What is RFID: The 7 Common Questions

1. What is RFID? RFID is

short for Radio Frequency
Identification; this
essentially works using
Radio Waves.

Now, Radio Waves were first

used by Guglielmo Marconi
RFID RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION an Italian Inventor who
proved the feasibility of radio
communication by sending
the first Radio Signal in 1895 (7).

It quickly caught on and the US Army used Wireless

Radio Signals soon after in
1899 (8) and the Radio Wave
technology just rapidly grew
from there.

The very first INVENTION of

RFID was by Charles Walton
with his design in 1973, for a
“Portable radio frequency
emitting Identifier” which was
awarded a Patent in 1983,
becoming the first official US ARMY USED RADIO SIGNALS FIRST IN
1899
RFID invention! (12) (Big
Cheer!!)
We may still only be at the start of using this technology
and I am sure there will be many more rapid new
developments in the near future involving Radio Wave
technology.

Lets get a bit of Background

ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD
on RFID. The Electromagnetic
Spectrum has various
frequencies from the far left of
the scale ‘Very Low
Frequency’ all the way
through to the far right of the
scale ‘Extremely High
frequency’, there are a total of
8 frequencies used on the
Radio Wave Band.

from these 8, RFID uses 3 of

them. Low Frequency LF, High Frequency HF, Ultra High
Frequency UHF

For the purposes of this Article I am

not going to mention RFID Tags
with Batteries or Active RFID, why?
Well, the market demand is so big
for Passive (no Battery in the tags)
that from my experience most RFID
sales will be of the Passive type.
PASSIVE RFID HAS NO BATTERIES

Now for a brief explanation of the

bands used for RFID, else you can really get lost in the
Radio Wave Bands as they are Huge!!

Radio Bands are used in our Everyday life like WIFI,

Bluetooth, Garage Doors, Cordless Phones, Cars, and of
course RFID!! The everyday use of Radio Waves in our lives
makes life so much easier else we wouldn’t be using them.

The Radio Spectrum is part of the Electromagnetic Spectrum

with Frequencies from 30 Hertz to 300 GHz (1)

Low Frequency LF Band is Between 30KHz and 300KHz,

however the RFID band is between 120KHz and 150KHz as
this is all RFID can use for Low Frequency and is
Unregulated. (1)

The High Frequency Band or HF operates at a Single

Frequency of 13.56MHz pretty standard and because of this
it makes it easy to integrate as it’s Globally excepted
standard for NFC tags (Near Field Communication Tags)
making them widely adopted and used in many applications
Worldwide. This ISM Band Is adopted Worldwide. (5)

Now, for UHF, Ultra High Frequency RFID, This Operates

between the Radio Bands 860 MHz to 960 MHz (3) (4) and
it’s split for EUROPE and North America to the Following
Bands 865–868 MHz (Europe) and then 902–928 MHz
(North America) UHF

A full list of the “Regulatory status for using RFID in the

EPC Gen2 (860 to 960 MHz) band of the UHF spectrum”
can be found here Click this link. (9)
 2. How Does RFID Work?

Basically, you will have an RFID Tag and an RFID Reader.

Now, The RFID tag is usually Passive, which means it does

not have a Battery, pretty cool hey!

This means the tag can sit for many years stored with
information and can then be ‘woken up’ by the reader when
the information from that tag is required. So how does this
work then?

When a RFID reader is close and powered up it sends Radio

Waves out, the power from the radio waves on the same
frequency of the RFID Tag Lets say 13.56MHz reader to a
13.56MHz tag. The radio waves from the reader are then
received by the RFID Tags Antenna, The radio waves then
power up the RFID Tags chip and in turn send enough power
to the chip to ‘Wake it up’ and send the information on that
chip to the reader, Simple Hey!! (6)

3. Can I use any RFID Reader with any type of RFID

Tag?

