RFID Radio Frequency Identification Identification System (I)

First, what is RFID?
RFID is the abbreviation of “Radio Frequency Identification” in English. Chinese is called wireless RFID identification, inductive electronic chip or proximity card, proximity card, contactless card, etc. It is a non-contact automatic identification technology. According to Pira's research in the UK, it is likely that one of the important impacts on packaging, printing, and papermaking in the coming years will be RFID RFID identification (http://); Forrester Research said that the data center The use of Linux systems, offshoring, and RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) are the four major IT trends in 2004 (http://); the RFID will include RFID in the top ten technologies worth observing in 2003 (http://taiwan.com). Cnet.com/news/); "It has been a long time since I haven't seen such exciting new technology," said Wu Baicheng, head of the ITRI planning group. The wireless identification system will replace the barcode - RFID will make millions The checkout unemployed (93/12/01 China Times); the old technology RFID has become a new generation of killer applications, the global retail industry sector of 122 trillion commodity revolution (833 Business Weekly). These are the descriptions of RFID. As a matter of fact, RFID technology existed as early as World War II, when Britain used it to confirm whether it was its own aircraft to avoid accidental attacks.

The simplest RFID system consists of a tag, a reader, and an antenna. After the tag enters the magnetic field, the receiving reader sends a signal, which is obtained by the induction current. Energy sends out product information stored in the chip (Passive Tag, no power tag or passive tag), or actively sends a signal of a certain frequency (Active Tag, there is a power tag or active tag); read After the device reads the information and decodes it, it sends it to the central information system for processing. However, it needs other hardware and software support in actual applications.

According to estimates from the US retail chain, several major retailers in the United States suffered losses of up to 70 billion U.S. dollars a year because of poor product management. Kevin Ashton, former vice president of marketing for Procter & Gamble, was in pain. In 1997, the company's Oulei Moisturizer was launched. The merchandise was sold well, but it was so popular that many store shelves were often left empty. Too much merchandise, and the speed of checkups is too slow, "We watched money disappear from the shelves for a minute and a second," Ashton said. It took him two years to find the answer. He replaced RFID with the current Bar Code, and it became an excellent information transmitter for retail products that could change hundreds of applications and management methods. Under the sponsorship of P&G and Gillette, two professors of RFID application technology Sanjay Sarma and David Brock of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) established the Auto ID Center. ), specializing in the study of RFID electronic commodity barcodes. The date of its establishment was October 1, 1999, the 25th anniversary of the advent of barcodes. In addition to its headquarters in School of Engineering, MIT, and in the United Kingdom (Cambridge University), Switzerland (St. Gallen University), Australia (University of Adelaide), Japan (Ying Qing University), China (Fudan University) have established branches ( Http://).

Second, the characteristics of RFID

(1) Reading and writing of data:

As long as the RFID reader is used, information can be read directly into the database without contact, and multiple tags can be handled at one time, and the status of the logistics process can be written to the tag for the next stage of the read determination of the logistics process.

(b) Easy to miniaturize and diversify shapes:

RFID is not limited by size and shape in reading, and does not need to match the fixed size and print quality of the paper for reading accuracy. In addition, RFID TAGs can be more compact and diverse in form to apply to different products.

(C) Environmental resistance:

Once the paper is contaminated, it will not be visible, but RFID has strong anti-fouling properties for water, oil, and pharmaceuticals. RFID can also read data in dark or dirty environments.

(d) Reusable:

Since RFID is electronic data, it can be overwritten repeatedly, so it can be reused for reuse. Such as passive RFID, you can use without batteries, there is no need for maintenance.

(v) Penetration:

RFID can also be used for penetrating communications if it is covered with non-metallic or non-transparent materials such as paper, wood and plastic. However, if it is iron metal, it cannot communicate.

(vi) Large memory capacity of data:

The data capacity will expand with the development of memory specifications. The amount of data that will be carried by items in the future will increase, and the demand for capacity expansion of labels will increase. RFID will not be limited.

