| UHF RFID growing because
of retailer pressure and standardization: Symbol
23 April, 2006
By Chris Talbot
Adoption of UHF-based RFID technologies has been increasing
with requirements from retailers like Wal-Mart putting pressure
on companies that manufacture goods. According to a spokesperson
from Symbol Technologies, UHF is beginning to replace older,
HF-based RFID technologies, and with the increasing necessity
for companies to use RFID, there are growing opportunities
for the channel.
The most obvious difference between HF (high frequency) and
UHF (ultra high frequency) is the limitations of each frequency
and what they can offer in application performance, said Joe
White, vice president of product management and tag engineering
at Symbol Technologies.
"HF high frequency products have been around in the
market place for some time. They haven't been adopted as much
in the United States as they have in the Europe and Asian
markets," White said.
HF RFID has several standards driving it, but according to
White, the up-and- coming UHF is a superior product, especially
for applications in warehouses and shipping departments.
"From a technical perspective, the real difference on
the UHF side, that's a frequency that is between 860 and 960
megahertz worldwide, so it spans a broader worldwide bandwidth,
and it's a much newer technology in the sense of where we
are on the adoption curve," White said.
UHF RFID has been driven heavily by EPC Global, which took
what was essentially a non-standards-based technology with
multiple protocols available and worked to standardize it.
Recently, the industry standardized around EPC Global's second
generation UFH standard, White said.
"The UHF-based products are very similar, the same frequency
as your cordless phone," he added.
The biggest differentiator between the two technologies is
in range, though. HF products aren't true radio frequency
products, White said, and they only have a one- to three-foot
range. Some proprietary technologies have been developed to
extend the range a bit further, he added.
"It's not really a radio frequency product. It's what
they call inductive coupling, so it's more a magnetic energy
transfer to the tag," White said.
He added, "UHF is very much a RF product, so people
are reading the UHF tags up to 30 feet. So from an applications
standpoint, it opens up a whole new world of opportunities
for different uses of the tech versus what the old legacy
stuff had to offer."
It's possible to turn the power down on UHF to deal specifically
with short ranges, but when it comes to applications like
reading palette tags coming through a dock door at a shipping/receiving
point, the power can be increased to be able to read everything
from a distance.
"You're not fundamentally limited by the technology
itself," White said.
In addition to having a greater range, UHF RFID products
also tend to be easier to manufacture than HF RFID products,
White said. They have simpler antennae, geometry and designs,
he said.
UHF is attractive to the supply chain because it allows RFID
to be economical, White said. However, the industry is still
on the early part of the UHF lifecycle curve. Adoption is
increasing, and every RFID product that Symbol currently ships
uses UHF-based technology, he said.
"All the adoption on UHF today has really followed the
mandates of retailers," White said. Wal-Mart has been
one of the biggest retailers backing UHF RFID technology,
he added.
With its partners, Symbol is targeting the retail supply
chain because of the growing number of opportunities there.
More and more retailers are beginning to use UHF RFID technologies
for their supply chain management, he said.
"So far, UHF has been an effective tool," White
said.
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