RFID Journal LIVE! 2023, taking place today and tomorrow in Orlando, Fla., features end-user companies discussing RFID’s use in various industries, as well as exhibitors offering tagging solutions for multiple applications.
Global radio frequency identification (RFID) company Perfect ID, which produces and sells specialized RFID tags and labels, says it has released a high-memory toll-lane transponder that features higher sensitivity than what is typically available among tags with large memories. The Prime E-Tolling Transponder incorporates Impinj‘s M781 tag chip and is designed to reliably capture tolling data when tags are applied to vehicle windshields or headlights. The transponder is now being made available for use with FASTag, India’s national electronic toll-collection system. The tag was certified by the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) for interoperability with 6C UHF RFID tolling systems. Indian banks have already purchased 50 million Perfect ID tags, which are being provided to customers as FASTag payment labels.
The Prime E-Tolling Transponder will be available for use with FASTag, India’s national electronic toll-collection system.
The company is marketing its tags to other tolling agencies and private companies requiring effective and accurate high-memory tags, says Sakun Ahuja, Perfect ID’s CEO. The tags can be used for automatic vehicle identification (AVI) applications like electronic toll collection, electronic vehicle registration and congestion-based pricing. The AVI labels are used in India, as well as in the United States and the Middle East.
Traditionally, Ahuja says, an enduring problem for the tolling industry has been the high percentage of data errors that occur when 6C UHF RFID vehicle tags are not properly read while moving through gates or passing under roadway tolling interrogators. Additionally, tolling authorities have required a high-memory tag that could store the tag’s Electronic Product Code and terminal identification number, as well as up to 512 bits of information about the vehicle to which the tag is attached, written to the user memory.
Few tags offer both high memory and reliable, fast read capabilities, Ahuja says. Therefore, Perfect ID developed the tag to address those challenges, using the features of Impinj’s IC. The new transponder comes with data-error detection features to ensure reliable transmission, according to Joe Hoerl, a principal consultant at Perfect ID. The detection features help to identify bit errors if they occur, he says, thereby improving efficiencies and reducing operational costs for the tolling operator, while maintaining good customer relations.
Tolling Solution for Millions of Commuters
The ruggedized label is built to withstand outdoor environmental conditions, including extreme sunlight exposure and wide temperature ranges, and the company claims each tag undergoes 19 distinct tests throughout the manufacturing process. The FASTag program was first mandated in 2016, requiring that all passing vehicles on specified highways must pay tolls via RFID tags, or else be charged twice the toll price.
Sakun Ahuja
Perfect ID has been offering UHF RFID-based vehicle-identification tags for years, and it has sold more than 50 million tags to tolling authorities to date. To opt in, commuters must buy RFID labels via their local banks. Participating banks take orders for the tags, collect customers’ vehicle information and purchase corresponding labels designed to store that information, which is also stored in the back-end software. The customers then set up a prepaid account from which the funds are deducted each time their tag is read.
HDFC Bank, India’s largest private bank, has been among the participating financial institutions, providing the Perfect ID tags to its customers. “Since 2019, HDFC Bank has been utilizing FASTag products approved by ARAI and NPCI [National Payments Corporation of India] and manufactured by Perfect ID,” an unnamed bank spokesperson indicated. “Thus far, we have not encountered any errors or issues with their tags, and it has been a satisfactory business relationship’.”
Each time a vehicle reaches a tolling gate with an RFID reader, its tag is interrogated. The software captures and screens the EPC, TID and user memory data, after which funds are deducted from the user’s account. The user can refill that account based on the method required by their bank. With the vehicle information written onto the tag, those using RFID readers—such as safety officials equipped with a handheld device—can view that data and confirm the vehicle’s identity, or view if it does not match the vehicle in front of them. That information is available to them whether or not they have access to the back-end server.
Expanded Global Presence
Perfect ID was launched in 2015 to provide specialty RFID tags for Indian customers. The company was one of that country’s first providers of such technology in volume, and it makes its own products, including the tags and antennas, using ICs from third-party providers. “We have flip-chip bonding capabilities,” Ahuja says, with the ability to make a full product from IC to inlay, including the converting and personalization of finished labels, “with everything under one roof.”
Joe Hoerl
Initially, Ahuja recalls, the company was focused on the Indian market. “At the time, there was nobody manufacturing [RFID tags] in India,” he states, so Perfect ID served an important service to that nation, producing and encoding tags quickly, based on customer orders. The firm then began offering its tags to the FASTag program. In 2021, it joined Syrma SGS, which makes industrial solutions including RFID tags and inlays. These days, the companies offer LF, HF and UHF RFID industrial tags in combination.
Perfect ID says it intends to expand its footprint geographically, to support customers in North and South American countries, as well as in Europe, which will include new manufacturing sites in Europe and the United States. The company already has sales and a customer service presence in the Americas and Europe, Ahuja says, adding, “We want to be very local,” in order to serve customers worldwide with fast production and delivery.
When it comes to tolling solutions, Ahuja says, organizations such as the FASTag program have been requiring a higher-memory, high-integrity tag. “Now, the tolling authorities get better performance,” he adds, thanks to the M781 tag chip’s capabilities. Impinj designed the chip to provide higher memory, an extended read range and read sensitivity for challenging read environment. “This is a huge leap in performance and customer satisfaction,” Ahuja states, “because of that performance.”
Key Takeaways:
- Perfect ID is expanding to a global audience after developing the Prime E-Tolling Transponder for India’s FASTag tolling program.
- The new transponder is available for sale commercially, providing 512 bits of user memory and highly sensitive read capabilities for interrogation on highways and other roads.