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GLOSSARY OF RFID TERMS
  If there is a term that should be in this glossary but isn't, please let us know by sending e-mail to editor@rfidjournal.com.
 
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Glossary Results   F - L
 F
Factory programming: Some read-only have to have their identification number written into the silicon microchip at the time the chip is made. The process of writing the number into the chip is called factory programming. This data can't be written over or changed.
False read: See phantom read.
Far-field communication: RFID reader antennas emit electromagnetic radiation (radio waves). If an RFID tag is outside of one full wavelength of the reader, it is said to be in the "far field." If it is within one full wavelength away, it is said to be in the "near field." The far field signal decays as the square of the distance from the antenna, while the near field signal decays as the cube of distance from the antenna. So passive RFID systems that rely on far field communications (typically UHF and microwave systems) have a longer read range than those that use near field communications (typically low- and high-frequency systems).
Faraday Cage: Also called a Faraday shield. Named after physicist Michael Faraday, a Faraday Cage is an enclosure formed of conductive material, or by a mesh of conductive material, that blocks out external static electrical fields and external electromagnetic radiation, if the conductor is thick enough and any holes in the mesh are significantly smaller than the radiation's wavelength. Faraday cages can provide effective electromagnetic shielding to prevent noise from interfering with the ability to read RFID tags, or to prevent RFID reader from interfering with other RFID devices.
Faraday Shield: See Faraday Cage.
Federal Information Processing Standards Publication 201: A United States federal government standard specifying Personal Identity Verification (PIV) requirements for federal employees and contractors. FIPS 201 was developed to satisfy the requirements of HSPD 12, approved by the Secretary of Commerce.
Field programming: Tags that use EEPROM, or non-volatile memory, can be programmed after it is shipped from the factory. That is, users can write data to the tag when it is placed on a product.

FIPS 201: A United States federal government standard specifying Personal Identity Verification (PIV) requirements for federal employees and contractors. FIPS 201 was developed to satisfy the requirements of HSPD 12, approved by the Secretary of Commerce.
Firmware: Coded instructions that are stored permanently in read-only memory. When upgrading a reader to read a new protocol, the firmware usually has to be changed. Some newer readers can be upgraded remotely over a network.
Fixed Reader: An RFID interrogator mounted to a wall, doorway, gate, table, shelf or other permanent or non-mobile structure, enabling employees to read the unique ID numbers of RFID tags attached to items in a warehouse or other setting along the supply chain.
FLASH: A special type of EEPROM that can be erased and reprogrammed in blocks instead of one byte at a time. It is usually written in capital letters, but it is not an acronym.

Fluidic Self-Assembly: A manufacturing process, patented by Alien Technology. It involves flowing tiny microchips in a special fluid over a base with holes shaped to catch the chips. The process is designed to mass assemble billions of RFID tags at very low cost.
Folded dipole: A dipole antenna in which the two poles are connected to each other, as well as to the microchip.
Form factor: The packaging a transponder can be put in. These include thermal transfer labels, plastic cards, key fobs and so on.
Forward channel: The path through which energy passes from the interrogator, or reader, to the RFID tag.
Free air: A term used to describe the reading of an RFID tag that is not attached to anything.
Frequency: The number of repetitions of a complete wave within one second. 1 Hz equals one complete waveform in one second. 1KHz equals 1,000 waves in a second. RFID tags use low, high, ultra-high and microwave frequencies. Each frequency has advantages and disadvantages that make them more suitable for some applications than for others.
Frequency hopping: A technique used to prevent readers from interfering with one another. In the United States, UHF RFID readers actually operate between 902 and 928 MHz, even though it is said that they operate at 915 MHz. The readers may jump randomly or in a programmed sequence to any frequency between 902 MHz and 928 MHz. If the band is wide enough, the chances of two readers operating at exactly the same frequency is small. The UHF bands in Europe and Japan are much smaller so this technique is not effective for preventing reader interference.
Frequency shift keying: A method of communicating data by switching between two slightly different frequencies.