Third, the frequency of use of RF

In order to avoid the use of different radio frequency standards in various countries, resulting in confusion and confusion in use, most internationally comply with the specifications of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). At present, there are six types of frequencies used by RFID, namely, 135 KHz or less, 13.56 MHz, 433.92 MHz, 860 M to 930 MHz (ie, UHF), 2.45 GHz, and 5.8 GHz, which have their own characteristics and defects. The transmission distance below 135KHz is about 10 centimeters shorter and the communication speed is slower. This band is open in the vast majority of countries and does not involve the issue of regulatory opening and license applications. Therefore it is most widely used and is mainly used in pets, access control and anti-theft tracking. The best transmission distance of 13.56MHz thinning is less than 1 meter. Representative applications include membership cards, identification cards, airline tickets, and building access management. Near-distance non-contact IC cards with a communication distance of about 10 cm develop rapidly. The UHF RFID tag can reach a transmission distance of up to 5 meters, which can greatly increase the application level at the present stage. The communication quality is good, and it is suitable for supply chain item management. However, there are problems with frequency regulations in various countries. Existing It is inevitable that the user's frequency of manoeuvring will be inevitable. Otherwise, cross-district applications will inevitably appear blind spots of management.

Fourth, the difference between RFID and barcode comparison

At present, hundreds of billions of commodities in the world rely on lines (bar codes) of different thicknesses on the products to identify them. However, the barcode can only record the simple background of the product, such as the name of the manufacturer and the item, and can only read the data through the infrared contact scan. More importantly, the world currently produces more than 500 million products each year, and the globally-used product bar code, which consists of twelve bar code numbers, is almost running out. Barcodes are read-only, need to be aligned, can only be read one at a time, and are easily damaged; RFID is rewritable, can be used without alignment, can be read in multiple, sturdy, all-weather applications, but it is not necessary Human intervention. So Bar Code is likely to be replaced by RFID tags.

V. RFID Application Area

The application of RFID is quite extensive. The most common applications are:
* Access Control: Personnel exit control, control, and commuter personnel management * Asset recovery: Recyclable container management such as pallets, containers, trolleys, cages, etc. * Cargo management: Air baggage identification, inventory, logistics and transportation management* Material Handling: Material counts at the factory, material control systems* Waste management: Waste recycling, waste management systems* Medical applications: Hospital record systems, hazardous or controlled biochemicals management * Transportation: Freeway toll system * Anti-theft Applications: Theft prevention in supermarkets, theft prevention management in libraries or bookstores * Animal monitoring: animal husbandry animal management, pet identification, wildlife ecology tracking * Automatic control: assembly production of automobiles, home appliances, and electronics industry * Joint ticketing: joint multiple applications Smart Prepaid Cards, Bonus Points Cards

Texas Instruments Incorporated of the United States has produced RFID products including: access control, air parcel identification, car alarms, document tracking management, parcel tracking and identification, animal husbandry, logistics management, mobile commerce, and product security. Sports timing, ticket management, etc. (http://).

VI. Possible bottlenecks in the development of RFID

(i) Privacy Issues:

A survey conducted by RFID Journal and market research organization ABI, called "RFID Journal Live," shows that "the greatest benefit of using RFID technology is that it can transparently manage the company's supply chain, effectively reducing costs, but recently RFID security." Sex is also very interesting, and many companies have introduced RFID products that enhance security.” (http://) Because no one will voluntarily allow personal privacy rights to be exposed because it is easy to use.

(b) Unemployment:

After the adoption of radio frequency identification systems, enterprises will take over the tasks originally completed by humans and further replace manual operations. The problems that derive from them will be that many laborers face a crisis of losing their jobs.

(c) Breakthrough in technology:

According to a survey conducted by the institute's Auto-ID Center, even if double labeling is applied, 3% of the RFID label can't be read; only 78% of the labels with one label are correctly interpreted. In addition, radio frequency identification tags and readers have directionality and RFID signals are easily blocked by objects, which is also a major challenge for the future development of radio frequency identification technology.

(d) Reduction of costs:

RFID tags, readers, and antennas are expected to significantly reduce manufacturing costs as major players use them. In addition, McKinsey, a leading consulting firm, pointed out that manufacturers can't just stare at RFID's future price declines. The technology needs to be upgraded with enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, and this part may not be worth the expense.

(5) Formulation and implementation of international standards:

Standardization is a necessary measure to promote the wide acceptance of products in the market. However, the technology of RFID readers and tags has not yet been unified, so it cannot be applied as a whole. The label communication protocol developed by different manufacturers is applicable to different frequencies and the packet format is different. For now, it seems that the commonly used 134KHz and 13.56MHz are not long enough for the transmission distance to limit the distance between the reader and the RFID tag, so that several tags cannot be read efficiently, and the biggest problem across the UHF band is that Most of the RFID systems and tag suppliers, as well as devices, cannot support the UHF band. As a result, companies, automatic identification centers, and international standards organizations are all working to set standards for radio frequency identification tags so that all tags can be compatible with any reader.