About RFID Tags

RFID tags can be either active or passive. As passive tags are much cheaper to manufacture, the vast majority of RFID tags in existence are of the passive variety. They don't have their own power supply: a tiny electrical current induced in the antenna by the RF scan provides power for the tag to send a response. Due to power and cost concerns, the response of a passive RFID tag is short, typically just an ID number (GUID). Lack of its own power supply makes the device quite small. Passive tags a practical range around 15 feet. Such systems can be used to check out an exact piece of equipment. They are also used for personnel id cards, which reads the information as the employee passes by the reader.

Active RFID tags, on the other hand, have a power source, and may have longer ranges and larger memories than passive tags, as well as the ability to store additional information sent by the transceiver. At present, the smallest active tags are about the size of a coin. Many active tags have practical ranges of many yards, and a battery life of up to several years. They are often used for tracking larger items, such as fleet vehicle check out, tracking trailers in a yard, or containers on a loading dock.

How does it work?

DataSplice incorporates RFID using several components. Individual objects are equipped with a small, inexpensive tag which contains a transponder with a chip that is given a unique electronic product code. A handheld device acting as the interrogator, (an antenna packaged with a transceiver and decoder), emits a signal activating the RFID tag so it can read and write data to it. Then the DataSplice Suite passes that information into a CMMS. The data transmitted by the tag may provide identification or location information, or specifics about the product tagged, such as price, color, date of purchase, etc.

RFID tags are often envisioned as a replacement for UPC or EAN bar-codes, having a number of important advantages over the older bar-code technology. RFID codes are long enough that every RFID tag may have a unique code, while UPC codes are limited to a single code for all instances of a particular product. The uniqueness of RFID tags means that a product may be individually tracked as it moves from location to location. The downside is the cost of the RFID tag, which far exceeds the cost of printing a bar code.