PowerID introduces Gen 2 battery-assisted, passive RFID Labels

PowerID, supplier of battery-assisted, passive (BAP) RFID technology, has announced the general availability of its BAP label product line utilizing the EPCglobal Class 1, Generation 2 air protocol. PowerID’s Gen 2 products combine the high performance and reliability of a BAP label with support for standards-based Gen 2 RFID readers.

The new labels address the needs of organizations that utilize an EPC Gen 2 RFID infrastructure, but find that the performance of passive RFID does not meet all of their tracking needs. Utilizing PowerID’s thin and flexible power source, PowerID’s Gen 2 labels are said to be affordable and provide high performance in challenging environments. The labels operate in the ultra high frequency (UHF) range (850-960 MHz).

’With the release of our Gen 2 labels, PowerID opens a world of opportunities to companies that have found the performance of passive RFID labels in their Gen 2 deployments limited for tagging all or some of their products,’ said Erez Kahani, PowerID’s CEO. ‘We are thrilled with our new product, which we believe will increase both the need and adoption of RFID BAP technology across a number of industries.’

PowerID's BAP labels were designed to track challenging materials – such as liquids, metal, and paper – that can negatively affect the reliability of traditional RFID technology.

The key to BAP's performance lies with PowerID's flexible battery technology, which enables readability in difficult environments while boosting the read range of the labels.

BAP provides performance that is comparable to active RFID technology, but at a lower price point and with better performance than those of passive RFID tags.

PowerID is already delivering a return on investment for customers across the globe in the freight and paper industries. The company has formed strategic partnerships with solutions providers in each of its key vertical markets to provide industry-specific RFID solutions for their customers' supply chain and asset management applications.

With support for EPCglobal Gen 2 technology, customers can leverage their existing RFID infrastructure to read BAP labels alongside passive labels without an additional investment in new equipment.

’These new EPC Gen 2-based BAP labels will enable our customers to further expand their RFID deployments across the enterprise,’ Kahani said. ‘Support for the global EPC standard also presents our channel partners with an opportunity to deploy BAP technology for an even larger universe of customers and a wider variety of applications.’

PowerID’s Gen 2 BAP labels will be available in mass quantities in Q3 2008.