As IoT continues its rapid growth, durable, high-memory tags will be critical for extending connectivity to large market segments not well served by more expensive, active “broadcast” connectivity methods. The tags’ small form factor, low power consumption, and low cost will make it possible to tag a much larger number of “things.” These “edge” things will likely to be the majority of “things” in the IoT.
Remote connectivity is a challenge for aerospace industry. RF technology has evolved to providing more than IDs on airplane parts to carrying maintenance records, files and safety check information so that entire value chains benefit. Airplane parts are going digital and getting smarter by having their own history and safety information stored directed on the part itself.
RFID tracking has been proven to be very useful countless times over with its implementation in almost every aspect of our lives. Tracking, for example is one of the many that RFID has “tagged”, decreasing human error in all aspects of inventory, maintenance and data collection for the aviation sector. This is where Tego “tags” in with their high-storage RFID tags to aid their supply chain partners. We spoke to Bob Hamlin, CTO of Tego to find out what it takes to design RFID technology for the high-flyers.
PAN: RFID technology continues to find new applications in a growing number of industries, the aviation sector being one of them. What were the contentions that led the aerospace sector to consider RFID? Bob: Maintenance is a high-cost activity for airlines and they are constantly on the lookout for ways to improve Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul (MRO) efficiency to reduce costs. Today, many organizations along the supply chain generate information about parts and important data ends up in many different places, leading to inefficient maintenance processes.
Airlines have documented workflows that show mechanics spend more time finding the paperwork associated with a part than they do on their repair activities. Additionally, many maintenance responsibilities are needlessly labor-intensive.
For example, we have seen cycle time studies around the inspection of emergency equipment such as life vests and oxygen canisters, and the overhaul of passenger seats, that show 98-99% time reductions when RFID is introduced to these tasks. RFID technology creates visibility into the supply chain and maintenance activities by allowing large amounts of data to be stored on tags attached to components. It minimizes unplanned maintenance and premature parts replacement and detects malfunctions early.
PAN: From being low-requirement solutions, RFID tags have moved up to a whole new level by addressing the difficulties encountered in tracking and maintaining aircraft parts, and more. How has this innovation improved MRO in aviation?
Bob: RFID tags can store everything from the simple information often found on an identification placard such as part number, serial number, and expiration dates, to detailed historical MRO information typically stored in a centralized dasu_tabase. With the tag physically attached to a particular component, the information is easily associated with that component.
Many tags in production today have specifically targeted flyable parts. Industry standards address environmental factors such as humidity, pressure, and flammability. Tags that meet these standards can be used in external aircraft locations as well as pressurized cabin spaces. Using standard reader equipment, aircraft maintenance staff can read a part’s vital statistics from the attached tag – from the date of manufacture and hours in service to repairs and modifications. In addition, they can easily obtain information that was previously accessible only by opening difficult to reach or secured areas, by simply directing a handheld reader towards the area where the part or component is located.
Ultimately, all of this same information can be shared across the supply chain between the operator and the maintenance organization, from one MRO to another, and between inventory management staff and parts suppliers. Technicians can immediately determine component status in the field in an efficient and economical manner. It all adds up to a more streamlined operation and allows maintenance personnel to focus on maintenance activities.
PAN: For maintenance activities, it is crucial to have the information at hand – wherever and whenever it is needed. What happens in the typical lifecycle of an airplane part, for example?
Bob: Not having updated information follow a part throughout its lifecycle is one of the biggest challenges for an MRO organization. In fact, information about each phase of a part’s life is stored in distinctly separate areas. Here is what typically happens at each stage of the parts that go into an aircraft:
PAN: Where does Tego fit into this value chain? Share with us the kind of solutions that Tego offers in this space.
Bob: By building on current RFID technology, Tego is creating “smart assets” with capabilities that go way beyond what has been typically thought of as RFID. For example, we have made advances in semiconductor technology to create RFID tags with up to 8KB of usable space, over 640 times the memory capacity of the original 96-bit tags used in the earliest retail applications. With this much memory available on the tag, it is now possible for supply chain partners to write pertinent information whenever a significant event happens in the lifetime of a part, and to keep that information stored directly on the part whether it stays in one place or moves around. That information can take the form of historical maintenance records or scratchpad messages from one technician to another. These smart assets can assist maintenance staff with making on-the-spot decisions.
We have also created chip technology that is especially useful to the aerospace industry. Our high-memory chips are designed to be fully passive, avoiding the added weight and potential RE interference associated with battery-operated tags. We have the only UHF chip technology that can maintain stored data for up to 30 years at high temperature. The stored data is also impervious to radiation, magnetic fields or high-powered radar signals. To keep all this information coming from multiple sources well organized, we have been leading the effort to standardize storage formats for RFID under the leadership of the Air Transport Association (ATA). Our software products, such as TegoView, provide a ready-to-use solution for industry participants to store and access ATA-formatted data on RFID tags. To add their own data in any file format they need, aerospace organizations can use TegoDrive which includes the additional simplification of treating RFID readers and tags as an extension of the Windows desktop.
