Already available in Smartrac’s Belt inlays since July 2018, NXP’s UCODE 8 is the latest generation of the company’s UCODE family of RAIN RFID products and enables superior read distances and faster inventory counts for high volumes of items. The IC features a “SELF ADJUST” function that optimizes its sensitivity to achieve maximum performance in different environments. UCODE 8 also has an integrated Brand Identifier function and a memory safeguard system.

Smartrac’s new MiniWeb and DogBone inlays – as well as the Belt inlay – fully leverage the features that make the UCODE platform stand out, offering optimum performance for their size and exceptional suitability for a wide range of applications. These comprise item-level retail and logistics applications, particularly in areas such as brand protection, inventory accuracy, loss prevention or enhanced customer experiences. The special inlay antenna designs meet RF requirements for close coupling.

Innovation and end-user value as common goals

“NXP’s UCODE 8 RAIN RFID IC offers best-in-class RF performance and enables exceptionally fast and accurate inventory of dense RFID tag populations – features that our customers have come to expect from the leading provider of contactless solutions,” said Markus Staeblein, Vice President and General Manager for Secure Mobility and Retail at NXP. “Our legacy of developing high performance RFID solutions combined with Smartrac’s expertise in designing high-quality inlays and tags, has created an advanced inlay solution that underscores our common goal of providing industrial customers with the absolute best in RAIN RFID solutions today.”

“It’s another big step forward that we can now incorporate one of the most advanced ICs in the market, UCODE 8, into two additional RAIN RFID products. With our new MiniWeb and DogBone inlays, we are further strengthening our long-term partnership with NXP. In today’s connected world we are pleased that we can offer greatly enhanced inlay performance to keep pace with the constantly evolving demand for increased data integrity and accuracy. This will benefit all of our customers in areas such as retail, logistics, industry and more,” said Hal Hikita, Senior Vice President, Product Management at Smartrac.

Full traceability and quality assurance from Smartrac’s products

Like all applicable transponder products manufactured by Smartrac, MiniWeb and DogBone with NXP UCODE 8 also benefit from the capabilities of Smart Cosmos^®, Smartrac’s Internet of Things platform, which records and manages a complete set of unique transponder data (e.g. UID no., order no., batch no. or yield) at production level in a controlled and secure way. As the backbone of Smartrac’s IoT solutions, Smart Cosmos enables full traceability of delivered RFID products and provides fully reliable quality assurance.

Smartrac MiniWeb with NXP UCODE 8 is the smallest inlay currently available on the market that has passed ARC categories I and K requirements for ETSI retail performance, as defined by the RFID Research Center of the University of Auburn. Category I indicates the product is suitable for applications such as home goods and merchandising areas with a greater demand of RF performance than typical retail apparel applications. MiniWeb has a die-cut size of 45 x 18 mm (1.7 x 0.7 in), while DogBone has a die-cut size of 97 x 27 mm (3.8 x 1.1 in).

Both RFID products will be offered in paper tag, dry or wet inlay format and are available in high-volume quantities by Q4/2018.