The heart of RFID System

RFID, Radio Frequency Identification System consists of a tag, a reader and a host system. Host system takes care about the flow of information, sending and receiving to and from the reader and tag. Air interface or Radio Frequency is the medium for data transmission. There are two types of RFID Systems: Near field and far field. Near-field systems are that in which inductive coupling of the tag employ to the reactive energy circulating around the reader antenna, and far-field systems that couple to the real energy contained in propagating electromagnetic plane waves.

The reader contains a radio frequency module, a signal processing and micro controller unit, a coupling element and the interface to a host system. There are many different kinds of readers on the market, such as desktop, hand-held, tunnel or gate/gantry style readers. The host system controls the data flow between the readers and tags. It can be as simple as a personal computer connected to the reader by an RS-232 serial cable.

RFID systems bring a revolution in UPC or EAN barcodes systems. RFID technology has many important advantages over existing barcode systems. ? The ability to scan or read a product without line of sight, ? Multiple product reads in one pass and ? Being able to store a larger amount of information are all key advantages over barcodes.

Diana Heyden