We have all read how RFID technology has met a major milestone in 2001 by adopting international standardization. In prior years each manufacturer offered only its own proprietary protocols to communicate between its readers and transponder tags. Interoperability between equipment from different manufacturers was at best questionable and once you had selected a transponder type you were stuck using that suppliers equipment.

Interoperability would promote higher levels of competition between RFID manufacturers. What this means to the end user is multiple vendor sourcing, potentially lower cost, better quality products and incentive for each supplier to continue to improve their future products.

Today all of the manufacturers that are seriously committed to RFID technology are adopting the ISO (International Organisation for Standardization) and IEC (the International Electrotechnical Commission) specification 15693 to define the way RFID “Contactless Integrated Vicinity Cards” look and communicate.

Originally ISO 15693 was intended only to be the standard for contactless smart cards. Soon after its introduction it was further adopted by the world’s leading RFID suppliers, Texas Instruments and Philips Semiconductors, to be their guideline for future high frequency RFID transponders.

The ISO 15693 specification is broken into three main sections; (1) describes the “Physical Characteristics”, (2) describes the “Signal Interface” and (3) describes the “Transmission Protocol”

(1) - Physical Characteristics
This Physical Characteristics section describes contactless cards containing integrated circuits, which communicate through inductive coupling. It concerns itself with the environment the devices must tolerate which include physical bending and twisting, X-ray and ultra-violet susceptibility, electric and magnetic field exposure and operating temperature ranges. Another concern is the surface quality of the card for printing purposes and the location of where a slot can be cut without damaging the internal circuits.

(2) - Radio Frequency Power and Signal Interface
This Signal Interface section describes the radio transmission parameters. These include details describing the radio carrier frequencies, type and percentage of modulation, power levels, data rates, data encoding algorithms, and system timing. These parameters form the communication protocol operating between a card and its reader. This protocol defines the data link for the contactless connection, or “Air Interface”, as it is sometimes referred to.

(3) - Anti-Collision and Transmission Protocol
This Anti-Collision section deals with the communication protocols necessary to allow multiple transponders to operate in a common excitation field. Each transponder is assigned a unique identifier (UID) number, an application family identifier (AFI) number and a data storage format identifier (DSFID) number. As numerous transponders (tags, smart labels, and vicinity cards) are detected in the field each carries its own personal attributes and mission defined by its coding.

Section three also defines the complete communication interchange for requests and responses. A complete command set defines reads, writes and locking of data for single and multiple blocks. A CRC (cyclic redundancy check) block is included to assure the integrity of the data received.

Conclusion
Now that ISO 15693 has been adopted, RFID technology is cleared to mature similarly as other accepted automatic ID technologies have. This standard now minimizes user’s concerns over proprietary frequencies and protocols being barriers to the adoption of RFID use in critical supply chain applications. Expect higher performance and lower prices for RFID components as manufacturers compete with their product specifications meeting a common standard. RFID technology has come of age.

Please click on the following link to download a PDF file of this document: ISO 15693 & What It Means For You