Texas Instruments Delivers RFID Asset Visibility in Harsh and Metallic Environments with Two New Low Frequency Products

Logistics Insight Asia - Top Story, 14/7/2008

While 134.2 kHz low frequency (LF) RFID technology has been used to identify everything from livestock to automotive parts since the late 1980s, a host of new applications are demanding tags with improved performance in highly metallic and other harsh industrial environments. Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) has announced two additions to its LF product family: the 12 mm Multi-Usage Wedge Transponder and 24 mm LF Circular Inlay. The 12 mm Multi-Usage Wedge Transponder offers improvements in chip circuitry that allow direct on metal mounting. The 24 mm LF Circular Inlay, manufactured using TI’s patented tuning process, provides improved consistency in read and write performance in such applications as waste management and industrial production.

The tags incorporate a number of TI’s patented RFID technology and quality innovations including half-duplex (HDX) radio communication. HDX boosts read range by 50 percent compared with full-duplex (FDX) LF and offers a stronger RF signal because the HDX reader shuts down during the HDX tag’s response. This allows the HDX reader to concentrate on receiving the signal thereby obtaining an accurate read as compared to FDX where the reader signal remains on and may create RF interference as it attempts to read the FDX tag. HDX also features frequency shift keying technology which makes TI’s tags more immune to electromagnetic interference (EMI) and allows the reader to effectively read and differentiate tags that are close together.

Based on his experience with TI’s LF HDX technology, Gerald Dittrich, research & development director of Brooks Automation Germany said, “Our customers have challenging conditions where they require TI’s LF because the HDX technology delivers an excellent read/write performance. The TI MUSA transponder keeps to that promise. We found it to be both shock resistant and perform particularly well in customer installations where metal resides.”

TI’s new tags are designed for rugged applications like container tracking in waste management, vehicle identification and access control, as well as other applications in other highly metallic environments, such as oil refineries, oil drilling and tool production. The tags can also be applied to carbon fiber products, including aerospace, automotive and bicycle parts, and are developed to withstand the high temperatures of the manufacturing process.

In addition to being able to be directly mounted on metal, TI’s 12 mm Multi-Usage Wedge Transponder exhibits a high resistance to EMI and other ambient environmental noise typical in industrial applications. The transponder also features 208 bits of flexible, user programmable memory and a password protected write capability that allows users to build a level of security into their application. For example, a company can have one portion of the tag’s memory programmed with a factory-locked number, such as a manufacturer’s ID code, while some of the other data sections can be freely used to record status, maintenance, or location updates over the life of an asset. Security can be imposed with a password that allows data updates only by authorized parties.

The 24 mm LF Circular Inlay is available with 80 bits of read/write memory or 64 bits of read only memory, the inlay is ISO/IEC 11785 compliant and can be easily encapsulated into a variety of materials and form factors. The inlays undergo complete inline parametric and functional testing to provide off-the-reel yield. Both products are compatible with TI’s reader portfolio. The TI HDX tag-reader combination offers the best optimized performance in addition to ease of installation and use.

Texas Instruments, www.ti.com/rfid/