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RAIN RFID Is Evolving – An Industry Pioneer Looks Years Ahead

May 02, 2025

The global use of RAIN RFID is skyrocketing. Application areas are diversifying, and quality requirements are becoming more stringent. At the same time, tags are increasingly integrated directly into products rather than applied as separate labels. Industry pioneer Voyantic believes the next major step in the RFID sector is a shift toward networked, intelligent, and transparent quality management. The company’s latest product release, version 4.0 of Tagsurance® 3, is designed to support this direction.

Key Updates Propel RFID Technology Forward

The new version combines two major advancements: network connectivity and encoding functionality. According to Voyantic General Manager Jukka Voutilainen, these features make it possible to examine the entire RFID production process from a new perspective.

“The combination allows testing and encoding to take place at different stages of production, and the collected data can be integrated into a comprehensive quality management dataset”, Voutilainen explains.

Voyantic’s systems now enable precise measurement of the electrical performance of tags. The encoding feature adds a completely new dimension: verification and management of the data content. At the same time, the system has been designed to scale and connect securely to the internet, enhancing usability in large, cross-company production chains.

Three Trends Shaping the Industry

Voyantic’s development work is guided by a clear long-term vision: RAIN RFID technology has to be reliable and care-free for the end users. Voutilainen identifies three major trends that are steering the industry in the coming years.

The first trend is the integration of tags directly into products. When an RFID tag is embedded directly into the product, such as a tire or a medical syringe, it can no longer be easily replaced or tested outside the product. This means testing must occur not only before integration but possibly afterward as well. In such cases, the cost of failure can be high: a faulty tag may compromise the entire product. Quality assurance must therefore adapt more precisely to different production workflows. The modularity of Tagsurance 3 supports flexible implementation across various processes.

The second trend involves the expansion of quality expectations throughout the supply chain. Traditionally, tag quality has been enforced at chip bonding, the process step where the tag IC is attached to the antenna. It still remains the single most critical production phase. However, the end users see the quality of the tag after it has passed through various process steps, where the tag’s performance may be impacted. In addition, the supply chain often consists of multiple different parties, such as converters and service bureaus. Tagsurance 3 is designed with this in mind: it can collect and combine quality data from multiple production phases, enabling a broad and transparent view of the process.

The third trend is combining multiple data sources to ensure tag quality. Electrical performance alone is no longer sufficient— a tag may seem to work seemingly well but ends up failing prematurely in the end application. Failures like this can be identified and corrected by combining other process data with electrical performance in quality verification. Secondly, the tag also needs to contain correct and reliable information. When encoding is integrated with product data in backend systems, it becomes possible to verify tag authenticity or link it precisely to a specific item or batch. This opens new opportunities in sectors where traceability and data security are essential.

“Tagsurance 3 is built to support these industry shifts. It’s not just a testing device—it is a system that integrates quality, data, and production management in a new way”,  Voutilainen says.

The Need for Testing Will Not Decrease—Quite the Opposite

While RAIN RFID tags are already widely used in retail, emerging applications such as logistics, pharmaceuticals, and food products are imposing new requirements on the technology. In these areas, the tolerance for quality issues is minimal, and the importance of quality assurance continues to grow.

“The need for testing will certainly not decrease in the future”, Voutilainen affirms.

According to him, technological development will increasingly be shaped by customer needs and the specific requirements of different industries. The company continues to develop its products in close collaboration with customers and actively contributes to the creation of new industry standards.

“Testing systems must evolve in step with applications and demands. Our role is to be at the forefront of that progress”, Voutilainen concludes.

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Voyantic introduces reliable high-speed encoding into RAIN RFID converting and other machines with the Tagsurance® 3 system

Apr 11, 2025

Voyantic, a global leader in RFID testing solutions, is proud to announce the launch of the new encoding feature for Tagsurance 3 quality testing system. The latest software release enables encoding and quality control of RAIN RFID labels in high-speed production machines with a single system. 

As the demand for RAIN RFID labels is expected to grow exponentially, with billions produced annually, manufacturers need integrated, high-speed systems. The Tagsurance 3 system with encoding feature meets this demand, allowing seamless integration into production lines and eliminating the need for external encoding solutions. The Tagsurance 3 system is modular and scalable and can easily fit into various machine types. The user-friendly, browser-based operating UI helps with adoption at sites.

