I am the Co-founder and General Manager of Voyantic, a company that specializes in RFID test and measurement solutions. Before starting Voyantic in 2004, I worked as a researcher at the Helsinki University of Technology focusing on passive RFID sensing for moisture in building structures.
I am happy to share with you that Voyantic is now part of the Impinj family!
Impinj has recently acquired ownership of Voyantic. We at Voyantic will continue our operations as a wholly owned subsidiary of Impinj with our current organization and management team. We are excited about the opportunities this creates for both of us. By joining forces, Impinj and Voyantic have even better opportunities to help companies to excel in RFID.
I am sure most readers of this blog are familiar with Impinj. Impinj is a leading RAIN RFID provider and Internet of Things pioneer. The Impinj platform uses RAIN RFID to deliver timely data about everyday things to business and consumer applications, enabling a boundless Internet of Things.
Voyantic, on the other hand, is known as an expert organization that provides test and measurement solutions to the RFID industry and academia. We will continue on this path with our existing products and services. And there will be more. Together with Impinj, we will have more opportunities to grow and strengthen our offering to the RAIN RFID industry.
I have known several people from Impinj for more than 15 years and always enjoyed working with them. I feel we share a similar culture of valuing expertise and achievement. In addition, we largely share the same customer base. It is our common goal that manufacturers all over the world design and manufacture high-quality RFID inlays and labels. I see that as a key for continued RAIN RFID adoption.
I am happy to answer any questions you may have about this news. We will also be attending several events in the upcoming weeks where you can meet Impinj and Voyantic representatives, including RFID Journal Live in Orlando and Shanghai IOTE in May, and the RAIN in Action event in Seattle in June.
The Voyantic team looks forward to the future as an Impinj company and continuing to help you to excel in RFID! For more information about the future of Impinj and Voyantic, see the Impinj blog for an update from Chris Diorio.
I enjoy seeing both the Voyantic employees and our customers thrive. The grand majority of my time goes into projects and initiatives that grow the RAIN RFID market in the long term. My remote office is on a boat on the archipelago of Finland.
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While the annual manufacturing volumes of RAIN tags at over 30 Billion are indeed impressive, the potential is in Trillions. I dare to claim we are seriously underperforming!
Let’s have a look at how the RAIN market has evolved over the past 20 years, and what has been the driving force that has taken us from one era to another. In the end, I will highlight some of the eco-system challenges ahead, and how to tackle them.
The Era of Making it Work
When RAIN RFID technology was still in its infancy between 2004-2010, the whole thing looked and felt like a science project. I say “a thing” because it hardly was a profitable business for anyone. The RF performance of both the tags and readers was one central engineering issue. What made it worse still was the fact that most often reader and tag manufacturers were separate entities, which simply meant that collective learning was a slow and delicate process.
Glimpses from the early “science project” days at Voyantic.
The emergence of common test systems, practices, and language helped engineers collaborate and fix many of the early shortcomings of RFID technology. The ARC program was further established to bridge the end users over that death valley of RF performance and tag selection. The EPC global and Item Level RFID Initiative (ILRI) brought the end users together, streamlining for example the use of data carriers utilized in supply chains. As a result, the science project started to gain adoption across the retail industry in North America.
The Era of Collaboration
As the technology and market started maturing through 2010-2020, RF performance evolved into a lesser problem. In addition to the ARC program, vendors collectively learned about the marvels of RFID tagging performance through the GS1 TIPP guideline projects. Also, the end users expanded their collaboration in numerous ways, and I would gladly point out the ISO Tire RFID project as one successful example. The RAIN Alliance was established in 2014, and it gave experts a safe domain that facilitated collective learning and market promotion further still.
On the technology side, readers got different “modes” that help end users optimize the inventory strategy for various use cases. Also, the sensitivity of tag ICs went up through the roof. We also saw how the industrial-scale manufacturing technology in reel-to-reel processes secured the supply of RAIN labels. All this led to a situation, where everyone in the market recognize that RAIN RFID simply works. Where are the next challenges?
The Emerging Era of Super Scalability
According to the RAIN Market report 2022, the current inlay-based smart-label industry continues to grow 20-30 % per year. That forecast leads the RAIN industry to annual tagging volumes of 50 Billion by the end of 2025. However, the potential of RAIN is in trillions of tagged items per year! How to bridge this gap? Work is needed both on the supply and demand sides.
To super-scale up towards trillions of RAIN-tagged items, our eco-system needs to adopt new approaches to the supply side. As one example, we are already seeing embedded tagging taking place at various product manufacturing lines. In the long run, embedded tagging may, or may not, utilize traditional dipole-type inlays, that are manufactured in reel-to-reel processes.
Embedded tags can be added to tires during the manufacturing process.
