Introduction:

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is becoming an essential tool in today’s business environment.  More and more companies are finding the advantages of RFID to track their goods through the supply chain, identify assets and to provide unique identification in industrial and mining environments.  The applications of RFID extend across a wide range of industries and successful application of RFID to animal and human identification and tracking, are examples of how this technology transforms and enables whole industries to accomplish meaningful results with a high return on investment.

A quick Google search for “RFID” will bombard the user with more than 13 million references and a plethora of confusing facts and myths, no wonder companies are interested but careful to invest without the guidance and involvement of experts.  Osiris Technical Systems offer exactly such RFID expertise; with a long history of successful involvement in RFID projects the team at Osiris Technical Systems can offer advice and best of breed solutions from an array of world class suppliers with experience in your industry.

Active and Passive

Active tags make use of an internal battery while passive tags obtain their power from the Radio Frequency energy of a reader in close proximity to it.  Typical ranges for active tags vary between 10 and 150 meters whilst passive tags vary widely according to the frequency, size of the tag and RF power output of the reader.  Typical ranges for HF tags are from 1cm to 3 meters whilst UHF tags vary from 1 to 11 meters.  Some special tags that combine passive tags with an on board battery (called BAP or Battery Assisted Passive) allow long range detection of these passive tags.  One supplier has a special trick to keep the cost of the tag low whilst giving the advantage of BAP tags.  The ability to “print” a battery onto the passive tag substrate allow this company to make a UHF BAP tag that can be read and identified up to 75 meters away.   One positive side effect of this innovation is that the tags can still be read in the normal way when the battery runs out .

HF and UHF

For many years High Frequency (HF) tags and readers were the product of choice because of established product ranges and a wide array of readers and tags as well as multi tag reading was a huge advantage over the low frequency tags in use was before. Working at 13.56 MHz these tags and readers are widely used in many applications and are used by a variety of industries.   HF RFID solutions are available for most suppliers in the RFID industry.  Standards such as Mifare and others in this frequency, has given impetus to the proliferation of RFID in the early 90’s.  Application of Mifare standards for many of today’s access control systems and fare collection systems as well as secure ticketing  are good examples of successful application of RFID in industry.  Other successful HF applications are garment and linen tracking in industrial laundries.

Several shortcomings of HF technology lead to the development of UHF solutions.  Once of the biggest issues with HF was the distance a tag could be read by a reader.  Today it is possible to read a HF tag at a distance of 2-3 meters at most whilst UHF tags can routinely be read up to 8 meters.  This is a result of using a higher frequency and several other factors that influence the reading distance.  Thus it is small wonder that UHF is for many users the technology of choice  in supply chain applications as well as a multitude of allied applications such as asset tagging, toll collection, tire and vehicle identification, automatic access control, asset security (such as laptops), authentication, animal tagging and many more.

However the availability and solid standardization of UHF frequency and protocol in the late 90’s ensured that a wide range of products are available today.  Standards for RFID ensure that tags in the supply chain and logistic can be read and understood anywhere in the world.  RFID tags in many cases are invisible to the end user, it provides the manufacturer, ware house manager and distributor valuable information.  Your built-to-order vehicle was in all probability built with the aid of an on board RFID tag, which guided the manufacturer through the process with color and accessories programmed onto the tag.  Esoteric and weird applications of RFID includes plans to put RFID in paper money (as soon as the technical challenges can be met) and RFID chips mixed in with rock in oar crushers to monitor particle size and process control in industrial sorters.  

Why RFID and not Barcodes?

The big differentiators of RFID technology versus Barcodes lies in the following advantages.  

• RFID tags need not be visible to the reader; it can be underneath or even inside a container.
• RFID tags can be made much more robust than Barcode tags where visible damage almost always result in failed or misreads.
• RFID tags can be programmed and reprogrammed with new information whist being read.  This allows novel application in logistics where operators can verify goods receiving and trace back damaged or expired goods automatically.  In addition this ability can be used to identify and authenticate critical items such as pharmaceuticals or aircraft spares.  Encryption of data on tags is possible and has been successfully implemented in several defense and policing applications.
• Multiple RFID tags can be read simultaneously at high speed whilst travelling through a portal which speeds up logistical processes.  Sirit has developed RFID vehicle tags that can be read at speeds of up to 250 km/h from an overhead gantry. 

RFID Applications:

Probably the largest use of RFID today is in logistic and supply chain processes.  This process has gained significant impetus with USA giant Wall-Mart going all out for RFID supply chain tracking.  Today RFID is used in a vast array of applications and your requirement could probably be met with the correct application of the technology.  Our team is ready to assist with your requirement and would be very interested in providing a solution to your requirements. Call us today.

RFID applications

• Asset Tracking
• Animal Tracking
• People Tracking
• IT Infrastructure
• Health Care (People and asset tracking)
• Manufacturing
• Automotive
• Packaging
• Pharmaceutical
• Retail
• Defense
• Airlines and Airports
• Books, Libraries
• Laundry
• Sports Timing
• Mining

Frequency Background

As mentioned there  are basically two basic frequencies for RFID available today that is suitable for asset tracking applications.

The older technology uses 13.56 MHz and the newer technology uses 865-919 MHz.   The term HF (High Frequency) is used for 13.56 and UHF (Ultra High Frequency) is used for the 865-919 MHz  In South Africa both frequencies are allowed and used.  We also have the option to use the UHF in both the EU frequency and power output (865.6 – 867.6 MHz – 500 mW ERP) and USA frequency of 915.4 – 919 MHz (4 W ERP) in South Africa.  This makes the application of UHF quite easy and provides a wide range of options.