PAN: Moving from a legacy system to being a “smart” tracking facility certainly doesn’t mean the end of the road. What concerns need to be addressed to further the advancement of RFID in aviation?
Bob: Airframe builders, airlines and MR0 organizations can get started in their own closed-loop systems, but in many cases the bigger benefits will be realized through the co-operation of all supply chain partners. [-Business standards are in place with ATA Spec 2000 and the EPC Tag Data Standard which allow for needed co-operation, but this still requires adoption by everyone involved in the process.
Another interesting challenge is around information security. Now that there is enough space on high-memory RFID tags to store so much data, the natural progression is for some people to want to store confidential or sensitive data, or to authenticate the identity of the source of the information. Preventing unauthorized read/write access may also be a concern. A lot of work is underway, by Tego and industry partners, to provide all of these security services.
Tego’s high‑memory RFID solutions, including best‑in‑class semiconductor chips, tags, and application software are creating distributed interconnected smart assets that communicate wirelessly and without batteries. With the ability to read and write information directly on assets, organizations can automate processes, make intelligent decisions at the point of use, and know immediately the history, condition and status of any asset. Today, through Tego innovation, smart asset capabilities are providing solutions previously not possible or imaginable. Tego, founded in 2005, is based in Waltham, MA. For more information, visit www.tegoinc.com
Tego, TegoTag, TegoView, TegoDrive and TegoChip are trademarks of Tego, Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective holders.
375 Totten Pond Road, Waltham, MA 02451 USA • T: +1 781.547.5680
Last time I addressed some basics of the Internet of Things based on what appears to be a fundamental misunderstanding by lots of people. I also ventured into the area of wireless, batteryless devices to consider how they will be deployed in much larger numbers than their heavyweight counterparts that have on-board microprocessors running network stacks. Those concepts will also be applicable this time around as we delve into Big Data. Just like last time, it’s based on some questions I hear a lot. “What’s all this about big data? I get we’re generating tons of data, but what does that do for me? How is big data improving my life?”
Continue reading…
Something interesting has happened to me recently. On three separate occasions over the past couple weeks, three different people have said to me, “What’s all this about the Internet of Things?”. These are all people that I consider to be pretty well clued in on current technology, all of them have invested in high-tech startups, and all make their livings in technology businesses of some sort. And yet each one of them didn’t understand why people are talking about an internet of things. Sometime late last year the IoT rose to the level of having its own recognizable three letter acronym (TLA) and it seems like media chatter on the topic is everywhere these days, so it came as quite a surprise to keep hearing this drumbeat of confusion. Now I know regular readers of this blog are all very savvy about the topic. Right? Right? Exactly. That’s part of the problem. IoT chatter has ramped up so quickly that people don’t want to admit that they don’t get it. Well, allow me to be the one to go back to the beginning and cover some basics. Continue reading…
What exactly is the 10/90 rule as it applies to the Internet of Things (IoT)? According to Dr. Mazlan Abbas at the IoT Global Innovation Forum, the “last 10 meters” represents greater than 90 percent of “things” that are not yet connected to the Internet. This might include devices that utilize sensors for temperature, pressure, moisture and more. While many connectivity options such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi could provide a solution, RF technology is currently poised to be the best method for connecting the devices that are part of the “last 10 meters.”
Continue reading…
Alright, this is it – the last of a four-part series on the ins and outs of non-volatile memory and radiation resistance. By now you should feel like an expert on flash memory and the fuse-based Tego memory. For a tune up check out Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. The remaining question to be answered: “where does FRAM fit into all this”?
I often see that careful observers are astute enough to realize that FRAM must be a whole different beast because while it is a huge improvement over flash memory when it comes to radiation resistance, it doesn’t even come close to what the Tego memory can achieve. In fact FRAM is not at all usable for sterilization applications due to the memory errors that occur.
Let’s first put these performance metrics into perspective. A good way to approach that is to consider what sort of dose is needed to sterilize an item. For all of the medical devices we’ve seen, when using either gamma radiation or e-beam radiation, a sterilization dose is right around 25 kilogray. That level of radiation is enough to be assured that all organics and biologics are killed off. What does that dose mean to non-volatile memory? Well, the contents of flash memory are completely wiped out. The data is completely scrambled. In fact, flash memory starts to see bit errors in memory at doses as small as 0.1 kilogray, so at 25 kilograys it doesn’t stand a chance. The Tego memory on the other hand has been tested up to 1000 kilograys and no memory errors have ever been observed. That means the Tego chip can be subjected to over 40 sterilization doses without concern for memory errors. Repeated sterilizations may seem like overkill for many applications but the important thing about such a high dose is that it translates to very high reliability for single-dose applications. You can rest assured that a memory capable of handling over 1000 kilograys will have basically zero failures at 25 kilograys, even when billions of parts are involved.