The other side of scalability is that we need to make RAIN much easier to deploy – think of Wi-Fi, BLE, QR codes, or even NFC. RAIN gives items a digital identity, that will be utilized through the item’s life cycle. This future vision goes well beyond the retail industry.
As the item digital identities carry more and more information, data protection and data sharing between stakeholders require more attention. I count on industry-wide policies and standards to help stakeholders to agree on sustainable practices regarding data sharing, protection, and ownership.
As RAIN RFID Spreads, Read Reliability will be Challenged
As RAIN deployments scale, overlap with each other, and expand to new environments, read reliability will be challenged. Read reliability has several contributing factors and, fundamentally, a statistical nature: the shorter the time available for an inventory round, the greater the challenge is.
Contributing factors include data carrier structures, tagging quality, RF interference, and regulatory constraints. It is important to tackle all these factors early on. If we choose to ignore or under-resource such necessary housekeeping, I believe we will start seeing applications with timing constraints switch over to other technologies.
In all this, tagging quality is one of the most trivial variables to control. Data carriers are more challenging mainly because of the extensive and broad documentation involved with them. Fortunately, both GS1 and RAIN are increasing the awareness around sustainable numbering policies, and also providing documentation and material that is more easily digested.
Industrial Collaboration is the Key to Continued Success
Item numbering structures, RF interference, and regulatory constraints are eco-system-wide challenges, that require early mitigation. Simply said mitigation most definitely includes engineering work, but also implementation guidelines, regulatory advocacy, and an endless amount of training.
Industry collaboration, learning, and networking at the 2022 Connections Summit in Helsinki. (Image by Ilkka Vuorinen)
These eco-system challenges are typically bigger than individual companies can handle. That is why I believe industrial collaboration through the RAIN Alliance, GS1, and AIM plays such a pivotal role. If you’re in this industry for the long run, be sure to follow, support, and contribute to the collaborative efforts that take place within these different industrial associations.
Voyantic is a member of the RAIN Alliance and AIM Global.All blog posts
I enjoy seeing both the Voyantic employees and our customers thrive. The grand majority of my time goes into projects and initiatives that grow the RAIN RFID market in the long term. My remote office is on a boat on the archipelago of Finland.
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After two years of idle time I attended the NRF Big Show in New York from 14th to 17th Jan 2023. Three full days of walking was definitely worth the effort. My takeaways from the event are as follows:
Liz Ann Sonders: GEL and demographics
The clarity and reasoning by which Liz Ann Sonders, the Chief Investment Strategist of Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., presented her views on the state of US markets and economy were unprecedented. I made two pages of notes and became her fan.
Her message in a nutshell as understood by me: the world has exited the era of cheap Goods, cheap Energy and cheap Labour (GEL). That change will also affect the balance of power between capital and labour. For the last 20 years, capital has had the advantage. Going forward, much of the power will transfer to labour.
Factors are numerous, and demographic development is an even stronger force than inflation or the rampart war in Europe. The outcome is that digitalization continues and supply chains will be more carefully managed than ever before.
Outlook of the retail market (Sonders cont.)
While consumer confidence has gone down, the savings rate has been high because of the fiscal stimulus during the pandemic. Due to the accrued excess savings, consumer spending still continues at a high level, but the notable change is the spending baton that is being passed from goods to services.
As a result, many retailers currently carry excessive inventory levels. The industry will work through that, but by now many have learned to be cautious against excess inventory.
Remember this driver (Sonders cont.)
The change in demographics has already shaped many industries in Asia and Europe. Automation and digitalization will increase, due to the increasing struggle to hire and retain the hands that do the manual work. The long-term driver to learn and remember therefore is labour shortage.
Observations from the exhibition floor
I saw more self-service check-out counters being promoted than in prior years. Additionally, the count of robot demonstrations impressed me. Robot applications range from warehouses to shop-floor replenishment, and from inventory scanning to customer service.
The increasing usage of automation obviously makes companies more resilient against labour shortage. It also helps in talent retention, as more time is spent on creative and complex tasks.
Outlook of the RAIN RFID market
(For simplicity, I will discard demand forecasting as it has little to do with RFID.)
Inventory control requires supply chain management, and today’s supply chain management leans on item-level traceability. For technology vendors, the welcome result is that the demand for RAIN RFID technology remains at a high level. What I also heard several label suppliers state is that after a few agonising years, the supply of RAIN RFID tag ICs is getting better. Lastly, I heard the adoption of this technology is finally taking off big time in the logistics industry.
Folks, we are in the right business.
Label-based tagging keeps on increasing
On a high level, several tagging approaches are available: sticker-type labels, hang tags, rugged tags and embedded tags. Labels and hang tags fulfil the scanning requirements of supply chains, and the scalable supplier ecosystem efficiently supports the approach.
