NXP, Siemens Demo Bulk Reading of EPC Gen 2 HF Tags

According to Schatzmayer, the candidate EPC HF standard is capable of reading more tags at once, compared to older standards, because it relies on the same data-processing protocol used in UHF Gen 2 tags. "The handling of the tag data is faster than with older HF standards," he states. This is important to end users, he adds, because it should allow them to encode and read tags adhered to products, such as bottles of pills, at high speeds, and could pave the way for integrating RFID tagging into existing high-speed packaging systems.

NXP and Siemens worked to make the bulk HF tag-reading demonstration project as similar to likely real-world use cases as possible, by adding the HF tags to individual drug containers and blister packs of pharmaceutical products, then moving the tagged packaging through a simulated end-to-end supply chain, wherein they would be read while moving quickly through material-handling equipment onto which RFID readers are mounted. OBID i-scan LR2000 interrogators, manufactured by Feig Electronic, are used to encode and read the EPC Gen 2 HF tags. In April 2009, Feig released firmware for the reader that complies with the EPC Gen 2 HF candidate standard (the company is the first and only such interrogator manufacturer to have released such drivers, according to NXP).

EPCglobal decided to develop an HF passive tag standard—more accurately, to resurrect an older initiative to create such a standard—in early 2006, after conducting a battery of tests to compare the functionality of HF and UHF passive tags in tracking individual items (as opposed to cases or pallets). Based on the test results, the organization determined that it would complete work in developing an HF tag standard (see EPCglobal Developing HF Tag Standard).

Gay Whitney, EPCglobal's director for standards development, says the ratification process for the candidate HF standard is ongoing. "The [intellectual property (IP)] declaration review that is part of the EPCglobal standards development process has been completed," she says, but "additional concerns about IP have been raised, and we are working rapidly to conclude on these issues so that the specification may proceed to ratification. Both [EPCglobal's] Business Steering Committee and [its] Technical Steering Committee have recommended that the specification be ratified pending completion of this final review."

The IP review process is designed to allow industry representatives within the working group to present any intellectual property held by their companies, in order to verify that a standard will not infringe on any IP rights held by those firms, thereby ensuring that the final standard can be offered free of royalties. This takes place early in a standard's development, and again once a standard is ready to be ratified, in order to determine if any changes made to the standard in the interim infringe on IP. In the case of the EPC Gen 2 HF standardization process, a chipmaker that Whitney declines to name (and is not part of the working group) presented the group with concerns regarding possible IP violations. But these concerns are being addressed, she says, and should not impact the tag standard, or EPCglobal's ability to offer it free of royalties.

NXP has been closely monitoring the standard-development process, Schatzmayer says, and the prototype Icode EPC HF chip was designed in accordance to the candidate standard. According to NXP, samples of the chips are available now. Once the standard is ratified, the company plans to ramp up production and have the chips available to tag makers in large volumes within six months.