“At Voyantic, we are committed to delivering cutting-edge solutions that help our customers excel in RFID,” said Jukka Voutilainen, Voyantic’s General Manager. “This upgrade significantly enhances the Tagsurance 3 system’s capabilities, making it a powerful all-in-one solution for RAIN RFID inlay and label production.”

Uncompromised speed and reliability

The Tagsurance 3 system maintains high throughput without compromising the speed and efficiency of the production process. It supports encoding in high-speed machines and can even reach lane speeds for converting machines.

Additionally, the system’s reliability is paramount. Non-encoded, incorrectly encoded, or double-coded labels can create significant challenges for RAIN RFID users. To address this, the Tagsurance 3 system is designed for continuous, error-free operation during extended production runs, ensuring the highest reliability standard in large-volume manufacturing. 

Main specifications:

  • One encoding station per lane is supported
  • “BlockWrite” data to any writeable tag memory and lock the tag memories (Reserved, EPC, User)
  • Supported ISO 18000-63 (EPC Gen2v3) commands
    • BlockWrite
    • Lock
    • Read
  • 1-12 lanes
  • Lock the selected memories permanently
  • Verify the data is correctly encoded (Read test with verification)

The full specification is available in Tagsurance 3 product catalog.

The commercial release of the Tagsurance 3 encoding feature, available starting 10th of April, will be offered as a separate license on top of the existing Tagsurance 3 system. A hardware version 4.x is required to utilize this feature.

Save the date! We’re organizing a Tagsurance 3 encoding live demo on Wednesday, May 21, at 5 pm CEST / 10 am EDT. Register for the live webinar from here!

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Tagsurance® 3 Online Connectivity Improves Usability and Maintenance

Mar 20, 2025

Voyantic recently launched a new version of the Tagsurance 3 system, an inline quality testing system for RFID tag production. With this update, we recommend that customers using the latest version (4.x) keep their systems always connected online. On the other hand, older versions (3.x) should still stay offline. But why the switch? And what benefits come with this new online connectivity?

Let’s dive in!

A screenshot of Tagsurance 3 Version 4.0 user interface.
A screenshot of Tagsurance 3 Version 4.x software user interface.

Cloud-based architecture enables future-proof quality management

With the new version, the Tagsurance 3 system’s architecture has been completely revamped under the hood. The Voyantic team has carefully designed this upgrade with the future and information security in mind. This release marks an important milestone, enabling safe network connectivity for the test system. Voyantic designs its systems using secure development best practices, and regular third-party audits ensure any identified issues are promptly addressed. 

The Tagsurance 3 Version 4.x with online connectivity paves the way for future possibilities, including encoding operations through the same setup. Enabling encoding will only require purchasing a software license, with no need for additional hardware upgrades.

Simpler, faster, and more efficient—whether it’s for daily use or maintenance tasks

Connecting the system to the internet is safe and recommended for unlocking a range of new features. Today, the concrete updates are most noticeable in the new browser-based user interface, which administrators and operators can access from any computer. Let’s examine the latest features designed to ease the system’s use.

1. Update software directly in the user interface

Gone are the days of downloading software update packages separately from voyantic.com and manually performing updates. With this new feature, admins can download and install the latest software versions directly from the user interface via the admin panel—as long as the system is connected to the internet. This ensures your system stays effortlessly updated with the latest features and improvements.

A screenshot from Tagsurance 3 4.x software showing what the releases page looks like.
Updating your Tagsurance 3 Version 4.x software has been made easy.

2. Simplified licensing

When your Tagsurance 3 version 4.x system is connected to the internet, it automatically connects to Voyantic’s license server and fetches the license information. Admin users can see all the essential details in the browser-based admin panel, including how long the license is valid, the number of lanes, and Tagsurance stations. It’s all there in one place, making it easy to manage your licensing.