I came to estimate that the yearly RFID labels production quantity is already enough to wrap the whole Javitz congress center with RFID labels for its outer surfaces.
At the NRF what I didn’t hear American retailers talk about was product life cycle traceability, digital product passport, and digital twin. They seem to be concepts of the future, which marks a major difference compared to European retailers. I am curious to see if EuroShop presents a different tone.
RFID applications closing in on the US consumers
Millions of American consumers that work in the supply chains already use RAIN RFID every day. At work, they have learned to appreciate the efficiency and convenience that RAIN brings. My question goes: when will they start requesting the same efficiency and convenience in managing their personal inventories and households?
I gather that the world is becoming ready for such a leap as more consumer-friendly RAIN RFID reader products are finally emerging. Sledge-type of readers, that attaches to your smartphone, have been in the market for years already. Recently more slick and pocket-sized alternatives have been launched, just have a look at the BlueBird VX500 and Unitech RP902. The former is a RAIN-enabled smartphone, and the latter device connects to Android and Apple phones wirelessly.
I believe these products are game-changing as they expand the usage of RAIN RFID well beyond the supply chains and point-of-sale. As the embedded and durable tagging of products increases in the coming years, I am sure consumers find delight and convenience in RFID also outside of their working hours.
Passive Bluetooth
Wiliot was already a familiar name from several prior industry events. Wiliot is an IOT platform that connects BLE-based sensors, “IoT Pixels” as Wiliot calls them. The sensors carry an ID and sensing capabilities. The sensors don’t require a battery, instead, they harvest energy from nearby transmitters, which makes them relatively cheap and small, practically stickers. Additional gateways pass the encrypted sensor data to the cloud.
The difference to RAIN in Wiliot is that the IoT Pixel data can only be accessed via cloud. Wiliot runs a SaaS business. The Bluetooth infrastructure and consumables are relatively cheap, and a Wiliot system is easy to set up.
Three additional findings from the exhibition floor are worth mentioning:
Another company Nexite also utilizes BLE technology and follows a similar SaaS business model
There is an emerging paper-thin ecosystem of suppliers that produce Wiliot labels.
I came across a Wiliot-enabled prototype printer.
In my assessment, passive Bluetooth is in its infancy the same way as RAIN RFID was 20 years ago. Technology itself is demonstrated to work, although practically the sensors cannot yet be read with smartphones. All in all, I remain curious to see how passive Bluetooth takes off.
Final thoughts
The NRF Big Show is overwhelming in its size and range of content. After three days at the exhibition and conference, I was left with a warm comforting view that the growth of the RAIN RFID market is set to accelerate. It is a very exciting business to be in.
RAIN RFID technology has been used for location-tracking applications for a long time. But the hype around IoT has given a new boost to companies exploring RAIN RFID’s suitability as a locating technology. In recent IoT tradeshows, our team has had several discussions about using RFID as an indoor locating (RTLS – Real Time Locating System) technology. So we decided to host a webinar to explore the topic further.
This post summarizes the various RFID-based locating approaches covered during the webinar. Check out the webinar recording to also hear case study examples of utilizing RAIN RFID in locating applications and combining RFID with other RTLS technologies. The webinar guest speakers came from Turck Vilant Systems and Kathrein Solutions.
RAIN RFID as Indoor Locating Technology
Reader-based Location
The most common way to establish a location of an item is to base it on the readers. When you have a fixed reader and you know the location of the reader, you can determine the approximate location of a tagged item based on the reader reporting the tag. The location of the item will be within the set reader zone. For many applications, this approach works, for example in sports race timing applications. The reader could be placed also on a doorway to detect movement in and out, providing the room-level location.
Readers at the finishing line detect when the runner’s tag crosses the line.
Tag-based Location
A reversed method for reader-based locating is to have tags in fixed locations and track the reader location based on the fixed tag positions. The benefit of this approach is that tags are cheap. It is feasible to put many tags along known paths, for example, in elevators, trains, conveyors, floor tiles, etc. When the reader passes and “sees” a tag, that’s where you place it on the map.
Tags at fixed locations reveal the reader’s location.
Locating Correct Items
Finding the location of a specific item, where something is, is a very common use case. For example, finding the right part in a warehouse or the right file in a large archive. A new product in the market that helps with this application is an LED tag. To find an item, a hand-held reader sends a select command to the item it is looking for. When a reader “finds” the item it is looking for, the LED on the tag lights up to visually aid the user to locate the item.
The other method is using a “Geiger mode” with a hand-held reader. A reader can be set to show a “getting warmer or getting colder” indication when the reader gets closer to or further away from the item of interest. A sound indication beeping more frequently when the item is closer is often used – hence the method is often labeled as “Geiger counter”.