FSK: See frequency shift keying
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 G
GCI: See Global Commerce Initiative
GDS: See global data synchronization
Gen 2: See EPC Generation 2
Geographical Information System Software: A system for capturing, storing, analyzing and managing data and associated attributes that are spatially referenced to the earth. GIS software enables users to create interactive queries, analyze spatial information, edit data, create maps and present the results of these operations. GIS is often utilized in logistics applications; other common apps include scientific investigations, resource management, asset management, cartography, criminology, history, sales, marketing and emergency disaster relief.
Geospatial: A term frequently used to describe the combination of spatial software and analytical methods with terrestrial or geographic datasets. The term is often employed in conjunction with geographical information systems (GIS) and geomatics.
GIS Software: A system for capturing, storing, analyzing and managing data and associated attributes that are spatially referenced to the earth. GIS software enables users to create interactive queries, analyze spatial information, edit data, create maps and present the results of these operations. GIS is often utilized in logistics applications; other common apps include scientific investigations, resource management, asset management, cartography, criminology, history, sales, marketing and emergency disaster relief.
GLN: See Global Location Number
Global Commerce Initiative: In user group founded in October 1999 by manufacturers, retailers and trade industry associations, to improve the performance of the international supply chain for consumer goods through the collaborative development and endorsement of recommended voluntary standards and best practices. Its charter is to drive the implementation of EAN•UCC standards and best practices, including use of EPC.
Global data synchronization: A term that generally refers to the process of ensuring that a manufacturer's master files with product information match those of retailers. GDS is an importan prerequisite to deploying RFID in open supply chains because companies need to ensure that RFID serial numbers refer to the right product information in a database.
Global Location Number: A numbering scheme created by EAN International and the Uniform Code Council to as a means to identify virtually limitless numbers of legal entities, trading parties and locations to support the requirements of electronic commerce (B2B and B2C). Parties and locations that can be identified with GLNs include functional entities (e.g., a purchasing, accounting or returns department), physical entities (e.g., a particular room in a building, warehouse, loading dock, delivery point) and legal entities or trading partners (e.g. buyers, sellers, whole companies, subsidiaries or divisions such as suppliers, customers, financial services companies, or freight forwarders).

Global Positioning System: Developed for and managed by the United States military, GPS is a satellite navigation system. It consists of 24 satellites above the earth. They transmit radio signals to receivers placed on ships, trucks or other large assets that need to be tracked. The receivers compute longitude and latitude and velocity by calculating the difference in the time signals are received from four different satellites. Some companies are integrating RFID and GPS systems to track assets in transit.

Global System for Mobiles: The digital cellular telephone system, widely used in Europe, Asia and Australia.

Global Trade Item Number: A standardized system of identifying products and services created by the Uniform Code Council and EAN International. Product identification numbers, such as EAN/UCC-8, UCC-12, EAN/UCC-13, and EAN/UCC-14, are based on the GTIN.
GPS: Global Positioning System
GSM: See Global System for Mobiles
GTAG: See Global Tag
GTIN: See Global Trade Item Number
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 H
Harvesting: A term sometimes used to describe the way passive tags gather energy from an RFID reader antenna.

High-frequency: This is generally considered to be from 3 MHz to 30 MHz. HF RFID tags typically operate at 13.56 MHz. They can be read from less than 3 feet away and transmit data faster than low-frequency tags. But they consume more power than low-frequency tags.
Host system: A computer on a network, which provides services to users or other computers on that network.
Hybrid card: A smart card that has both a contactless IC and a contact IC. Unlike a dual interface card, a hybrid card acts as two separate cards.

Hysteresis: A retardation of an effect when the forces acting upon a body are changed. When corrugated boxes and other materials absorb water and then dry, they are never as RF-friendly as they were before they became moist.
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 I
I/O: See input/output
I/O ports: See input-output ports
IC: See integrated circuit

Induction Loop: A coil-wire transceiver used in a variety of applications, such as inductive loop detection, in which the coil detects metal objects. Other applications include vehicle detection at traffic lights and car parks, metal detectors and other functions involving RFID reads in the presence of metal.
Inductive coupling: In technical terms, inductive coupling is the transfer of energy from one circuit to another by virtue of the mutual inductance between the circuits. In an RFID system that uses inductive coupling, the reader antenna and the tag antenna each have a coil, which together form a magnetic field. The tag draws energy from the field. The microchip uses this energy to change the electrical load on the tag antenna. These changes are picked up by the reader antenna and converted into a unique serial number.
Industrial, Scientific, and Medical bands: A group of unlicensed frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Inlay: An RFID microchip attached to an antenna and mounted on a substrate. Inlays are essentially unfinished RFID labels. They are usually sold to label converters who turn them into smart labels. They are also sometimes called inlets.
Inlet: See inlay
Input-output ports: Ports on an RFID reader that can be connected to external devices. An input port might be connected to a photoelectric eye to turn on the reader when an object enters the reader field. An output device might be connected to a door that opens when a tag is read.