NO! Unfortunately not, as an

example, If you have a LF Low
Frequency RFID tag which you
are using with your Access
Control System and it is
RFID ACCESS CONTROL READER
operating on 125KHz, the RFID
tag is also a 125KHz Unique Tag,
and you have a pet Cat or Dog
which also has a LF Low Frequency Microchip at 134.2KHz,
 then if you try to scan the Animal
RFID Chip with the reader that
you are using for Access Control
then it probably won’t work as
they are operating on a different
frequency.
TYPE TO ENTER A CAPTION.
I say, ‘Probably’ won’t work as
you can get readers that will
work across the full RFID LF Low Frequency Band and will
read the Access control chip and the Animal Chip. However
Most readers won’t read them as there purpose or job is to
read the RFID Tag that they are built to read, this also keeps
the cost down on the production of the reader.

Also, a UHF RFID Reader will NOT work with any HF High
Frequency or LF Low Frequency RFID Tags as UHF Radio
Band is not anywhere near the HF or LF Radio Band on the
Electromagnetic Spectrum, therefore the power emitted from
the RFID Reader Antenna to the RFID Antenna on the RFID
Tag will not be the same. Hence you have no chance of
reading the Tag.

Hope this explains why you can’t use certain RFID Readers
to read various types of RFID tags.

4. I want a RFID Tag that I can read at a Long Distance?

If you want to use RFID and you

need a good Read distance from
the RFID Reader to the RFID
Tag, then you will have to
consider which type to use. LF,
RFID LONG DISTANCE READERS
HF or UHF.

OK, when I say I want a good read range, do I mean several

miles/Kilometers, nope! Realistically RFID using Passive
(remember NO Battery) RFID Tags, a good read distance
will be approx. 6-10 meters, that’s 20 to 33 Feet. Of course
you maybe able to achieve much more off a passive RFID
Tag,

RFID DISTANCE LONG UHF RFID READER

AND RFID TAG

Do you know the furthest Distance ever read of a Passive

UHF RFID Tag? I would love to be able to answer this one,
but I can’t sorry, being realistic I suspect it’s 30+ Meters
using a decent sized Antenna attached to a UHF Reader and a
big enough tag with a large antenna. If Anyone does know
and has proof, I would be delighted to hear from them.
Please comment below.

Also you have to consider the

type of UHF Reader used. A
HandHeld UHF RFID Reader
will read significantly less
distance then a Fixed UHF
Reader with a separate
Antenna. Why? This is because
the Antenna on a UHF
UHF HANDHELD READER
HandHeld RFID Reader is usually quite small, it’s the little
square part that sticks out at the front of the reader.

The benefit of using a Fixed UHF RFID Reader is you can

usually attach several Antennas
as well as significantly
covering a much wider area
than a HandHeld Reader, you
can also obtain different types
of RFID Antenna (10) that can
UHF ANTENNA
be used to suit your
application, small antennas,
long antennas, thin antennas,
there are so many that can be used and the choice has grown
rapidly over the past few years, with many RFID Antenna
Manufacturers in this Market.

5. How Much Does an RFID Tag Cost?

I personally get asked this by customers before we have even

discussed the type of system required. Lets try and respond
as best as I can:

RFID Tags costs vary greatly, if you want a HF High

Frequency 13.56MHz RFID Tag or a NFC RFID Tag in label
form then you may purchase them from approx. $0.20 as
long as you are purchasing several thousand.

However if you need a rugged UHF Tag for a Harsh

Environment that will last the test of time and endure a very
Harsh environment and read at a long distance then you
could pay $30+ for this tag.
However, Typically the cost of a RFID Tag in low volume
for a Pilot Project will more than likely be approx. $1 each
for HF or LF and $2 to $9 each for a UHF Tag, as most
applications only require low volumes to get started.

6. OK, Now I know the approximate price of the RFID

tag, What’s the cost of the RFID Reader?

Well, It really depends on what you go for. The prices below

are a Guesstimate!

