Rfid Tagging

RFID, which is radio frequency identification, uses tiny tags that contain a processor and an antenna and can communicate with a detecting device. RFID is intended to have many applications with supply chain and inventory control to be the drivers of utilization. RFID has been around for a long time. During World War II, RFIDs were used to identify friendly aircraft. Today, they are used in wireless systems, for example, the E-Z passes you see on the turnpikes. The major problem until recently has been cost for RFIDs. Tags have been at a cost of 50 cents, which makes it hard to utilize or really unusable for low priced items. A company based out of California called Alien Technology has invented tags for less than 10 cents a piece on large mass runs. The major benefit expected from RFID is its potential for revolutionizing the supply chain management, but RFID could have many applications, ranging from payment collections on highways, to finding lost kids in amusement parks, to preventing cell phones from being stolen.

The RFID tag itself is about the size of a pinhead or grain of sand. The tag includes an antenna and a chip that contains an electronic product code. Industry professionals expect the RFID tag to eventually replace the barcode as identification system of choice. The electronic product code stores much more information than a regular bar code that is capable of storing information like when and where the product was made, where the components come from, and when they might perish. Unlike barcodes, which needs a line-of-sight to be read, RFIDs do not need a line-of-sight. There are two types of RFID tags call active and passive. An active tag uses its own battery power to contact the reader. It works greater distance than passive tags, but has a drawback because of the larger size. A passive tag does not require a battery, but it derives its power from the electromagnetic field created by the signal from the RFID reader. This generates enough power for the tag to respond to the reader with its information, while the range is smaller than active tags, having no battery