.:Texas Instruments Introduces Rugged Encapsulated Tag for Harsh Process Environments :.

February 5th, 2007

Texas Instruments Incorporated today introduced its Overmolded (OM) transponder family comprised of the most rugged RFID tags in its portfolio of ISO/IEC 15693 compliant transponders. The OM tags are designed to withstand extreme environments where temperature, high pressure and harsh chemicals inhibit the performance of line-of-sight automatic identification technologies such as bar codes and other less robust RFID tags. With their durability and small, 22mm circular dimension, TI's 13.56 MHz OM tags provide increased read performance compared with competitive offerings for applications ranging from industrial laundry and textile rental to process industries such as perishable foods.

TI's OM tags are available in two memory options: a 2K bit version with the option for higher functionality and security features, and a 256 bit version offering customers the flexibility to choose the best tag best suited to their particular application. In addition, the tag packaging is optimised for mechanical robustness so each tag can be reused hundreds of times in physically demanding environments. For example, the 13.56 MHz tags are capable of enduring more than 200 industrial laundry wash cycles.

"TI's latest RFID transponders with solid overmoulded casing are effective in one of the harshest applications that RFID is used for: laundry," said Jeff Markman, president of positek, a leading RFID systems integrator for laundry applications. "The extended read range enabled by the 22mm size provides for more efficient reading of large bundles of clothing."

TI's 2k bit overmolded tag is already at work in various applications including the tracking of 130,000 staff garments in the laundry service at one of Norway's top hospitals, St. Olavs University Hospital in Trondheim. A case study on this application is now available. Please click here.

In addition, a milk producer is currently using TI's 2K bit OM tag to identify test vials of milk samples for controlling and tracking the complete chain of quality inspection. Each vial includes an RFID transponder and must be correctly identified as it passes through a number of safety checks in a variety of harsh testing environments. Using TI's tags, the accuracy and safety of these checks are increased, and the reusability of the tag makes it more cost-effective.

"The durability of TI's new overmolded transponder, combined with the flexibility of two memory options and improved read performance, enables companies to select the best tag for their specific application and work environment," said Ulrich Denk, RFID product marketing manager for TI.

The 13.56 MHz Overmolded RFID tags are available in a read/write format and are compatible with the ISO/IEC 15693 and ISO/IEC 18000-3 global standards.

ABOUT TEXAS INSTRUMENTS RFID SYSTEMS

Texas Instruments is the world's largest integrated manufacturer of radio frequency identification (RFID) transponders and reader systems. Capitalising on its competencies in high-volume semiconductor manufacturing and microelectronics packaging, TI is a visionary leader and at the forefront of establishing new markets and international standards for RFID applications.

Texas Instruments Incorporated provides innovative DSP and analog technologies to meet our customers real world signal processing requirements. In addition to Semiconductor, the company includes the Educational & Productivity Solutions business. TI is headquartered in Dallas, Texas and has manufacturing, design or sales operations in more than 25 countries. Texas Instruments is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TXN.

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