3. Enhanced support

While we hope you don’t need to use this feature, we’ve significantly improved support for the new version. Suppose the system is connected to the internet, and you run into an issue. In that case, it’s now possible to download and send diagnostic files directly to the Voyantic support team through the admin panel. This helps speed up troubleshooting and resolution by providing our team with more accurate data with which to work. Ultimately, this reduces system downtime and takes the headache out of maintenance.

In summary

In the future, online connectivity of the new Tagsurance 3 version will open new business opportunities with the comprehensive management of quality data. Today, online connectivity improves usability and maintenance. It simplifies tasks, adds more features to the user interface, and provides a more efficient way to share information directly with Voyantic.

That said, online connectivity is still optional. Version 4.x systems can also operate offline like the 3.x systems. If you prefer to stay offline, you can still upload software releases and license files from a local computer through the admin panel.

Watch the recording below, where our Senior Product Manager Anirudh Wali demonstrates how the updated user interface and new features work in practice.

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Presenting the New Snoop Pro 2.0

Mar 05, 2025

We continuously seek to improve our products to answer your needs, like making your job easier with user-friendly test systems or improving testing quality. This time, we made some nice improvements to Snoop Pro, one of the components used in the Tagsurance 3 system. The Snoop Pro 2.0 has:

  • Improved unit-to-unit RF performance variance
  • Integrated strobe feature
  • Smaller size and better usability

The improvements were made with backward compatibility in mind to make Snoop Pro 2.0 almost a drop-in replacement for Snoop Pro 1.x, which means:

  • RF backward compatibility: when testing tags/inlays, the test results with Snoop Pro 2.0 are within the test results variance of Snoop Pro 1.x
  • Mechanical backward compatibility: Snoop Pro 2.0 has the machine integration attachment holes at the same positions as Snoop Pro 1.x, and also the same shielding plates can be used

Let’s check it out.

Improved RF performance variation with RF backward compatibility

I’m starting with the RF performance because I just love RF. A nice new feature for the Snoop Pro 2.0 is the improved variance, making the produced units more uniform in RF performance. This means that if you test one tag with multiple different Snoop Pro 2.0, the results are very similar.

A line graph with green and black text

Description automatically generated
Illustrated example of the RF backwards performance.

Why is this so nice? I’m so glad I asked. It’s nice because if you want to use identical recipes for different production lines or even factories, the Snoop variance does not prevent doing that. So, better testing quality for your products. However, keep in mind that Snoop is only one of the components in the system; other things, such as the environment near the Snoop or cabling, might still have too much effect.

One of the most important requirements was the RF backwards compatibility so one can replace a Snoop Pro 1.x with the Snoop Pro 2.0 and be done with it. Our definition of RF backwards compatibility is as follows:

  • With the Snoop Pro 2.0, measured results are within the variance of Snoop Pro 1.x results OR within ±1.0 dB from the center of the Snoop Pro 1.x result envelope average

The difficult part is that the Snoop is always used with a tag/inlay on top of it and together they form a complex structure where every part plays a role. Since all tags/inlays are different and are affecting the Snoop differently, an excessive amount of measurements was performed to make sure we have covered most of the imaginable situations. Especially large tag models couple with the Snoop strongly and have an effect on the performance. Bah, physics and its precious laws.

Voyantic offers different kind of extensions for Snoops and those are compatible with the Snoop Pro 2.0. However, for the extensions there is no backwards compatibility in RF performance even though the results are close.

Integrated strobe feature

The Snoop Pro 2.0 has a built-in strobe functionality that can be turned on/off with a switch. White LEDs illuminate the trigger position (the moment when the testing/encoding starts), and red LEDs show tags/inlays that are failing the tests.

With the strobe light coming from below the material under test, the strobe is more effective than when the light comes from above. In a Tagsurance 3 system, the Snoop strobe shares a station connector with a TSU, so there’s no need to configure a new station to get it working. The Snoop Pro 2.0 can also be used without connecting the strobe cable; it does not affect the RF performance. The new RJ45 connector was added for the strobe functionality (don’t be fooled by the connector; no ethernet traffic there).

New size, looks, and usability

The Snoop Pro 2.0 no longer wears green; it now has a black-and-white appearance and a slightly reduced size. The new color was picked because of the integrated strobe functionality; white reflects the most light, which is essential for the strobe.

