RFID inlays

United States – Gentag Inc. has announced plans to finally commercialize its long-range real-time location system, utilized solely by the United States Department of Defense (DOD) for 10 years. Initially co-owned by Sandia National Laboratories, the "super RFID" technology–now wholly owned by the Washington D.C.-based technology developer, is capable of pinpointing people and objects up to 17.7km away via sensitive interrogators.

The super RFID technology is based on 430MHz tags which the US military calls long-range radar responsive (RR) tags that require line-of-sight for reading. In its current form, as modified by Sandia, the RR tags use RFID to transmit ID numbers instead of radar, and can be read using 5W (for small applications, such as within a building) to 100W (for broad-range search-and-rescue purposes) RFID readers. A RR tag's location can be pinpointed to within 1m via triangulation involving three Gentag fixed-position interrogators, or one mobile reader with a built-in GPS satellite receiver that helps provide triangulation coordinates related to a specific tag's position.

The commercial version of the system will feature an application-specific IC (ASIC)-based credit card-sized, battery-powered RR tag, suitable for tracking the movement of tagged people or assets in hospitals, children's theme parks or other confined areas. With its long read range, the system will require only a few fixed-position RR interrogators or base stations. At a hospital, for instance, only three fixed readers would typically be needed–one on the roof, and two in the parking area or on the campus perimeter.

Additionally, by installing GPS-enabled mobile RR readers in helicopters or other vehicles, the tag could be useful for search-and–rescue operations, or to locate a missing asset, such as a vehicle or boat. Moreover, the system could locate firefighters or other rescue personnel, as well as employees via RR readers located within a building, or from mobile RR readers mounted on nearby vehicles. Sensors on the tags could also gather vital information—such as temperature or the presence of toxic gas—and transmit that data to the RR interrogators. RR tag batteries are expected to have a life span of about a year, since they operate in low-power mode until receiving a wake-up signal from a reader.

Gentag is optimistic that commercial ASIC-based RR tags will be ready for the market in 2008. Within two or three years, the company hopes to see RR tags embedded in cell phones, and to deploy RR interrogators on cellular towers.