Keeping Tempe-Zara ahead of the trend with RFID

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is the wireless or contactless transfer of a digital ID and additional data between an RFID tag and a reader by means of electromagnetic waves. Tagging of physical objects allows businesses, organizations and consumers to assign a unique digital identity -- a digital twin -- to identify, authenticate, track, sense and engage with each object seamlessly. 



In contrast to other Auto-ID technologies like optical QR codes, RFID allows tags to be read without a line of sight at a distance of a few centimeters to more than 20 meters or 60 feet, depending on the type of RFID system. 


Typical examples would be reading hundreds of tagged products inside boxes on a pallet with a fixed reader gate mounted behind the door of a shipping dock. Or swiping a handheld reader over store racks and shelves to count inventory within seconds. Or tapping a smartphone on a luxury purse to verify authenticity and sign up to a 
loyalty program.

RFID tags come in a variety of shapes and sizes and are either “passive” or “active”. Most commonly they are passive, meaning they don’t need an integrated energy supply, for example a battery. Passive tags are typically made of an RFID inlay and an enclosure for protection against physical damage. Inlays consist of a small silicon microchip which stores the digital identity as well as additional data and is attached to an antenna on a thin substrate such as paper or plastic (PET) film. The antenna of a passive tag receives the radio waves from the reader and directs them to the microchip, where the energy is harvested and utilized to send back radio signals to the reader. Inlays can be very thin and easily embedded into traditional labels, turning them into intelligent labels, or embedded into very robust plastic (Hard Tags) or biocompatible glass (Glass Tags) for extremely harsh environments or injection into animals.