Dash7 Alliance Working on New Specification, Tags for ISO 18000-7

"Four hundred thirty-three MHz and 13.56 MHz are sort of like peanut butter and chocolate—they just go well together and can share the same silicon and antenna, apart from the addition of a single two-cent Dash7 circuit," Burns explains. "We are about to see some terrific stuff from the HF RFID community, who have been selling 13.56 MHz devices successfully for many years in many markets, and for a broad range of applications."

By adding a coin cell battery, along with a Dash7 circuit, to a 13.56 MHz passive proximity tag, for example, that tag could begin sending active 433 MHz transmissions that could allow the tracking of an individual in a building based on that person's proximity badge, Burns says, or by using a previously passive-only RFID-enabled ID card to download data from a distance using the longer read range of the 433 MHz transmission, such as information encoded to a 13.56 MHz embedded in a smart poster.

According to Burns, the Mode 2 tags will be smaller than their ISO 18000-7 Mode 1 predecessors, since they will come with smaller batteries, and will be able to transmit at eight channels rather than just one. That increased number of channels enables the RTLS and hybrid passive/active transmission. Moreover, the data rate will also be higher—up to 200 kilobits per second, as opposed to Mode 1's 27.8 kbps.

Companies are already designing hardware and software based on Mode 2, Burns says, and may release these new products prior to ISO's ratification of the standard. Among the technology vendors that have Mode 2 products in the works are Confidex, which currently produces only passive RFID tags operating at either 13.56 MHz or at 840 to 960 MHz, as well as Dash7 tag and reader companies such as Identec and Savi. Melexis, a Belgian firm that manufactures ISO 18000-7 (Mode 1) tag chips and 13.56 MHz RFID reader chips, is developing silicon and Mode 2 sensor tags for automotive applications, including tire-pressure monitoring.

In addition, international security company Rights Commerce, based in Adelaide and Sydney, Australia, as well as in Hong Kong and the United Kingdom, is developing a Mode 2-compliant RFID-enabled SIM card to be used with mobile phones for such applications as remotely tracking health-care for patients. "With medical telemetry, you could use a standard consumer handset to send data to your physician," says Leon Vandenberg, Rights Commerce's CEO, CTO and founder. The firm is working to interface RFID technology with a Texas Instruments chip on a SIM card, in order to allow phones to be used not only for health-care tracking, but also as payment systems. Vandenberg says he hopes to begin piloting the Mode 2 RFID-enabled SIM card within six to nine months, with commercial availability expected between 10 and 15 months from now.