Reference Location Tags
Another good and common method for locating is to place reference tags in fixed locations where items are stored, for example on shelves and tables, in rooms, and at doorways. When you are doing an inventory with a handheld reader, you are also reading the reference tag in addition to the tags on your items and can determine the location of the items based on the known reference tag location.
Phased Array
Phased array is a fairly new method for locating RFID tags. This technology has existed for decades, mostly in the radar business. Phased array is a type of antenna consisting of multiple small radiating elements within one antenna housing, where controlling the phase difference of the elements allows the transmit beam to be steered in the desired direction. This allows you to scan your environment in different directions to find the tagged items.
Overhead two-directional phased-array readers are becoming more popular. They allow estimating item locations with a single reader mounted on the ceiling, scanning left, right, back and front. The overhead readers work well when the items are big and the room is fairly empty. Shelves and furniture in the room causing reflections and echoes will have an effect on the accuracy.
Triangulation
Using two or more horizontal wall-placed scanning phased-array readers enables determining the location with triangulations. You could also determine the location with one phased-array antenna placed on the wall if you know the angle and the distance range to the item. This technique is still rare and relatively expensive.
Range-based triangulation is a more traditional approach, where two or more readers find the item and can estimate the distance of the item from the reader. The distance data can be used to calculate the location of the item. But estimating the distance with RFID is not that simple. Typically in RF, time of flight is used, but with small distances, the time differences are too small for it to work accurately. Using RSSI is also tricky since it only works in one way. If you get a very high RSSI, you know the item is very close. But if you get a low RSSI, the item can be anywhere, far away, or close.
Using directional antenna-based triangulation and range-based triangulation for determining the location.
Phase-based Ranging
Phase-based ranging is a technique using backscatter phase measurement. In this method, you pick a channel and get a reply from a tag. The reply always comes at a certain phase. When you take the next channel or move up in frequency, more wavelengths are going to fit in the path from the reader to the tag and back, so the phase will increase. When you go to a higher channel number, the phase goes up (see the below graph). The phase rate of change is relative to distance and can thus be used to calculate the distance of the tag. If the phase grows fast the tag is far away. If the phase grows slowly when you increase in frequency, the tag is much closer. Regional channel regulations cause challenges for this approach, however.
Inventory Robots
Using inventory robot technology for locating items is not very common yet, but it can be a good solution for doing inventory in large retail stores and warehouses, for example. The robot’s location can be tracked accurately with floorplans and rotary encoders, LIDAR, and other technologies. While the robot roams around tirelessly, its antennas can detect tagged items from hundreds of locations on its path. The accurate location of the items can be calculated from those data points in post-processing. This method is optimal when the items don’t move. Luckily the robots do not mind pulling an all-nighter, allowing the inventory rounds to be completed during the night.
In Practice – A Combination
Usually, a combination of methods is the best approach. One RFID tag can be located through any of the methods. Let’s use a hospital as an example:
It may be enough to know that a piece of equipment is in a specific patient room when in use: 🡪 gate readers.
Item stored outside of cabinet can be searched with handheld readers: 🡪 Geiger counter
In the entrance area items a triangulated for preventing stealing: 🡪 triangulation with RSSI and beam antennas
During the webinar, Peter Feldmann from Kathrein covered how a combination of RTLS and RFID technologies is used to locate forklifts in a warehouse.
When to use RAIN RFID as a location-tracking technology?
This post scratched the surface of the different approaches to utilizing RAIN RFID technology for location tracking. Whether RAIN RFID is suitable, as a complementary or main technology, for locating applications depends on the use case and requirements.
One of the clear benefits of RAIN RFID technology is that the tags are relatively low cost, coming in various forms and sizes, making the tagging of also lower-value and small form factor items feasible. One situation where it is smart to explore the potential of RAIN RFID for locating applications is when there is already a RAIN RFID system in place and the locating application could utilize the item data from existing tags and infrastructure.
Voyantic Tagformance system includes an Application Development Suite (ADS). The ADS software is an ideal tool for optimizing RAIN RFID locating systems.
The software package includes tools for determining forward and reverse link power margins with different locating approaches, a tool for optimizing antenna positions, and a tool for detecting phase shift, as well as tools for testing tag populations and interferences.
I enjoy seeing both the Voyantic employees and our customers thrive. The grand majority of my time goes into projects and initiatives that grow the RAIN RFID market in the long term. My remote office is on a boat on the archipelago of Finland.
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How cool is NFC in that it simply works all over the globe: 13,56 MHz everywhere? How cool do you think it is, that RAIN RFID today enjoys the same: several reader channels between 902 and 928 MHz on all the continents!
Status up until 2018: two regulatory regions with no overlap
Traditionally, the end users and RAIN solution providers have accepted and adapted the fact, that in Europe RAIN deployments have been limited to operate at the 866-868 MHz range, also known as the ETSI range, where the four reader transmit channels are. The rest of the world utilized reader transmit channels somewhere between 902 and 928 MHz – the so-called FCC range.
