The Application Development Suite is a software extension to the Tagformance Pro measurement unit making it the all around tool for UHF RFID. The suite consists of tools for verifying the performance of EPC Class1 Gen2 tags, tag populations, portals and the surrounding environment.
Application Development Suite Measurement Functions
Population Management enables addressing individual tags in tag populations. It is a standard feature of the Application Development Suite and is also available separately to supplement the Tag Designer Suite.
Population Management contains Population Editor, which is a powerful tool for managing tag populations. It can be used for inventorying tags, editing the population list and editing EPC content of tag populations as well as single tags. It also stores the TID numbers of the inventoried tags and shows the chip manufacturer and model in a readable format.
The Population Management can be used with the following measurements:
- Threshold Sweep
- Backscatter Sweep
- Orientation Sensitivity
- Read Range
- Response Test
Use Cases:
- Measure the characteristics of a single tag in a larger population
- Study how well tags perform in populations
- Inventory tag populations automatically with Population Editor
Response Test functionality – with high repetition rate of more than a hundred sensitivity measurements per second – makes it possible to track single tags in real time while moving through the portal. Select (by EPC code) command can be used to follow only one tag in tag population.
The Response Test has three different modes:
- Constant Power; uses given power and frequency
- Follow Threshold; follows the threshold transmit power of the selected tag
- Fast Response Test; follows threshold and can manage up to 400 tests per second (real time operation)
Use Cases:
- Dynamically follow the weakest tag as the population passes the portal
- Determine required reader power to achieve the desired read area
- Compare tags, tag positions and portal configurations from a reader’s point of view
The Population Analysis polls (select+query) all the tags in the tag list defined in Population Editor using different transmit power levels. Threshold power and backscatter signal strength are shown for all tags revealing the potential weakest links in the population. The weakest links can be further studied using the Response Test.
Use Cases:
- Learn how to build item level tagged pallets
- Troubleshoot configurations that have low read reliability
- Study close coupling of tags
The Interference measurement scans the given frequency range to reveal interfering inband RF activity. Continuous sweep and peak hold functions help recording the interference for extended perids of time. The signal level will reveal if the interfering transmitters are likely to pose a problem.
Use Cases:
- Detect at project planning stage the other nearby users of UHF RFID
- Monitor the channel allocation of nearby readers to select free channel slots
- Listen in reader-tag communication
- Check for abnormal interferences within a measurement lab