If you go for LF Low Frequency then you are going to pay

approx. $150 per unit, could be much less depending on the
functionality of the unit, however if you decide to go for a bit
more functionality then upgrade to better than a Basic one! A
Basic LF RFID Reader is an option at approx. $50

If you are wanting an HF High Frequency RFID Reader then

again you should probably be looking at a reader with a SDK
(Software Development Kit) priced at approx. $150. Again, a
Basic HF RFID Reader is an option at approx. $50.

Another Option with HF is you can use your Mobile Phone

for FREE to read and write to the tags. I can show you how
this is done using the link in this article (11) . Therefore you
won’t pay anything for a reader and you can purchase a
handful of RFID tags for a few $ Dollars to get your project
up and running.

For a UHF RFID Reader things can get expensive. But don’t
despair there are other solutions! If you want a fixed UHF
Reader then most come without a RFID Antenna so you will
need to purchase this separately
A Fixed UHF RFID Reader will cost approx. $1,000 - $2,500
and a RFID Antenna Approx. $130 - $250 USD and don’t
forget you may need Several antennas.

There are UHF HandHeld Units also, these are quite popular
as they can be carried about and read a tag from Several
Meters away, cost can vary again from approx. $1000 -
$2000. An added benefit is you can see the UHF Scan on the
HandHeld Screen when you scan a RFID Tag, which means
the information is instantly available to you, you can be close
to the UHF Tag and get all the information you need. Unlike
the Fixed readers which would be connected to a computer.

There is another option for reading UHF Tags and that’s a

UHF Desktop RFID Reader. While you won’t get the best
read range as the Antenna is integrated into the desktop
reader, the price is usually good enough to get started with a
trial project, approx. cost is $200.

Read range from a UHF Desktop is approx. 10cm but can

read up to 1 meter, really depends on type of UHF tag and
size of the tags Antenna.

7. I want to start using RFID in my application which

type of RFID Tag should I use?

Depending on the distance required, if it’s short range

1-10cm then LF or HF would be a good option. If it’s over 1
meter maybe up to 10 meters then UHF should be the
preferred option.
Tag type: Paper Labels are much cheaper and HF and UHF
are the most common RFID Paper Labels. LF tends to be
more rugged like plastic, Epoxy, Silicone or even glass.
There is no easy answer to this question as there are so many
applications and so many uses for RFID that it would require
another article to at least get near an answer.

I would suggest contacting an RFID specialist manufacturer

or systems integrator and asking them the best type of chip
type and material that RFID Tag is made up of to find the
most suitable RFID Tag for their application.

We are of course happy to help at AbleID, if you do have any

questions then please ask we will try to help you find your
solution. Please contact us using the form here http://
www.ableid.com/contact.html

If you would like us to write an Article or answer any

questions in this Article then please leave your comments
below.

Any comments regarding your RFID application and how

you are using it can also be listed below, It would be
interesting to hear of your RFID Projects uses IN THE
REAL WORLD.

Please feel free to distribute and Share this Article, all I ask is
you provide a Backlink to our website where you found this.
Thank you.
References.

1.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_spectrum
2.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio-frequency_identification
3.https://www.iso.org/standard/59644.html
4.https://www.gs1.org/sites/default/files/docs/epc/uhf_regulations.pdf
5.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISM_band
6.https://www.explainthatstuff.com/rfid.html
7.https://public.wsu.edu/~bryan.mclaughlin/Radio/Who_Invented_Radio.html
8.https://public.wsu.edu/~bryan.mclaughlin/Radio/
How_it_grew_as_a_technology.html
9.https://www.gs1.org/sites/default/files/docs/epc/uhf_regulations.pdf
10.http://www.ableid.com/category-65.html
11.https://ableid.blogspot.com/2019/03/how-to-read-nfc-rfid-tag-with-your.html
12.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Walton_(inventor)