This article examines the state of the RFID market for printed circuit board (PCB) tracking. RFID vendors say there haven’t been any large-scale deployments, but interest has increased in the past few months for work-in-process, authentication and warranty tracking applications.
Some leading adopters of EPC RFID say they wish they were further along, but are comfortable with the progress they’ve made to date.
Leaders of the two flagship EPC users say they are not backing off their respective RFID efforts, and that both organizations have made “sustained progress.”
The company’s Global Research division has come up with a design consisting of a standards-based 13.56 MHz RFID chip with an antenna coated with chemically or biologically sensitive films.
Exercise enthusiasts use passive 13.56 MHz RFID-enabled cards not only to gain entrance to their health clubs, purchase food and gear, and secure their lockers, but also to track workouts.
Honkarakenne, a Finnish firm that makes log houses that are sold throughout the world, is using passive RFID to manage materials and production processes. Logs receive a passive RFID tag that is encoded with order and processing instructions. The system helps ensure logs are properly processed, packaged and shipped.
The low-cost chip complies with the ISO 14443A standard and can contain 128 bits of factory-encoded data; commercial products should be available in 2009.
The creator of a long-distance system for reading EPC Gen 2 RFID tags is adding real-time location software, as well as hardware offering a read zone that’s larger and optimizable for specific applications.
Bay Area Rapid Transit NFC trial deemed a success; Alien Technology teams with Chinese inlay manufacturer; Canadian RFID company intros parking management systems; Amtel offers kit to develop secure 13.56 MHz RFID systems; CoreRFID announces RFID-based IT asset-tracking solution; many retailers favor mobile contactless payments, study says.
Favite’s system can utilize a passive RFID tag to control the operation of a television, DVD player or other electronic device.