Jul 18, 2008SimplyRFID, a Virginia RFID logistics supplier and provider of an RFID-based security service for the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), as well as for commercial firms that sell electronics equipment or other high-value products, is offering a new upgraded asset-tracking tag to its customers.
This tag, according to the company, will increase read range beyond that of most UHF Gen 2 tags, as well as add security with a serial number added to each tag and provide memory for data storage. The additional memory and improved read range will help customers employ the passive UHF Gen 2 tags not only to know if a product or asset is in the facility, but also to pinpoint its location and movement within a few feet, and with a higher read rate.
The DOD is the first customer to use the upgraded tag, which SimplyRFID's president, Carl Brown, says he is currently offering at the same price as his company's previous tag. SimplyRFID's passive Gen 2 Pro-Tags and Nox-1 Asset Tracking tags contain the new Avery Dennison AD-224 RFID inlay, says Wayne Baker, Avery Dennison's product manager, making SimplyRFID one of the first users of the new inlay.
The AD-224 contains NXP Semiconductors' Ucode G2XL or G2XM chip (see NXP Boosts EPC Gen 2 Tag Memory, Performance). The version of the AD-224 SimplyRFID utilizes contains the G2XL chip, with 240 bits of EPC memory, though Brown says he eventually plans to employ the G2XM, which offers an additional 512 bits of user-programmable memory.
According to Brown, SimplyRFID began testing the new AD-224 RFID inlay in April 2008, in the company's office and warehouse. As far as passive Gen 2 RFID technology goes, he says, he found that it was more reliable, offered a longer read range and was more durable than any similar inlays on the market.
Brown claims SimplyRFID's testing found a 40-foot read average, and that his company's tags are now able to read at about 10 to 20 percent greater range than previous tags SimplyRFID offered, or than other Gen 2 tags on the market. Now, Brown indicates, his firm will sell only the new higher-functioning tags, which he says may increase average read rates to about 99 percent (the previous tags averaged a read rate of 97 percent).
SimplyRFID's NOX system includes RFID interrogators that can be embedded in walls, as well as surveillance cameras that can be hidden if so desired by a user. The system thus enables users to track theft or other undesirable behavior on their property (see Companies, Agencies use Clandestine RFID Systems to Catch Thieves).
"Historically," Brown says, "the EPC Gen 2 products were used for more finite purposes, with reads under 20 feet. With the latest chip, he adds, by taking advantage of the chip's increased power, the industry can extend its read range and further enable the tag to be employed not just for asset tracking, but to actually pinpoint locations. "It's a big shift," he says, "and I think it will create a new direction for the industry."
At present, Brown says, with the AD-224 inlays, SimplyRFID's tags are powerful enough to capture tag ID numbers in a 900-square-foot area with one reader, creating 12- by 12-foot antenna zones so that if a tag is moved within that zone, a user can recognize that movement. "We can usually cover—reliably—a 20- by 20- by 10-foot cube with a single antenna," Brown states. "A single four-antenna reader system covers an average 40- by 40-foot room—1,600 square feet."
There are, however, numerous features the tag offers that SimplyRFID does not yet plan to take advantage of, Brown says, adding that the company will have to wait for reader technology to catch up first. For example, he adds, the G2XM chip comes with 240 bits of EPC memory and 512 bits of user-programmable memory. For added security, it also has a 32-bit unique serial number (otherwise known as a tag ID, or TID), in addition to an EPC number. Because EPC numbers can be duplicated, Brown notes, this feature is of interest to his clients who could use the chip's serial number to link with the EPC number and require a password to read that serial number using a "read protect" command.
"We're always looking to maintain the state-of-the art technology," Brown says, though in this case, the chip is ahead of the reader industry that cannot yet accommodate the extended memory; most Gen 2 readers, he claims, would not be able to read the stored data on the tag, or the added serial number. Baker agrees, commenting that the chip industry often leads the reader industry in new technology, but that in coming months, interrogator manufacturers can be expected to develop reader firmware to read the new tag. Like the transition to Gen 2 passive tags, Brown believes the reader industry will soon begin providing firmware upgrades, enabling interrogators to work with the new chip technology.
"It will be lots of fun when the reader functionality catches up with the chips," Brown states. Baker says he has seen reader manufacturers beginning the development of firmware that would accommodate the greater on-chip memory. In the meantime, Brown notes, the chip technology just keeps getting better. "It's incremental," he says. "This [new chip] just makes it better, stronger, faster."
According to Baker, the inlay—which functions at 866 to 960 MHz—is being sold at the same price as its predecessor, Avery Dennison's AD-222. SimplyRFID, Brown indicates, will sell its new tag for the same price as previous tags—about 20 cents apiece in paper form factor, and 30 cents each in plastic for orders of about 50,000 or less.
