NXP enables best-in-class UHF performance in RFID supply chain apps

SINGAPORE: NXP Semiconductors N.V. announced the launch of the UCODE 7 UHF IC, which sets a new industry standard for performance, versatility and speed in RFID supply chain applications.

Working with key players in the industry including Avery, Motorola Solutions and Zebra, NXP has produced a best-in-class solution that delivers consistently high performance in all global markets, reinforcing the company’s leadership in UHF chips.

UCODE 7 establishes its best-in-class credentials in three key areas:

Global versatility – UCODE 7 enables the creation of RFID labels and tags that can be used across different regions operating at different frequency ranges. This means that manufacturers and retailers can maintain consistently high performance using the same label or tag across the entire global supply chain, significantly reducing operating costs.

Higher sensitivity – UCODE 7’s higher sensitivity enables both smaller tag designs with equal performance to current tag geometries – which means that retailers and suppliers can tag much smaller items – and for current tag geometries to be read from a much greater distance. It also means that inventory management and stock-taking becomes easier and quicker, even in harsh RFID- environments.

Fastest encoding – UCODE 7 delivers the fastest encoding capability on the market, with 100 items programmed in a matter of milliseconds. This unprecedented level of performance can significantly increase throughput when encoding apparel, shoes, pharmaceuticals and other items in manufacturing and distribution centers or in-store; enabling high-speed brand protection and tracking processes.

“Our new inlay products with the UCODE 7 combine flexibility of size and performance to provide retailers more options for their media developments,” said Rick Bauer, VP, global inventory accuracy and loss prevention from Avery Dennison.

“Our early testing with retailers has been very positive with the NXP UCODE 7. This new chip improves global RFID inlay performance across two major frequency bands with minimal loss of performance. We have found this chip to be very versatile in its performance and application to existing designs and our ability to facilitate new designs. Finally, the higher read/write performance is opening up new smaller design opportunities for a wider array of application categories and use cases. We are very pleased with our new inlay portfolio using the UCODE 7 and our partnership with NXP.”

“In our testing, UCODE 7 demonstrated a significant improvement in all-around performance, including read and write sensitivity as well as very high write speeds," said Mike Poldino, VP, product management, data capture solutions, Motorola Solutions. "The high performance of UCODE 7 is well-suited to today's demanding applications where smaller tag form factors are expected to replace larger tags, but where performance must not be compromised."

"Zebra is proud to fully support NXP's new UCODE 7-based tags in our seamless chip-based serialization capable RFID printer/encoder platform," said Michael Fein, senior product manager RFID, Zebra Technologies. "In addition to fully integrating MCS (Multi-vendor Chip-based Serialization) support for the new chip, Zebra printer/encoders also support NXP's Parallel Encode feature. NXP's new state-of-the-art UCODE 7 silicon, together with Zebra's industry-leading RFID printing/encoding solutions, is taking UHF tag encoding to a whole new level of efficiency, accuracy and throughput."

“Modern supply chains stretch across continents, so it is important that RFID tags can deliver reliable performance in every region and across the different global frequency bands,” said Rutger Vrijen, VP and GM, business line RFID Tagging, NXP Semiconductors. “UCODE 7 makes this possible by being the absolute best-in-class UHF tag IC on the market, with the industry’s highest sensitivity, allowing for high performance across a very broad frequency range. In addition, UCODE 7 has the fastest encoding speed, leading to significant productivity and cost-of-ownership gains for our customers.”

Sample ICs and labels with UCODE 7 are available today, with high volume shipments starting end of May 2013.