.:New Mount on Metal Tags marks biggest Gen 2 Chip order for Texas Instruments :.

October 25th, 2006

The new tag, aimed at the Korean manufacturing market, is designed to improve read rates on metal based items.

RFID component and middleware manufacturer Sontec and RFID transponder manufacturer Texas Instruments have collaborated on a mount-on-metal Gen 2 RFID tag aimed at the Korean manufacturing market. Korea is now a major producer of consumer white goods and electronics, containing metal that interferes with interrogators ability to read RFID tags. Texas Instruments says it has supplied millions of integrated-circuit chips for the new tags, which are intended to improve read rates when used on metal items. TI say they can also be used on wood, liquid products, steel and more.

The Sontec order is for 10 million chips, all of which will be delivered by the second quarter of 2007. The director of UHF retail supply chain for Texas Instruments, Jeff Kohnle states that the order is the largest for the firms Gen 2 chips. He expects the trend to continue because manufacturers are increasingly tagging their products with RFID tags to track them throughout the supply chain.

Sontec is assembling the new tags with a rigid tag mount that adheres directly to metal products. That's important, Kohnle points out, as large white goods are shipped without a carton that tags could otherwise be affixed to.

Sontec has already sold mount-on-metal tags using RFID chips from other vendors. Among its customers for these tags is one of the biggest international electronic campanies based in Korea.

The new tags with TI chips will span frequency ranges from 860 to 960 MHz. The partnership with TI will enable SonTec to mass-produce the mount-on-metal tags in its first overseas production line in Shanghai, China.  

For further information, please contact Electro-Com on 1300 130 806, sales@electrocom.com.au or visit www.electrocom.com.au .