Finnish RFID and label stock company UPM Raflatac has stepped up its offerings in the U.S. market with a mix of new UHF and HF tags and inlays.
The new UHF tags draw on ICs from two semiconductor suppliers. Designed to fit in 4-inch-wide labels, the Rafsec G2 MemoryStick Short Dipole inlay is an EPC-certified Class1 Gen 2 UHF tag with 512-bit memory and an IC from Philips Semiconductors.
Two other new Class 1 Gen 2 UHF tags—the Rafsec G2 Frog and the Rafsec G2 DogBone—use ICs from Impinj. In combination with specially designed antennas, Raflatac reports, both tags are capable of operating equally well using the various designated UHF spectra ranges for RFID in Europe, Asia and the United States, as their design enables a stronger-than-usual backscatter signal.
“The prices for the Frog and DogBone tags are 10 to 40 percent higher than the basic inlay products,” says Samuli Strömberg, UPM Raflatac’s vice president of marketing for RFID. “These products are especially for end users who have a clear business case and internal ROI for using the products—such as returnable transport item management—but they are also great for demanding case-level tagging.”
The 3-by-3-inch Frog tag, with 96-bit memory, has a dual dipole antenna design, enabling it to boost its backscatter signal regardless of its orientation to the reader. The 3.82-by-1-inch 96-bit Dog Bone tag, meanwhile, is geared toward case-level tagging, Raflatac explains.
Raflatac has also launched a new UHF passive tag for item-level tagging. The G2 Mini is a 1-by-1-inch multipurpose item-level UHF tag with a read range of up to 1.5 meters. The company timed the introduction of the G2 Mini to coincide with the launch of several item-level UHF RFID pilots it expects to occur this year.
The company also believes a market for item-level HF tagging is emerging in the United States. Thus, Raflatac is making all three of its BookTag product-family inlays and tags available in the United States, as well as its round DVDTag designed for direct application in the center of the CD/DVD. The DVDTag and BookTag lines conform to ISO 15693.
According to UPM Raflatac, all new tags are available immediately in quantities of up to 1 million tags or inlays. Furthermore, the new tags can be obtained as dry inlays, wet inlays or paper-faced tags. Pricing varies, according to tag design and order volume.