Element – RFID Immunity Testing with Voyantic

Element is a materials testing and product qualification test company that specializes in testing to regulatory and compliance specifications from around the world.

“We exist to ensure that the materials and products that are in use in some of the world’s most advanced sectors are always safe; of marketable quality; compliant to all relevant industry standards and most of all are fit for purpose in their end application. What we ultimately deliver is “Certainty” to those industries where failure simply is not an option. The product qualification group of Element specializes in testing medical, information technology, military, wireless, and other cutting-edge equipment.” explains Jeremiah Darden, Operations Manager of Element.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags are intelligent “barcodes” that can talk wirelessly to track products or equipment through a networked system in large warehouses or buildings. With the proliferation of these RFID systems, the RFID immunity standard provides specialized guidance on the testing of non-implantable medical devices to determine if they are immune to wireless signals from RFID systems. This is performed to ensure medical devices will not malfunction in the presence of RFID signals to avoid patient harm or discomfort.

The RFID immunity test system is made up of a Radio Frequency Electromagnetic Anechoic Chamber, a radio frequency vector signal generator, antennas, radio frequency probe, radio frequency amplifier, power meters, and software to control the RFID signals. Voyantic’s software is the driving force behind the RFID immunity test. It creates and controls the signals within the vector signal generator to reproduce the same signals specified by the compliance standards.

“Voyantic was an established leader in developing RFID software and led the development for RFID signal generator/analyzer that was used in the AIM RFID Immunity test standard. Their knowledge and expertise allowed them to create the software with short lead times and met our specific needs.” says Jeremiah Darden, and continues: “Element is one of the few test labs that can perform the RFID Immunity testing due to the specialized equipment and software that is required. This has expanded our test capabilities and made Element more of a “one-stop-shop” when customers need a suite of medical compliance testing.”

“Element is very pleased with the software performance and support we’ve received from Voyantic. Our delivery times were met and Voyantic was able to take Element’s software requirements and develop a user-friendly piece of RFID signal generation software that worked with publicly available hardware. In addition, Voyantic has taken our suggestions and added features with each software release that speeds up the testing for our customers.”

“Element was able to offer a new suite of compliance test without investing in all new hardware which was a significant cost saving. We are now able to offer testing across 5 locations, so our customers have a similar experience with consistent test methods.”