News

EM announces smallest multipurpose RFID chip with longest reading range
More on this news or product: EM4205/4305
The EM4205/4305 launches a new generation of low-frequency RFID ICs;

MARIN, Switzerland – May 7, 2007 – EM Microelectronic, a semiconductor company of the Swatch Group, announces the EM4205/4305, a new generation of low-frequency RFID ICs, designed to fulfill the specific needs of animal identification, waste management, industrial logistics and access control applications.

This ISO 11784/11785 compliant transponder chip perfectly meets existing and future livestock requirements, offering an unparalleled reading range. The EM4305 version of the circuit comes with enlarged pads and gold bumps.

"The extended reading range and extremely small chip size, well below 1 mm2, make the EM4205/4305 ideal for the animal identification industry," explains Mougahed Darwish, president of the management board of EM Microelectronic. “This IC is a perfect choice for cost-sensitive applications requiring high performance."

Livestock RFID tagging, increasingly driven by legislation, guarantees accurate traceability and veterinary monitoring of animals. “The EM4205/4305 is currently the best value on the market for that application," says Darwish. By 2010, the estimated market for tagging sheep, goats, pigs and cows is larger than 150 million tags for Europe and New Zealand alone, representing an annual turnover of EUR 225 million.

Product Features
ISO data integrity is critical to most animal identification applications. The EM4205/4305 prevents unauthorized modifications of this data, and its manufacturing process protects against data loss due to UV light. Extra user-programmable memory is available to log application specific information such as medicine codes, dates or owner-related data. The memory content can be password protected for integrity and/or confidentiality purposes. For pigeon race applications, this circuit has optimal fraud protection features including a 32-bit unique identifier that enables traceability, e-pedigree and product authentication.

The size of the EM4205/4305 facilitates smallest form factors for the final transponder (i.e. glass tube transponders) minimizing the impact on the animals. Compliance to the ISO 11784/11785 standard helps industries and researchers maintain consistency and equipment interoperability.

The chip can be configured alternatively with the FDX-B protocol for livestock applications, and can be set up to Manchester data encoding with RF/64 data rate and a configuration bit for pigeon races. The EM4205/4305 is backward compliant with the EM4569.

Other Applications and Benefits
Beyond animal identification applications, the ICs are configurable for Bi-Phase data encoding in order to be compliant for example with the EN14803 waste management standard. Additionally, the EM4205/4305 fits the requirements of access control to buildings, hotel rooms or leisure parks.

Both the EM4205 and the EM4305 are powered and operated in the LF frequency range that can be used worldwide and is well known for its ability to penetrate liquids or even metallic parts. The circuits support multiple purpose data rates ranging from RF/8 down to RF/64. The chips are delivered in versions featuring 210, 250 or 330 pF resonant capacitors with accuracy better than 5%. This allows optimal performance with different antenna configurations and makes them attractive as drop-in replacements in existing applications.

Finally, the EM4305's enlarged pads with gold bumps allow transponder manufacturers to directly connect the antenna wires to the chip, without the need of a PCB, which gives them a significant edge in terms of manufacturing costs and transponder size.

Availability and Packaging
The EM4205/4305 circuits are available from EM Microelectronic and its authorized distributors. More information about this circuit is can be found here