QinetiQ, the international defence and security technology company formed from the UK Government's Defence Evaluation & Research Agency (DERA), and Crown Holdings have launched a joint development programme to adapt QinetiQ's Omni-ID Pak integrated RFID technology for use on metal packaging.
Designed to mitigate issues like signal reflection, detuning and grounding which reduce or negate RFID's effectiveness on metal packaging with aqueous-based products, the technology reportedly leverages several of metal's inherent properties. QinetiQ says its standalone Omni-ID Tag and integrated Omni-ID Pak technology allow direct mounting of UHF tags onto metal substrates. Measuring “substantially less” than 1mm thick, the “unique”|Omni-ID structure “collects and focuses” RF energy and enables highly efficient coupling of the chip. QinetiQ says its hips also only require a short coupling antenna rather than the “large dipole” usually incorporated in UHF tags, significantly reducing manufacturing costs.
Crown and QinetiQ are now “continuing development of the technology for metal packaging to further optimise design”. In future they anticipate the metal substrate itself playing an integral role in the way technology functions; a beverage or food can could, for instance, itself serve as the antenna.
“QinetiQ's Omni-ID technology offers a completely new way to capture energy, making it fundamentally different to other proposed solutions which have been limiting in terms of size, complexity and cost,” says Crown Packaging Technology president Dan Abramowicz. “With this development, metal has gone form being RFID-unfriendly to having powerful benefits that competitive packaging formats do not.”
While initially the technology will be targeted at higher end applications like perfumes, liquors, confectionery and ink cartridges, the two companies says they expect it to be economically feasible for item-level tagging “in the longer term”.