The EU decided to harmonize the RAIN RFID band in 2018
After years of CEPT (short for European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations) technical studies and mounting pressure from the RAIN end users, the Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2018/1538 specified three reader channels at 916,3 MHz, 917,5 MHz, and 918,7 MHz. The Commission also defined the implementation deadline as 1st February 2019 but acknowledged several exceptions for existing regional radio systems, such as military and railway deployments.
The picture above shows how well the European new RAIN RFID reader channels fit among the other global regulatory regions.
Status today: 902-928 MHz covered by a grand majority of countries!
As we study the RAIN RFID regulatory status document maintained by Mr. Craig Alan Repec of GS1 Global Office, out of the listed 81 countries with known status, 55 offer RAIN RFID reader channels between the band 902 – 928 MHz. Out of the CEPT 46 member counties, 25 have partial or full implementation for the upper European RAIN RFID channels, and that number is rising every year.
Performance benefits are significant
As one looks behind the numbers, you come to realize that specifically, the upper European band is wonderful news: more of everything!
Comparison of lower and upper European RAIN RFID frequency channels
“The upper European frequency band definitely offers dramatically more wiggle room for RAIN engineers to optimize system and component designs,” says Dr. Jesse Tuominen, the CTO RFID of Voyantic.
Business benefits
As most supply chains are global, it makes sense to keep the RAIN tagging specs at 860 – 930 MHz. This way tagging is responsive all around the globe, which adds simplicity to the deployments.
In certain applications, it might even make sense to narrow down the tagging specs to 902-928 MHz, as tagging and reader antennas can be further optimized for performance, footprint and, ultimately, cost. I believe this opportunity is especially interesting in applications, where there are severe space or area constraints for either the readers or the tagging.
What’s up with the slow adopters
Well, all I can say is that the RAIN RFID end users in Germany, the Netherlands, Croatia, Greece and a few other countries are in a totally unfair situation – they are outliers that remain limited to the lower European RAIN frequency bands for the time being.
For future-proofing RAIN RFID deployments also in Germany, please prepare to upgrade systems to support the Upper ETSI frequency band.
Having said that, I foresee that nuisance to eventually pass. My advice is to prepare to upgrade deployments as those reader channels become available later on. Practically that means requiring the deployments to be compatible with and upgradeable to the 915-917 MHz in the RAIN project specifications.
Bottom line: use the upper European reader channels and be appreciative of them!
The awareness around the global harmonized RAIN frequency band has been slim. However, numerous end users are embracing it. “Most of the main RAIN users in France have declared they are going to use the upper bandwidth for their deployment to get all benefits from this new frequency possibility”, says Hervé d´Halluin, Leader RFID & Traceability of Decathlon. “This represents tens of thousand of locations spread all over France.”
What about the appreciation? Regulatory advocacy is an area where industry stakeholders need to pull their ranks together. With the help of industrial associations, such as the RAIN Alliance, AIM and GS1, we’ve done just that. If you’re in the RAIN RFID business for the long run, make sure your company supports these associations by becoming their member, because regulatory work never ends.
I am the Co-founder and General Manager of Voyantic, a company that specializes in RFID test and measurement solutions. Before starting Voyantic in 2004, I worked as a researcher at the Helsinki University of Technology focusing on passive RFID sensing for moisture in building structures.
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Voyantic has been at the center of the RAIN RFID industry for the last 16 years. During that time, many new companies have been started, and many no longer exist. In addition, there have been some IPOs and acquisitions, but overall, the early years of RAIN RFID were pretty quiet on that front. But not anymore! During the last couple of years, a number of acquisitions have taken place. Usually, consolidation is a sign of maturity in the market as bigger players are establishing their foothold in the market.
I have been planning to blog about the latest acquisitions for a while, but it became quickly evident that there is just too much happening to be covered in one blog post. So where should I start? Well, why not close to home. Next week, on June 14-16, 2022, Voyantic is hosting the Helsinki Connections Summit together with Beontag, and Nordic ID, two perfect examples of recent acquisitions in the industry.
Beontag
The Helsinki Connections Summit was originally planned for the summer of 2020. Unfortunately, it was postponed twice because of the pandemic. Originally, one of the co-hosts was supposed to be Stora Enso, a publicly listed forest products company. They were relative newcomers in the RFID industry, known especially for their ECO RFID line of sustainable tags. Their RFID operations were based (where else but) in the RFID capital of the world, Tampere, Finland.
From Tampere comes also Confidex, a company best known for its industrial-grade RAIN RFID tags and labels, as well as contactless RFID tickets. Founded in 2005, they are an established and well-known player in the RAIN RFID industry.
