January 12, 2022 – Avery Dennison Smartrac has released a new dual-frequency radio frequency identification (RFID) and Near Field Communication (NFC) tag for use on metal, designed to allow companies and consumers to access and share information via UHF RFID readers, as well as with NFC-enabled smartphones.
The AD Midas Flagtag EM4425 DF tag is the second in Avery Dennison’s family of tags that employ EMMicroelectronic’s dual-frequency chip to combine UHF and 13.56 HF-NFC functionality. The tag is being sampled now by companies in the retail, healthcare and industrial sectors, while Avery Dennison works with its partners to distribute it in large volumes. The tag is expected to be made commercially available in volume at the end of the first quarter of this year, with the release date dependent on chip availability.
The first dual-frequency tag from Avery Dennison was its Belt DF RFID product line, which provides UHF and NFC in a tag with a 76-millimeter (3-inch) form factor. Both tags leverage EMMicroelectronic’s EM4425 technology, which consists of a single chip connected to two antennas, one dedicated to UHF, the other responding to interrogations compliant with ISO 15693 or ISO 14443 for HF and NFC technologies. The AD Midas Flagtag EM4425 DF offers a spacer-less, on-metal feature so that it can be applied to metal objects.
By enabling high-speed NFC or UHF encoding using a company’s UHF infrastructure, Koskelainen explains, the solution offers retailers and brands the ability to more easily enable NFC-based consumer engagement. Companies can use a single tag for inventory management, work-in-progress and logistics, while providing an NFC-enabled enhanced brand experience by linking consumers to product information, brand messaging, promotional materials and other content.