Snoop Pro 2.0 appearance.

With a careful redesign, we could replace the large external RF splitter and the two blue RF cables, making the size of the Snoop more compact. This helps a bit when trying to fit many Snoops in a multilane system where the space is limited.

The magnets were also renewed so less force is needed to change the shielding plate and you don’t not accidentally rip off the copper gaskets during the changing. Less hassle is always nice.

Conclusion

With the backwards compatibility, you can easily integrate the new Snoop Pro 2.0 to your testing systems. With the strobe integrated into the Snoop it is easy to use and doesn’t require additional configuration in the Tagsurance 3 recipe. The improved unit-to-unit variance allows you to more easily use identical recipes between lanes. All with the new Snoop Pro 2.0.

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Voyantic Launches a New Version of Tagsurance® 3 System With Cloud-Based Features

Feb 28, 2025

Voyantic announces the launch of a new version of Tagsurance 3 system, an inline quality testing system for RFID tag production. The launch of Tagsurance 3 Version 4.x marks a significant upgrade to the previous version 3.x systems with exciting new capabilities and enhanced usability. This release introduces cloud-based features and lays the groundwork for future functionalities, including encoding operations using the same setup. 

The new Tagsurance 3 Version 4.x architecture is designed with the future in mind, unlocking powerful cloud-enabled features. The online connectivity streamlines maintenance work by enabling effortless software updates, simplified license renewals, and enhanced support: diagnostic data can be shared directly with the Voyantic support team for faster troubleshooting and minimized downtime. With this version, Voyantic recommends keeping Tagsurance 3 systems always online to fully leverage the benefits and ensure maximum system efficiency. 

Tagsurance 3 Version 4.x also introduces a new browser-based user interface, allowing operators to access the system conveniently from any computer. This eliminates the need for certain peripherals and allows users to connect to the system via a web browser for an intuitive and modernized user experience.

The update also provides a more compact hardware setup, reducing the footprint of controller racks. The new version uses the upgraded Lane Controller 2.0 and the new Server Panel.

Tagsurance 3 Version 4.0 offers backward-compatible APIs that ensure seamless integration with existing systems, safeguarding previous investments and reducing implementation time. Recipes created in previous Tagsurance 3 Version 3.x systems will also continue to work seamlessly, enabling a smooth transition without disrupting existing workflows.

Contact sales@voyantic.com for more information about upgrading your existing Tagsurance 3 system or starting your journey with Voyantic towards improved tag quality.

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Managing RAIN RFID Production Quality

Nov 03, 2017

中文版 Chinese version

RAIN RFID use has grown rapidly and implementations are expanding. Nowadays RFID is business as usual and quality management is an essential part of normal business operations. In past few years the RFID industry has learned a lot about quality management methods and processes. In my opinion there is still room for improvement. Quality really matters in RAIN tag manufacturing as high readability of tags is expected practically in all applications. In this text I describe how some quality management principles relate to tag manufacturing.

Continual Improvement in RFID Tag Manufacturing


One of the key principles in ISO 9000 quality standard series is continual improvement and accordingly

  • quality must be measured;
  • results need to be analyzed; and
  • operations will be improved.

There are two ways to look at the quality:

1 – Quality of design is measured against the properties (e.g. features, functionalities, performance) the supplier intends to deliver to the customer. Improvements can be driven for example by new kind of customer requirements, changes in competing products and availability of new components.

Typical performance measures for RAIN tags are sensitivity/read range and orientation pattern, performance on different materials (tagged items) and in proximity of other tags. Additionally, for example memory options, command support, mechanical design and dimensions and durability are ingredients of design quality.

Improving Quality of design is responsibility of the R&D and usually requires new product development, e.g. modifying the antenna geometry. Improvement cycles are relatively long.

2 – Quality of manufacturing describes how much variation there is in performance of the key properties compared to the defined design quality.

In RAIN tags the typical measure of quality is sensitivity. For example: Sensitivity of the tag attached to PVC plastic, with 915MHz frequency is -20dBm +/- 0.5dB. In this example the -20dBm is design quality and +/-0.5dB is variation describing manufacturing quality.