Both Stora Enso’s RFID division and Confidex were acquired by Beontag in 2020 and 2022 respectively. Beontag is a Brazilian company – a rather new name in the business – but one that cannot have been missed by anyone following the industry. Lately, they have been the most active in the industry on the acquisition front, acquiring companies in Italy and France as well (but more about that in future blog posts).
Nordic ID – A Brady Business
Another host of the Connections Summit, Nordic ID, defines itself as Europe’s leading provider of item tracking and tracing solutions. Founded in 1986, Nordic ID is traditionally known for its hand terminals: first barcode scanning and then RAIN RFID. Lately, they have profiled themselves as both solutions and device provider. They are based in Salo, a town made famous by Nokia during its prime.
There is plenty of RFID expertise in Finland – and this blog post barely touched the surface! Why not come and witness it with your own eyes at the Connections Summit on June 14-16. Your hosts Beontag, Nordic ID, and Voyantic are looking forward to seeing you there!
Stay tuned for part 2 in the blog series! Part two will cover a couple of other acquisitions within the industry. But let’s keep it a secret for now. If you want to make sure you will not miss it, sign up to receive blog notifications to your email.
I am the Co-founder and General Manager of Voyantic, a company that specializes in RFID test and measurement solutions. Before starting Voyantic in 2004, I worked as a researcher at the Helsinki University of Technology focusing on passive RFID sensing for moisture in building structures.
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The electronic component shortage is hitting hard on pretty much any imaginable industry. We see that in consumer electronics; we had to wait for more than a year for my son’s Playstation 5. But also, the automotive industry, mobile devices, and several industrial markets are affected heavily. The RFID industry is no exception. Claire Swedberg wrote recently an excellent and multifaceted piece about chip shortage in RFID in the RFID Journal publication: https://www.rfidjournal.com/rfid-technology-rollout-strained-by-chip-shortage. The article is mainly focused on what is going on with RAIN tag ICs, but from what I have seen, also reader manufacturers and other players in the industry are affected.
My company, Voyantic, is a provider of test and measurement solutions for the RFID industry, so we are not supplying the kinds of volumes that RFID reader companies do, let alone tag manufacturers. But I thought it would be interesting to look at what the situation has meant for us and how we have dealt with it.
“Components Available in April – Next Year ” – What to do?
I had a chat with our head of operations to hear his thoughts on the situation. His overall feeling was that the amount of time spent in sourcing has increased, and in the worst points of time, there were new negative surprises in component availability almost every week. But so far, our operations team has been able to work around them. He identified three key points that have made it possible:
Co-operation between product design and operations. Being surrounded by skilled people that know the products intimately has been the key. When there have been challenges with some components, electronics designers that can point out what is critical have helped to find replacement components, which have been delightfully abundant. Finally, in most severe cases the designers may have made slight design changes around difficult-to-find components. I have learned to highly appreciate our in-house hardware design capability and can guess how difficult it might have been if all that was outsourced to a distant country.
Turning to your network to findtrustworthy component brokers. When looking for alternative sources for components, there are thousands of component brokers out there. But the question is, who can you trust? Where do you buy without getting counterfeit or C-grade components? That’s where your network comes in. Who can they recommend?
Geographic distribution. It has proven efficient to have trusted brokers on different continents; the one in Hong Kong may have a good inventory (and prices) for one product, and the one in the US for another one. Asking around often leads to the best outcome.
Communicating with Suppliers and Customers
In addition to the operational measures above, the crucial part of coping with growing uncertainty is instilling trust and good communication with both suppliers and customers. I am sure that, during the last year, everyone has experienced a supplier announce a delivery delay just days before the confirmed delivery date. You don’t want to be that company, right? So, what should we do?
Discussorder schedules in advance. Customer needs usually don’t materialize overnight. Discussing needs in advance, or even placing advance orders, helps production planning.
Radical openness. If there is uncertainty in delivery times, why not communicate that openly. Which company would you want to work with in the long term? The one that gives you the nasty surprise just before expected delivery? Or the one that tells you where they stand and keeps you updated with any progress?
Solving the customer’s problems instead of delivering products. Open discussion with the customer and understanding what they plan to do with your product and when they need it may reveal alternative ways to solve their problems. Maybe you can solve the most acute needs with services. Or maybe you have a demo product or a previous generation product that you can loan to the customer until the new product arrives.
It’s probably going to be another year or two until the component shortage gets any easier. I hope that as an industry, we, the RFID guys, can work together to get through it.
Voyantic Webinars
Tune into our educational live and on-demand webinars where we cover various topics around the RAIN RFID and NFC industry. We invite guest speakers from the industry to share their insights on each topic.
I am Sales Director at Voyantic. I have over 15 years of experience from the RFID industry in Europe and the USA. I have two master's degrees: in industrial engineering and in marketing, and two patents in auto-ID technology. I am actively participating in RAIN RFID alliance activities.