Input/output: Ports on a reader. Users can connect devices, such as an electronic eye to the input port so that when an object breaks the beam of the electronic eye the reader begins reading. Devices can also be connected to an output part, so that when a tag is read, a conveyor is turned on or a dock door opened.

Integrated circuit: A microelectronic semiconductor device comprising many interconnected transistors and other components. Most RFID tags have ICs.
Intelligent reader: A generic term that is sometimes used to describe a reader that has the ability to filter data, execute commands and generally perform functions similar to a personal computer.
Intentional radiator: A device that produces a RF signal for the purpose of data communications. Examples. Include garage door openers, cordless phones, RFID transmitter and so on.
International Organization for Standardization: A non-governmental organization made up of the national standards institutes of 146 countries. Each member country has one representative and the organization maintains a Central Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, that coordinates the system.
Interoperability: In computing, the term refers to the ability to exchange and use information among disparate software systems. In RFID, the term generally refers to the ability of tags and readers from different vendors to communicate.
Interoperability Testing: Testing performed to assess the ability of two or more systems or components to exchange information, and to use the data that has been exchanged.
Interposer: A device used to connect a microchip to an antenna to create an RFID transponder. Interposers make an electrical connection to the tiny pads on the chip and to create leads that can be bonded to an antenna.
Interrogation zone: The area in which a passive interrogator can provide enough energy to power up a passive tag and receive back information. Also called the read field or reader field. Tags outside the interrogation zone do not receive enough energy from the interrogator to reflect back a signal.
Interrogator: See reader,
ISM: A group of unlicensed frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum.
ISO: See International Organization for Standardization
ISO 10536: The international standard for proximity cards
ISO 11784: The international standard defining frequencies, baud rate, bit coding and data structures of the transponders used for animal identification.
ISO 14443: A set of international standards covering proximity smart cards.
ISO 15693: The international standard for vicinity smart cards.
ISO 18000: A series of international standards for the air interface protocol used in RFID systems for tagging goods within the supply chain.
ISO 7816: A set of international standards covering the basic characteristics of smart cards, such as physical and electrical characteristics, communication protocols and others.
ISO/IEC 24730: A standard defining two air interface protocols and a single application program interface (API) for real-time locating systems (RTLS) used in asset management. The standard is intended to allow for compatibility and encourage interoperability of products for the growing RTLS market.
Isotropic: Identical in all direction. An isotropic antenna emits energy equally in every direction.
Item-level: A term used to discribed the tagging of individual products, as opposed to case-level and pallet-level tagging.
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 K
KU-Tag: An RFID tag developed by researchers at the University of Kansas' Information and Telecommunication Technology Center to read objects containing metal or liquid. The tag's thickness (about 1.5 millimeters, or 0.059 inch) qualifies it as one of the thinnest RFID tags designed to operate well in such conditions.
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 L
Label applicator: A device that applies labels to cases or other items. Some label applicators can print bar codes on and encode RFID transponders in labels before applying the labels.
License plate: This term generally applies to a simple RFID that has only a serial number that is associated with information in a database. The Auto-ID Center promoted the concept as a way to simplify the tag and reduce the cost.
Linear-polarized antenna: An antenna that focuses the radio energy from the reader in one orientation or polarity. This increases the read distance possible and can provide greater penetration through dense materials. Tags designed to be used with a linear polarized reader antenna must be aligned with the reader antenna in order to be read. (See circular-polarized antenna.)
LLRP Standard: A standard produced by the EPCglobal Reader Operations Working Group to foster RFID reader interoperability and create the foundation for technology providers to extend basic capabilities in satisfaction of industry-specific requirements. The LLRP standard is the result of collaboration between more than 90 end users, RFID infrastructure vendors, middleware vendors, industry experts and networking professionals.
Lossy: Characterized by or causing dissipation of energy. For instance, a cable is said to be a lossy cable if the signal attenuates as it travels through the cable.
Low-frequency: From 30 kHz to 300 kHz. Low-frequency tags typical operate at 125 kHz or 134 kHz. The main disadvantages of low-frequency tags are they have to be read from within three feet and the rate of data transfer is slow. But they are less subject to interference than UHF tags.
Low-Level Reader Protocol Standard: A standard produced by the EPCglobal Reader Operations Working Group to foster RFID reader interoperability and create the foundation for technology providers to extend basic capabilities in satisfaction of industry-specific requirements. The LLRP standard is the result of collaboration between more than 90 end users, RFID infrastructure vendors, middleware vendors, industry experts and networking professionals.
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