Now close to 20 years from the 1999 launch of the Auto-ID center at MIT, which ultimately led to the EPC RFID tag and reader standards popular in retail and many other applications - though RFID still struggles to gain real traction in the retail sector.
But there are still many types of RFID tags, based in large measure on the radio frequencies under which different tags operate.
Earlier this week, SCDigest ran across an excellent article on "What's Important to Apply RFID Technology Correctly in Applications," a thorough though modestly technical ovewview of RFID systems generally and specifically how different tags operate and perform. The article, from a publication called Control Design, authored by Claude Tételin of a French organization called National Reference Center RFID.
The excellent tutorial includes a valuable table that lists different types of RFID tags and their key attributes. Unfortunately, Control Design left off the key as to what the nine questions labeled Q1-Q9 in the table referred to, making the entries for each tag type of no use.
So we reached out to Tételin, who quickly and kindly sent us those missing questions, allowing SCDigest to reconstruct the table with the full information, as shown below.
In the table, LF refers to "low frequency," HF "high frequency," and UHF "ultra high frequency." Passive tags require a reader to energize them and allow them to send their data, whereas an active tag has a battery and can transmit information on its own - though there are naunces to all this, as the full article explains.
SCDigest found this matrix very valuable - it may be worth saving away some place for later reference to help you get started on a future RFID project.
Tételin is very bullish on RFID technology.
"RFID options are increasingly diverse. A few years ago, there were few choices. Today, the tag size decreases together with an increase in performances. Multiple packaging is available for harsh environments. Tags can be put directly on metal and can survive to temperatures up to 250 °C. With UHF passive RFID, you can read up to 400 tags per second," he says.
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