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In 2021, RFID with sensing technologies continued to be a major research area. The COVID-19 pandemic was also seen in RFID research topics.
Plenty of interesting research papers were published and, unfortunately, I can only introduce a very limited selection of the research topics.
Sensor tags – sci-fi brought to reality
RFID combined with sensing continues to be the overwhelmingly most common broad research area in RFID. But research has clearly moved beyond the traditional sensor tags. Some of the described ideas and methods seemed more like sci-fi than science.
Sensing Covid-19
Covid-19 has inspired some research papers, and practical RFID-based solutions are being developed to help in fighting the pandemic.
Another method for early identification of inflammations is introduced in this paper: “Cyber-Tooth: Antennified Dental Implant for RFID Wireless Temperature Monitoring”. In the method the entire dental implants crown is transformed into a dipole antenna. Is this a first step to realize Lucy’s (from I Love Lucy) radio in a tooth?
A method for improving the production of RFID in textiles is proposed in this research: “Textronic UHF RFID Transponder”. In the proposed method a small dipole antenna couples with an RFID IC without galvanic connection.
There are also several papers published around the topic of making ever smaller tags with higher read ranges, and using them to tag, for example, metallic objects:
Last year, we teamed up with TSC Printronix Auto ID and started a webinar series designed for barcode professionals, who are considering expanding their offering to RAIN RFID labels, or who already are at the beginning of that journey. With TSC Printronix Auto ID we saw the need for education as more and more barcode label customers are looking for RFID solutions.
In the first webinar, What a barcode professional needs to know about RAIN RFID Label and Tag Data, we started from the basics: what are the key aspects of RAIN RFID technology and data, how does RAIN RFID actually work, what are the system components, and most importantly, where can you find more information.
The second part of the webinar series, What a Barcode Professional Needs to Know about the RAIN RFID Encoding Processes, focused on the practicalities of the RAIN RFID encoding process, equipment, and alternatives.
In the third webinar, What a Barcode professional needs to know about RAIN RFID label selection and sourcing, scheduled for February 10th, we will cover the most important considerations related to label selection and sourcing process including label specifications, supplier selection, delivery format, handling, and other issues.
Here are my main takeaways from the first two webinars in the series.
Key Takeaways from Part 1
It is crucial to understand filtering in the context of RFID systems
The nature of RF signals means that they can go through walls and various other materials. A RAIN RFID reader can read a large number of tags simultaneously and without a line of sight, which is, in comparison, required for reading barcodes. For example, when you are inventorying tagged items in storage, your system could be reading tags behind a wall that should not be included in your inventory. Setting up tag filtering correctly ensures that your application works accurately, and that requires following proper data encoding processes.
There are 9 RFID tags on the wall, but the reader found 54 tags.
There is no “one size fits for all” RAIN tag
What do you need to know about RAIN RFID tags when looking for a tag for your customer? The difference between a barcode label and an RFID label is that the RFID label includes an IC (microchip) and an antenna. Together the IC and the antenna make up an RFID inlay. There are lots of different IC models out there and the type of IC defines what kind of and how much data can be encoded in the tag. The antenna model defines how far the label can be read. Knowing your solution requirements, physical factors such as the label size and item materials, and use cases and data requirements are necessary for finding the best tag for your solution.
Do not use a proprietary numbering system
Keeping the importance of filtering in mind, it is crucial to understand the basics of RAIN RFID encoding systems, i.e., how you are putting data into a tag. There are three data standard families available for RAIN RFID tag encoding
Following one of the established data standards ensures there won’t be issues with tag filtering (and application errors) along the road.
The fourth option is to use your own proprietary encoding systems – Please do not do it! Or if you do, you need to “wrap” your system within the ISO standard or the RAIN numbering system.
Selecting the data standard to use often depends on your customer or the industry you are operating in. Some customers may mandate that you use a specific standard, and many industries have a mandated or de-facto standard in use to ensure interoperability.
Above are my key learnings of Part 1, but many more topics and details were discussed. Watch the webinar to learn more about each of the data standard families, including the structure of the different numbering systems and example use cases, as well as the basics of data security. Webinar part two dives deeper into the standard selection process and the specific advantages of the different standards.
Key Takeaways from Part 2
Label Manufacturing Process
The label manufacturing process includes three steps. In the first step, the IC is attached to the antenna, creating an inlay. In the second step, the inlays are converted in a common backing material called a liner, creating a blank label. In the third step, data is printed on and encoded into the label, creating a finished label.
The suitable type of encoding equipment depends on the volume of tags that need to be encoded. The more sophisticated machines that can process high volumes at high speed naturally come with a higher cost.
An RFID reader can be used as an encoder but it is not an efficient permanent solution.