In managing Quality of manufacturing the performance is measured by the quality organization and corrective actions can be implemented very quickly.

The basic methods for controlling quality in tag manufacturing are sample testing and continuous in-line testing.

RAIN Tag Manufacturing Quality Control

One single solution doesn’t fit all RAIN tag manufacturing processes, but the principles of applying either sample testing using an off-line tester or implementing the tester into the production machines to enable 100% in-line testing are universal.

Sample Based Testing

For example, with 100,000 tags daily production, 99% confidence level with 2% margin of error requires about 4,000 tags to be tested. In practice, 1-2 tested tag rolls per day per manufacturing line would be the statistically valid sample size. Voyantic Reelsurance handles the testing automatically after the testing is initialized. Several rolls per day can be tested with one machine, and the system produces full quality logs. Reelsurance is an example of an off-line reel-to-reel tester capable of testing RAIN tags either in inlay or label form. The testing capability is based on integrated Tagsurance tester.

100% Testing and Quality Log

Voyantic Tagsurance tester can also be integrated with various manufacturers’ chip attach, converting or personalization machines enabling 100% testing.

The testing creates a log file that can include TID and EPC codes of the tested tags, as well as test results. This is a handy tool for communicating 100% test results. The data can be used for finding out statistical information from the manufacturing quality: variation, standard deviation, percentiles, mean values.

Real-time Visibility to Production Quality

When information is available for the production line operator real time, it is easy to see when quality starts to deviate, and corrective actions can be taken immediately, without sacrificing production yield.

RFID Tag Manufacturing and Six Sigma

A typical output from a tag manufacturing process used to be skewed normal distribution with additional second peak as shown in the picture across wide frequency band: the “stray” tags made it impossible to implement Six Sigma to the letter. Instead, deviating tags can be sorted out, and Six Sigma limits may be used for the remaining part.

Developments in new RFID chips have changed the situation. Some tag models can be manufactured with normal distributed sensitivity variation. It is possible to implement Six Sigma quality control, maybe with 4-sigma limits to start with.

Contact us to arrange an online demo and to discuss more about quality control in RAIN RFID tag manufacturing!

A picture of Tagsurance 3 software in action.

Quality Testing Solution for RFID Label Production

Tagsurance 3 is the next-generation quality control solution for high-speed RFID inlay and label production lines.

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Testing Requirements of NFC/RAIN RFID Dual Frequency Labels in Production

Jan 09, 2017

中文版 Chinese version

There are applications, where fast data collection and high read distances of RAIN RFID (UHF) tags fulfill the overall application requirements only partially. Especially the missing capability of a consumer to easily access the tag contents limits the usability for marketing, product information and authentication purposes. A NFC tag would remove that limitation but also induce additional costs and complexity to the label finishing stages: double encoding and possible data compliance verification between these two tags. Interestingly the first IC chip with both high frequency (HF) and ultra-high frequency (UHF) communication interface was launched in 2015 by EM Microelectronics. In this text I will take a closer look at the quality aspects of dual interface tags: How do you verify that each tag produced meets its specification?

Is It Sufficient to Test the Performance of Either Interface to Guarantee the Performance of the Tag?

Let’s dig into the tag structure a bit to understand more detailed where the performance comes from. The chip itself is one complete entity with two interfaces for each frequency. This allows conveniently accessing the memory locations of the chip through either HF/NFC interface using for example your mobile phone, or through UHF interface by for example the retail in-store inventory system. On the inlay level there are still two separate antennas; one that is used for HF coupling and the other for UHF field communication. Both of these antenna structures are connected to the IC through separate chip I/Os. Below we can see an example of such a tag design from Lab ID:

There is certainly some coherence in the process quality for both interfaces, as the antennas are both processed simultaneously, and a single chip is assembled to work with both, but is it enough to guarantee the good performance for both if only one interface is tested? Based on some further analysis on possible failure mechanisms, the answer to the question is

No, it is not!

NFC and RAIN Performance on a Dual Interface Label Needs to be Separately Tested

We ran some tests using both Tagsurance UHF and Tagsurance HF testers to identify less sensitive tags from a roll of dual frequency tag samples. The test setup for testing dual frequency tags consists of two separate Snoop Pro coupling elements – one for UHF testing and one for HF testing – and a Tagsurance unit connected to each of them.

