TN0076 STMICROELECTRONICS | Alldatasheet

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Technical content

Improving PCB traceability with RFID technology Benefits of the RFID technology The RFID technology is successfully being used in a variety of applications such as mass transit ticketing, library asset management, logistics, anti-counterfeiting, e-passport and contactless banking. It is also the right solution for improving traceability, supply chain visibility, counterfeiting prevention, and easing the scanning process. The key benefits of RFID lie in a non line-of-sight, rewrite capability. Moreover, the RFID tags do not need any battery to operate, which makes their lifetime and cost attractive. Most electronics designers who know the technology understand that they can turn their application into an RFID reader by either using an OEM reader module or a reader IC such as STMicroelectronics’ CRX14. This gives them the capability of reading RFID tags. However, few know that they actually can add the RFID tag function to their application by designing the RFID chip and the antenna directly on the printed-circuit board (PCB). Each PCB is then identified with a so-called UID, which is a factory-programmed-and-locked unique identifier that follows the ISO 15963 numbering standard. RFID tag ICs also come with different user memory sizes, usually EEPROM memory. They can be used as means of storing and tracking many types of information:

  • bill of material
  • board revision
  • firmware version
  • schematics and layout file information
  • documentation link
  • date code
  • manufacturing plant
  • manufacturing flow
  • key process characteristics
  • end product type
  • warranty/return information
  • repair and upgrade history
  • customer information
  • anti-tamper information Thanks to the EEPROM and the RFID technologies, this information can be programmed and updated throughout the entire manufacturing process and beyond. In this way, you can keep track of what happens to a PCB from its manufacturing to the end of its life. If the board is going to be refurbished and upgraded, you will know it.

STMicroelectronics’ RFID products STMicroelectronics offers a wide range of RFID tag ICs that covers the HF (13.56 MHz) and UHF (800-950 MHz) frequency bands and offers a user memory whose capacity goes from a few hundreds to several tens of thousands of bits. The LR (long-range) series, based on the ISO 15693 standard, and the SR (short-range) series, based on the ISO 14443-B standard, both operate at 13.56 MHz. LR and SR devices are particularly well suited to PCB traceability applications because they:

  • offer well contained read ranges
  • allow a simple and straightforward antenna design
  • are used in many industries
  • are interoperable with a wide range of readers STMicroelectronics’ RFID products are ideal for PCB traceability applications owing to the combination of key features:
  • best-in-class read ranges
  • high-reliability and -endurance memory
  • availability in different capacitance values for a wide choice of antenna sizes
  • availability in different forms, including UFDFPN8 (MLP8)
  • wide range of memory sizes

Revision history

Table 1. Document revision history 25-Mar-2009 1 Initial release.