device. A first inductive loop, formed by at least a partial turn of an electrical conductor, is inductively coupled to the conductive loop on the substrate surface. The device for transmitting and/or receiving an electrical signal to and/or from said SAW device incorporates a second inductive loop which is inductively coupled to said first inductive loop. In this way, the first inductive loop forms an intermediate inductive coupling path (38) between the second inductive loop of the transmitting/receiving device and the conductive loop on the substrate surface.