One graphical user interface handles both testing units and gathers the test results and read data from each tag in a combined log file. Based on this information we were able to identify tags with lower performance either on UHF communication or in HF communication. In many failed samples the performance had decreased in both interfaces. In the graphs below we can see the UHF performance on upper graph and the HF performance on lower graph for a normal tag (white curve) and for a tag with decreased performance (red).

This is not always the case though, as we could also identify tags where one interface was performing good, but the other one was either not functional at all, or the performance was just significantly lower compared to normal level of variation in the sample set. In the graphs below there’s the UHF performance and the HF performance of four tags; one normal (white curve), one with decreased UHF performance and normal HF performance (blue) and one with decreased HF performance and normal UHF performance (green). There you can also find one tag with decreased UHF performance and HF performance slightly better than the typical tag (orange).

NFC/RAIN RFID Combo Test Solution Is Available

As always with disruptive new technology, it takes some time for the components and new manufacturing technologies to fully mature. As this brief study shows, the performance of either interface can vary independently of each other, even if they are integrated on the same IC. Therefore both interfaces should be tested in production.

Voyantic provides turn-key solutions for testing of all your RFID production. With our equipment you can test your RAIN RFD tag; HF/NFC tags with ISO 15693, ISO 14443A, ISO 14443B, Felica and ISO 18000 3M3 protocol; and dual frequency tags. We would be happy to tell you more and tailor the best suited solution for your exact requirements!

Download our new Application Note about testing of UHF, HF/NFC and dual frequency tags, giving a detailed understanding on the equipment and test setup used in production. Contact us to learn more!

Learn How to Test Dual Frequency Tags

Download our application note to learn how to get things right the first time when testing UHF RFID, HF/NFC and dual frequency tags!

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Downgrading Your Spec Does Not Make a Quality Tag – Thoughts About RFID Quality

Jul 08, 2016

中文版 Chinese version

I work as the CEO of Voyantic, a company that specializes in RFID test and measurement equipment. Since our systems are used by hundreds of companies around the world, we often come across cases where a customer needs our help to verify that their tags work as they should. This is a story about a case where things went wrong.

Tagging Athletes in Cross-country Skiing

We got involved with a very interesting case a couple of years ago. A small RFID integrator that we have known for some time wanted to tag athletes in a cross-country skiing competition. The idea was to use RFID for timing the race. And you can guess that if someone spends several hours on the ski track, being left without a race time is definitely not an option.

Cross-country skiing is a healthy hobby and also a good application for RFID timing – Photo by Sorbis / Shutterstock.com

There are many different ways to tag athletes in timing solutions. Common approaches in running competitions include integrating the RFID tags to the race bibs or attaching them to the shoes of the runners. However, in this case, the chosen approach was to buy wrist-band tags and to attach them to the ankles of the skiers. The tags were read by fixed readers that were set up on the side of the tracks.

The integrator went through the specifications of several different wrist-band tags and finally contacted a fairly well known maker of specialty tags for some samples. The samples arrived the following week, and the integrator ran some field tests. Everything worked well. He was able to detect every skier that passed the reader antenna.

So the integrator decided to order the tags that he needed for his application. Once again, there was a timely delivery of correct amount of tags. However, when he started to build the application, he noticed that not all of the tags were working. A typical discussion between an unsatisfied customer and a worried supplier followed.

The conclusion was that all the supplied tags worked according to the specification.

The tag manufacturer tested both working and non-working tags attached to the wrist of whoever they considered to be their standard-human. All tags were readable from a distance of 2 m which was the specification. But they didn’t all work in the end application. How is this possible?

Analysis

We got involved with the case at this point. We were asked to take a look at the tag samples to try to understand what was going on. So we ran a performance test for the tags using the Tagformance measurement system. The results from the Threshold Sweep measurement are shown below.

