January 05, 2006
Alternatives to UHF tagging in the food sector
UHF passive tags are normally used for tagging pallets and cases of food as required by retailers in Europe and the US. These tags behave in an unpredictable manner in the presence of water and metals. On occasions, proximity to water and metals results in no reads being taken. The UHF radio regulations in Europe do not permit higher power and greater bandwidth. This prevents the management of interference between readers during trials.
Recent developments in HF and microwave systems have increased their suitability for tracing operations. HF tags that have password protection and greater tolerance of water as compared to UHF tags are now available. HF RFID tags can now communicate up to a distance of 10 meters. Another development is the use of Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) chips instead of silicon chips. SAW chips do not have a threshold voltage and do not require additional sensors for sensing changes in temperature. They are also easier to construct. Password protected HF tags, such as the one released recently by TI, are useful from the point of view of privacy as well.
As against retail and CPG sectors, the pharmaceutical industry players have agreed to not “kill” or deactivate the tags after the product has been purchased by the consumer. The negative side of keeping the tag active after purchase is that the consumer’s privacy can get compromised; however, active tags greatly simplify the process of recalling drugs.
An alternative to keeping the tags “live” is to erase all product information except the password-protected serial number on the tag. This will protect consumer privacy and at the same time enable returns as the serial number can be linked to product details stored in a database. Consumer rewards, fraud prevention and detection, and product recall are the major benefits of keeping the tags on items after they have passed through the till. idtechex.com reports:
At Metro, one of the world’s largest supermarket chains, they want to tag at item level using one frequency and one standard system if possible.
Read More: New Advances in RFID Help Food Traceability
--
Did you enjoy this post?
« Tracking elk herds in Colorado | Main | RFID workshop by the University of Arkansas »
