Is There an RFID Tag That Operates at -80 Degrees Celsius?

Research Instruments, a biomedical technology firm based in the United Kingdom, has developed an RFID system that enables the identification of cryopreserved biological specimens, such as tissue, blood or sperm, without removing them from the liquid nitrogen tanks in which they are stored. To achieve this, the company had to develop RFID inlays that can be read at temperatures as low as -196 degrees Celsius (see Tags in Deep Freeze).

For a deployment at Brazil's Israelita Albert Einstein Hospital, AeroScout provided three tag models for monitoring temperatures: the T5A, for standard refrigerators; the T5B, for freezers that drop to -70 degrees Celsius (-94 degrees Fahrenheit); and the T5C, for cryogenic containers that use liquid nitrogen to reach -200 degrees Celsius (-328 degrees Fahrenheit) for storing tissue such as bone marrow and stem cells. For cryogenic containers, the tags were tested and modified to ensure they could withstand the extreme cold (see Israelita Albert Einstein Hospital Uses RFID to Track Temperatures, Assets).