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Innovation & Technologie Angebot

Know-how on RFID-UHF (Radio Frequency IDentification and Ultra-High Frequency) tags to maximize detection range in traceability applications

Country of Origin: Spain
Reference Number: TOES20170228001
Publication Date: 28 February 2017

Summary

A Spanish University wants to develop new technology solutions to improve traceability. They look for partners to design novel RFID-UHF (Radio Frequency IDentification and Ultra-High Frequency) tags and new reader antennas to increase detection range and overcome current traceability limitations when used in liquids or metal products. European partners, companies or universities, are sought either for technical or research cooperation agreement.

Description

Technical University and research organization established in Spain, within its Telecommunications higher school, has a big know how on RFID-UHF (Radio Frequency IDentification and Ultra-High Frequency) tags to maximize detection range in traceability applications.



The use of RFID-UHF (Radio Frequency IDentification and Ultra-High Frequency)   technology is one of the most promising technologies to develop efficient, high performance traceability systems. Applications are extremely wide, ranging from food traceability to security systems in hospitals and medical centers. In spite of these advantages, this system has one important drawback. This is related to the detection difficulties of RFID-UHF tags when they are located in certain products, such as liquids or products containing metallic parts. Commercial tags drastically reduce the reading range due to detuning of the tag antennas, or due to strong absorption of the electromagnetic waves by certain materials or liquids. In this context the research group has experience in developing new RFID-UHF tags to improve reading range when they are placed on certain materials. In particular they made new designs for a traceability system with blood tubes in medical applications. The university also participated in the design of new RFID-UHF tags to be incorporated in optical media, such as CDs and DVDs. The University proposes to take part in research projects intended to develop RFID-UHF solutions for traceability systems. Within these projects, they can use expertise to make new designs of RFID-UHF tags to improve reading range for a particular application. They can also propose new reader antennas to best fit a particular application related to RFID-UHF technology.



The university seeks companies or universities involved in the development of RFID-UHF solutions to improve traceability, security and identification systems in industry. Some of these systems will face problems regarding the reading range and reliability of readings during the identification operations. They can complement the expertise of these companies by proposing alternative RFID-UHF tag designs to improve reading range and improve the overall reliability of the system. The university can also work in novel designs for reader antennas to improve key characteristics according to the intended application to be deployed.



The university is looking for technical cooperation agreements to development of the technical aspects of these products. Also they want to close research cooperation agreement to work together on the exploratory research and development of a new solution or technology.

Advantages and Innovations

Currently, the RFID-UHF tags commercially available in the market do not work well in many applications involving the detection and identification of certain products containing metallic parts or liquids. The antennas included in the tags get easily detuned when they are placed close to metals, and electromagnetic radiation suffers from strong absorption when the tags are placed close to liquids. This considerably reduces the reliability of current RFID-UHF systems that can be deployed in industry. To overcome these limitations, the University proposes to investigate in the design of new RFID-UHF tags that can exhibit good reading range when they are placed in the proximity of objects containing metallic parts and liquids. 



Some examples where the research group has proposed improvements in RFID-UHF tags are in the identification of blood bags and in blood clinical tubes for medical applications. The university also worked in the design of alternative RFID-UHF tags for optical media such as CDs and DVDs. 



The main advantage is that traceability, security and identification systems based on RFID-UHF technology will become more reliable when they are combined with tags exhibiting extended reading range. As examples, initial designs have demonstrated to extend the reading range by a factor of two when they are used to detect blood bags and tubes, as compared to available commercial designs. 



The economic impact is expected to be very high, since the reliability of RFID-UHF systems will be considerably improved by using the proposed new designs.

Stage Of Development

Already on the market

Requested partner

The university seeks companies or universities involved in the development of RFID-UHF solutions to improve traceability, security and identification systems in industry. 



Some of these systems will face problems regarding the reading range and reliability of readings during the identification operations. They could complement the expertise of these companies by proposing alternative RFID-UHF tag designs to improve reading range and improve the overall reliability of the system. They also could propose new designs for antenna readers to fit key aspects of particular applications. 



The University is interested in reaching technological and research cooperation agreements