Royal Philips Electronics has produced, supplied and tested the first engineering samples of its new RFID chip that is compliant with  EPCglobal''s UHF EPC Class 1 Generation 2 (G2) standard, in cooperation with its industry partners.

     With an increasing number of mandates from major retailers and organisations such as the US Department of Defense, consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies and other suppliers around the world are moving toward implementing RFID technology in their supply chains. Philips'' UCODE EPC G2 chip features better performance characteristics than the company''s other solutions to-date, and provides full regulatory compliance. 116.30.151.81 This article is copyright 2005 UsingRFID.com.

Replacing Generation 1
     With the availability of Class 1 G2 solutions, both prior UHF technology solutions (that is, Class 0 and Class 1 Generation 1) that were standardised by EPCglobal are now in a position to be replaced. Organisations issuing mandates can also install readers and use tag solutions that support the new worldwide G2 standard. EPC G2 also addresses the differing regional regulatory environments for the UHF bands allocated for RFID, allowing UHF to be used worldwide and enabling companies to deploy a unified RFID supply chain

infrastructure globally.

     To help reduce the time to market for solutions based on EPC G2, Philips has spearheaded a taskforce to develop an end-to-end solution, with technology partners including ASK,

     Checkpoint, Deister Electronic, Feig, Intermec, Omron, SAMSys, Thingmagic, UPM Rafsec and X-Ident. These companies are to develop RFID labels, hardware and solutions based on Philips'' G2 chip, aiming for availability of the first components in the third quarter of 2005. Moreover, retailers (such as Metro Group in Germany) have already committed to participating in the EPC G2 task force to help evaluate the technology as soon as it becomes available.

Positive impact
     "RFID is already having a positive impact on our supply chain, and the new EPCglobal G2 standard has the potential to enable us to further benefit from the technology," said Dr Gerd Wolfram, managing director for Metro Group. "The global nature of the EPCglobal Class 1 Generation 2 specification gives us the potential to deploy RFID across our multi-national supply chain, enabling us to benefit from increased efficiency, and to pass those benefits on to our customers and suppliers."

     The UCODE EPC G2 chip features a one-time programmable memory for the 96-bit EPC, covers all mandatory commands, and provides a selection of optional commands as specified in the G2 standard. The chip uses an anti-collision algorithm that enables the reading of up to 1,600 labels per second under current US regulations, and up to 600 labels per second under current European regulations (due to differing bandwidth availability).

     Through a flexible implementation of the application field identifier (AFI), Philips says the chip will also be able to support both EPCglobal and pending ISO 18000-6c coding structures.

     The UCODE EPC G2 chip is scheduled for mass production in the third quarter of 2005.

 

 

 

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