Performance variations of wrist-band UHF RFID tags measured with the Tagformance system

We tested the tags in free air, so they were not attached to a wrist or an ankle. But even in this setup it is clearly visible that there are significant variations in the tuning and performance of the tags. So this is what we think happened:

  1. The integrator decided to use the tags differently from what the manufacturer had specified
  2. The first samples sent by the tag manufacturer performed clearly above the spec
  3. The integrator concluded that this tag will work in the application
  4. The next tag batch – even though still within the original spec – performed differently
  5. A part of the tags didn’t work.

So, it is very hard to point fingers in this case. But there is something that the RFID industry needs to improve in. The industry is already doing a decent job in reporting the performance of their tags, e.g. in expected read range. But I think there is a lot to improve in how performance variations are reported, because that is a key factor in building reliable RFID systems.

And what happened with the skiing competition? Did the integrator get the system to work? He did. But he had to manually test through the tags and hand-pick the ones that worked well enough. Hardly a perfect outcome but every skier got their time.

My company Voyantic specializes in test and measurement solutions for the RFID industry. Are you interested to learn more about RFID quality control? Download our sample quality test report and contact us.

White Paper: How to Minimize Quality Variation in RAIN RFID and NFC Smart Label Manufacturing

Learn the practical effects of quality variation and how to minimize it.

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This Doesn’t Look Right – Should I Contact Technical Support?

Dec 11, 2015

What do you do if, one morning, a new light with some strange symbol is suddenly lit on your car’s dashboard? You probably pull over and start browsing the car owner manual. You may be a little worried. Did I do something wrong? Can I fix this myself, or does the car need to be serviced? How long will I need to survive without my car?
In the same way, your Tagformance, the RFID test system that you typically use every day may have a problem you need to solve. You may already be an experienced user, or maybe you have just recently started to work with the system. When a new error message pops up or you get unexpected measurement results, it’s just like with your car. What’s wrong? Should I contact Voyantic Technical Support?

The answer to the last question is yes. You should.

*‘No such thing as a stupid question’ is a common phrase with a long history, and it makes perfect sense to me. *

If you have a problem with anything, and there is a possibility to get it solved quickly by asking someone who can help you, why shouldn’t you? The one who asks the “stupid question” may be doing a service to everyone, including the vendor, by pointing out a visible improvement to the product.

Here are some more or less typical situations where you might wonder if you should contact the vendor or just carry on. Uncertainty: You are performing measurements that look nice and smooth, but deep down, you are still wondering whether the results are correct? Is there some bias in the device? Am I measuring the right way? By contacting Voyantic Technical Support, we can verify if the device is OK by comparing the reference tag measurement results with the same measurement setup. We can also measure your sample tags and give a second opinion of the results and maybe give pointers on what else you can measure from your tags.

Differences between sites: You may have a colleague in the next room or on the other side of the globe doing the same measurements that you are. The equipment may be the same, the setup may be identical, but still, your results don’t match completely. For example, you get a theoretical read range value of 11 meters, and your colleague measures 10 meters. One meter sounds like a lot, but is it after all? By looking at the measurement data, we can verify whether the difference is something to worry about, or if it fits into production variation and typical measurement accuracy. Other factors, such as temperature, may cause a difference. The effect of temperature is described in more detail in an Application Note, which can be downloaded here. While visiting the site, you may find other Application Notes worth reading too.

Missing features: Different Tagformance measurement options are enabled with the license file. We can create license files where any measurement option can be enabled for a given time. So, if you think that one or more options could be useful for your work, we can enable the option for a trial period. To name a few;

  • Scripter is a great tool to automate your daily measurement routines and reduce the human error from the results.
  • The Tagformance has two Application Programming Interfaces, APIs, that enable you to write your software that uses the Tagformance device. The LabVIEW API is a perfect match for LabVIEW users, and the DLL API serves users of other programming languages.
  • Memory management is a brand new tool for one of the hot topics, sensor tags, for example. With Memory management, it is possible to verify changes of any memory address content within seconds.

Memory Management

All this said, do not hesitate to contact us! In most cases, it is a win-win situation where you will get your problem solved or a question answered, and we get valuable feedback, which will help us in making our products even better. We are here to help you – send us a message!

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How to Optimize the Cost of Quality for UHF Tags?

Sep 25, 2015

When talking about high-end RFID performance testing solutions, I sometimes face the situation, where my customer is struggling to find room for the investment in their budget. After some return on investment (ROI) calculation, the case typically looks much brighter.

