Avery Dennison launches new dual-frequency RFID inlay for industrial and healthcare applications
The Avery Dennison Corporation (Mentor, Ohio) has recently launched another addition to its expanding dual-frequency (DF) range of RFID inlays, which provides combined NFC (HF) and RAIN RFID (UHF) functionality for cost-effective item-level tagging in a slimmed-down form factor.
The new AD Slim DF EM4425 tag is designed for logistics, medical and industrial use cases while also offering customer engagement features. Based on Avery Dennison’s successful Dual Frequency product line, the inlay is reported to combine excellent performance with a unique dual-frequency capability. Operating in both HF and UHF RFID frequency ranges, it delivers significant cost advantages compared to using two separate, single-frequency inlays.
Dual-frequency provides shared memory functionality, which allows both UHF and HF protocols to update product information in real time. This enables powerful all-in-one solutions for inventory management and product authentication, enabling a consistent customer experience regardless of channel.
Customers can use the inlay’s RAIN RFID technology to establish a cost-effective inventory and supply chain management system. The extended read ranges of UHF enables opportunities in warehouse management, tracking valuable goods and returnable transport item use cases. In tandem, the NFC technology, powered by Avery Dennison’s atma.io connected product cloud, can be utilised for further product information, inspection, validation, or providing end user-facing information such as user manuals, assembly instructions, CO2 footprint details, Return Merchandise Authorisation (RMA) instructions, and more.
The combination of the AD Slim DF inlay with atma.io, can help customers combat product counterfeits and protect brand equity by enabling different stakeholders in the supply chain to authenticate products along the journey. Additionally, end-users can easily and securely authenticate products post-purchase to support returns and recommerce by simply tapping their NFC enabled smartphones on the product with the AD Slim DF inlay.
"AD Slim meets the needs for a wide range of medical and industrial item-level use cases. Our latest dual frequency inlays are highly cost-efficient, unlocking RFID value for inventory management applications, while enabling brands to combat counterfeits, and deliver specific consumer experiences. Powered by atma.io, companies can benefit from complete visibility of their items from source to consumer and beyond,” said Max Winograd, vice president, connected products at Avery Dennison Smartrac.
The AD Slim DF EM4425 tag has a compact form factor (74.2mm x 10.7mm), which can be easily converted into end-application usage, and is available in wet delivery format. This inlay comes with EM Microelectronic’s echo-V IC that is equipped with 2048 bits of fully shared user memory, accessible via both UHF RFID and HF frequencies, enabling the use of inexpensive, generally available readers (NFC-enabled smartphones) as supplements to dedicated UHF RFID or HF reader infrastructures.
“The AD Slim DF is an ideal option for deploying the unique benefits of our em|echo-V combined RAIN RFID – NFC chips, enabling a complete integration of the end-user experience with the supply chain, said Pierre Muller, RFID BU leader at EM Microelectronic. We are excited about the cooperation with Avery Dennison, building on our decades-long partnership to drive market innovation.”
The majority of Avery Dennison Smartrac inlays are compliant with ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management and ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management, which ensure a reliable and state-of-the-art RFID product that meets a variety of application needs, especially in healthcare and industrial environments.
Caption: Avery Dennison’s new dual-frequency RFID inlay (photo: Avery Dennison)