An RFID printer is purpose-built for encoding and is best suitable for small rolls and batches. They can be affordable and process up to some thousands of labels per hour.
High throughput personalization machines can take in larger rolls and process up to one hundred thousand tags per hour, but they also come with a higher cost.
And finally, encoding can also be integrated into product production or packaging lines.
Watch the webinar recording to dive deeper into the IC selection factors, encoding process steps, RAIN tag memory details, as well as tag locking and passwords – ensuring the right data is encoded in the right way.
The Personalization Process
The personalization process includes both printing data on the label and encoding the tags. The printed data can be the same data that’s in the RFID tag or include additional information.
High throughput personalization lines often process labels in successive stations. Combining the print and encoding in a high-speed personalization process requires accurate triggering for all the steps and making sure the stations match the process flow.
An example of personalization stations in a high throughput personalization process.
Using an RFID printer for personalization is a good option for smaller-scale projects. An RFID printer prints the barcode and other designed details on the label as well as encodes and verifies the RAIN tag data.
Part 3: RAIN RFID Tag Selection and Sourcing
Learn the most important aspects of label selection and sourcing, including label specifications, supplier selection, and delivery format.
I enjoy seeing both the Voyantic employees and our customers thrive. The grand majority of my time goes into projects and initiatives that grow the RAIN RFID market in the long term. My remote office is on a boat on the archipelago of Finland.
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Dear Santa,
I hope all is well with you. What a year! Let’s do an instant recap:
What happened in 2021
I had not really accepted this fact early on this year, but towards the summer it started to sink in: the pandemic is business as usual. At least on Voyantic’s side business has been great.
On the RAIN Alliance side of things, I became the Chairman of the RAIN Board. It is an honor, it is exciting, and it has kept me busy. The Alliance has continued delivering good value for its membership. Specifically, I want to highlight two important developments:
As a housekeeping measure, the Alliance launched the RAIN CIN numbering system. While it may sound like something brand new, it is actually an ISO based numbering system simply in a new wrapping. With this easy alternative now available, all stakeholders can start clearing up some of the deployments out there that do not follow any specific numbering system.
The RAIN RFID Tyre Expo in September was the first ever global event for the tire industry with focus on RAIN RFID. The program included presentations from the early adopters, such as EuroFit Group, FIA, Norauto and Michelin, as well as from the key RAIN technology suppliers, including Hana Technologies, Siemens, and Zebra to name a few.
Lastly, due to the continued push by several stakeholders, the Global harmonized RAIN RFID frequency band took an important step forward as France implemented the Commission’s decision EU 2018/1538. I am sorry to say that this move puts the RFID end-users in Germany increasingly in an unfair position since they remain restricted to the lower ETSI band.
Looking forward to 2022
Dear Santa, the outlook for 2022 is better than ever. With that in mind, one needs to be cautious because of two persistent inconveniences:
Inflation went up and stays up
“We see inflation rising further in the near term but then declining next year”, says Mrs. Lagarde of ECB.
“Nonsense”, I say.
I see three factors in play, that will keep inflation up for a long time: the green energy transition, trading of emissions, and excess supply of money. While the last will go away, the two first ones are here to stay, I would add, simply because humankind is doomed otherwise. In a relatively short time, those factors already contributed to the rising price of energy. Slowly that price increase has bloated prices of raw materials and logistics. Eventually added costs will creep into everyday products and services. All this takes time, and therefore I don’t think inflation is a temporary phenomenon.
Dear Santa, please pass the following message to Mrs. Lagarde – “Juho hopes you’re right, and he is wrong.”
Component shortage gets businesses stuck
You are stepping on the gas pedal with orders coming in, but nothing moves or goes out the door. The component shortage is like fine deep sand underneath your business tires.
At Voyantic we have been fortunate to have been able to manage our supply chain up to these days, but we have seen our customers struggle. That struggle eases up over time, but with the stock levels down through the supply chains and the price of logistics going up, I don’t see a fast way out of this. What that means is that the speed of business will be reduced, with longer lead times and more waiting.
Beer and a good night sleep in a prison
I cannot wait for the return of the in-person meetings. An RFID enthusiastic’s highlight of the year will be the RAIN Alliance meeting in Helsinki 2022. While at the event, as you agree to have “a beer at the lobby bar”, effectively you shall have “a beer in a prison“.
The event will be hosted by Beontag, Nordic-ID, and Voyantic. Mr. Nikias Klohr of Race|Results has volunteered to time your performance as you sprint over the prison yard and the wall.
Take the shots, wear a mask, and get yourself to Helsinki on the 14th to 16th of June, 2022!
Happy Holidays!
Dear Santa, with the meeting restrictions tightening up again, you might be in for a similar Christmas tournée as the FedEx guys are – no hanging around in the living room, just deliver and get going. Look at the bright side: you will get to sauna a bit earlier!