If we look at the overall quality cost structure in UHF tag manufacturing, I will dare to claim that, in many cases, even a single batch of poor quality can justify the ROI for decent RFID test equipment. The challenge here is though that the costs of being able to provide excellent and consistent quality are directly addressed to the production. In contrast, the charges induced from poor quality are inconspicuously scattered all around the corporate structure.

Where do I base the claim? Let me show you!

First of all, to lower the cost of poor quality, you need to invest in preventing failures and maintaining excellent quality. The great thing here is, though, that you get much more than your money back. If done right, each penny you invest is multiplied as savings in failure costs. This is how you balance the scale and minimize your total costs.

Let’s Do Some Math!

When a quality issue is found in the production, how much does it cost for an engineering team to troubleshoot, or a machine to stand by waiting for the next production batch to be started? I’m sure you know the figures better than I do, but what I do know is these problems take some hours to be solved, sometimes even days. I also know that the one-hour machine downtime in chip attachment makes at least 10 000 tags less manufactured. For a label converting process, it may be ten times more.

What if the problem was not detected when manufacturing the tags, but in an inspection process that was done on the batch afterward? How big is your typical batch? 100 000 tags? 5 000 000 inlays? In the worst case, you need to multiply that with the number of batches produced and with material costs per tag, and add on top of the engineering work and machine downtime.

Ok, now you just need to rework the whole batch, which means again capacity loss, as the machine time is used to reproduce what already was supposed to be delivered. The ball keeps rolling, and you’ll end up with shortages in your next deliveries, delays that cause inconvenience to the customers, and a headache to the management, sales, and customer support. So, just add up the machine time for rework, management, and support time, as well as customer dissatisfaction with the earlier equation.

Now, we are starting to talk about costs that are far more difficult to quantify. Customer satisfaction…

What if the defected batch didn’t remain as an internal issue? What if it reached the customer, who is struggling now with problems in his application? Now we’re starting to talk about external failure costs, which are not only harder to be measured, but also induce secondary effects and costs, like bad quality reputation. I know, impossible to be quantified. But if you just add the management cost due to the complaints and troubleshooting with the customer involved, and forget the fact that the customer may end up ordering his next tags from another supplier, we still have a significant pile of costs due to poor quality. Now would you believe me when I’m saying:

You Need to Balance the Scale to Minimize the Overall Cost of Quality

Unlike the above figure may suggest, the equilibrium point here would not necessarily be where the cost of poor quality equals the cost of good quality. The equilibrium point is reached when the efficient investments in the price of excellent and consistent don’t return more than their value in the costs of poor quality.

The graph below would represent an example situation, where the costs of good quality are linearly increased, resulting in considerable reductions in the price of poor quality at first. Eventually, the point is reached, where further improving the quality appraisal and failure prevention costs will not lower the failure costs as much.

If you calculate with your figures the overall cost for providing just a single batch of UHF tags with inferior quality to the customer, would you agree with me that these costs are just too high to accept frequently, or at all? This approach is only the tip of an iceberg. What eventually will happen, if the quality continuously keeps failing to meet the customer expectations, is you start losing business, surreptitiously, but deterministically.

Quality Reputation – Hard to Estimate, Easy to Forget

The quality reputation is easier to ruin than to be built. Building it from scratch takes time and effort. Trying to gain customer trust without hard evidence based on measured facts is challenging. Still, if you’re able to quantify the quality, as well as prove the quality is consistent, you’re in a wholly different position to win the customer.

We have various examples of customers who have taken the UHF tag quality seriously, all the way from design to production. There are customers like Michelin, who have decades of experience in manufacturing and quality control. They have the same approach in case of any new technologies. Why ruin the quality reputation you have successfully built for years? With Michelin, we worked on something a bit customized to be able to test tire tags that are very heavily over-tuned. Check out this interesting case study:

Michelin — Tire Tags with Consistent Quality

Customer Case Studies

What kind of figures did you come up with on your overall cost of quality? Would you like to talk more about balancing your scale as well? Please contact us, and let’s figure out how we could lower your quality costs and increase your profitability!

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