If not, where might I find a comprehensive listing of companies that make chips for LF, HF, UHF and active RFID transponders?
—Guillermo
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Guillermo,
There are many different types of RFID technology. I am unaware of any comprehensive list of firms that produce chips for low-frequency (LF), high-frequency (HF), ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) and active RFID transponders. I conducted a search for chip manufacturers on RFID Connect, which turned up 14 companies, though I am sure there must be more (view the list).
GS1 publishes a list of all businesses that have asked for an assignment of a Mask Designer ID (MDID) number. This number is the first eight bits of the tag identifier (TID) memory bank of an EPC Gen 2 RFID tag, so any company that wants to manufacture Gen 2 chips will generally need to obtain such a number. I would expect GS1’s list to include all Gen 2 chip manufacturers.
Ken Traub, a GS1 consultant who pointed me to the list, says it could include some companies that offered chips at one time but are no longer in that business, as well as those looking into producing or planning to manufacture Gen 2 chips, but not yet doing so. It may also include companies that provide Gen 2 chips for internal purposes, without selling them as commercial products.
Here is a link to that list: www.gs1.org/epcglobal/standards/mdid.
—Mark Roberti, Founder and Editor, RFID Journal