Then there is FRAM. FRAM can almost handle one sterilization dose, but not quite. If we’re talking about indentification-only tags that have just 96 bits of memory, most FRAM tags will survive that first 25 kilogray does, but roughly 20% of the parts will have some bit errors. If we’re talking about 8 or 64 kilobit memories like in the TegoTags, pretty much every tag will have at least one bit error at that dose, and many will have lots of errors. This behavior was documented in an interesting paper by GE Global Research back in 2007, and it exactly bears out the experiences of our customers who’ve tried FRAM tags (you can find the paper here). Those customers have needed to tag items valued at anywhere from $20 to $20,000, and in every case the prospect of throwing out or reworking 20% of their products due to bad RFID tags has been a non-starter.
Just like the performance of FRAM sits between that of the Tego mechanical and the flash electronic memories, the way FRAM works also sits in between mechanical and electronic. Because FRAM stands for Ferroelectric Random Access Memory, it is often described as a type of magnetic memory. This isn’t correct since FRAM structures are not magnets, and what’s really happening is people are confusing ferroelectric with ferromagnetic. Nevertheless, FRAM does contain polarized structures, and the polarization of the those structures is what is used to represent digital zeros and ones.
Maybe the best way to describe how FRAM works is to look at directly at FRAM itself. I could craft another analogy like the red Solo cups of water or the fuses, but in this case it doesn’t buy us much. The FRAM structure itself tells a pretty clear story.
FRAM is built out of lead-zirconate-titanate (PZT) crystals. Sounds pretty complicated but on a simplified molecular lever it’s really very straightforward. Have a look at the diagram included here. PZT crystals come in the form of cubes, with lead (Pb) atoms in the corners and oxygen (O) atoms on the faces. Within the cube, a zirconium+titanium (Zi/Ti) atom can be moved to the top or the bottom. Top and bottom are defined by an electric field placed across the cube. When the electric field is applied with one polarity, the Zi/Ti atom is forced to the top of the cube. When the electric field is removed, the Zi/Ti atom stays right where it is. If the field is again applied but this time with the opposite polarity, the Zi/Ti atom moves to the bottom of the cube. So now we have “one” and “zero” represented by “top” and “bottom”.
The only way to move the Zr/Ti molecule is by applying the electric field. This is pretty significant as it’s what makes FRAM non-volatile – when the power is removed the Zr/Ti molecule doesn’t move, so our zeros and ones are not disturbed. The makers of FRAM like to refer to it as being bistable, which means it can exist in two states and both of them are “stable”. This is exactly what we need to form a non-volatile memory, except that it’s not exactly bi-stable. As you might imagine, the electric field is not “the only way to move the Zr/Ti molecule”. Other forces can also cause the atoms to move around, and our old friends time and temperature are classic culprits. One FRAM vendor has told its aerospace customers that FRAM components should be “refreshed” every 5 to 7 years; refreshed meaning that all the memory contents should be read out and then re-written. A clear indication that over time the stability of the atoms will decay and data values will be corrupted.
As you can imagine, those Zr/Ti atoms are also prime targets for particle radiation like gamma and beta. It doesn’t happen as readily as with flash memory, but after enough radiation particles beat up on the Zr/Ti atoms, they eventually knock them like billiard balls over to the other side. As mentioned in the GE paper, this often happens after just one sterilization dose of radiation; around 25 kilogray.
One other thing that can disrupt the contents of FRAM is reading the memory. That’s right, reading the contents of FRAM is a destructive process. That’s because the way the location of the Zr/Ti atoms is sensed is to attempt to force them to one side, say the top. If the atom indeed moved from bottom to top, then a small current pulse will be sensed and the contents is considered to be a zero. If the atom was already at the top then no movement occurs so no current pulse is sensed and a one is assumed. Of course, now all the bits are ones so the overall contents of a word is completely lost. At this point, the contents just read are written back to the same location so that the loss is not permanent. This adds time and power to the read operation, and more importantly it can have long term reliability impacts on the memory, especially for parts with long lifetimes.
So that’s it, a four-part episode on the inner workings of non-volatile memory. Hopefully by now you understand how flash and FRAM work and how they are different from the fuse-based Tego memory. And hopefully the failure mechanisms of each of the memory types makes sense and you understand exactly why the Tego memory is radiation resistant while the others are not. If something doesn’t make sense let me know and I’ll try to help you out. Or you can always go back and re-read Part 1 through 4. I recommend filling your red Solo cup to the top before you start.
If you haven’t been following along so far, you may want to go back and check out Part 1 and Part 2 first. As a refresher, in Part 1 we talked about memory and specifically non-volatile memory and why it’s important to RFID tags.
We also covered the different forms of radiation resistance, and realized what we are looking for is electronics as well as stored data that can survive a radiation dose even if those electronics cannot operate in the presence of radiation. Then in Part 2 we got into the details of how flash memory works and why it doesn’t like radiation, or high temperatures or long lifecycles for that matter. Now in Part 3 I’ll explain what’s so special about TegoTags that allows them to do so much better than flash memory parts.
You’ll remember from Part 2 that I described cups of water as being able to store two states – full or empty, that are representative of the ones and zeros that we need for digital boolean logic. For the Tego memory structure I have a similar analogy, but instead of cups of water we have electrical fuses. Fuses are basically a strand of wire that, just like other wires, can be used to complete an electrical circuit thus allowing current to flow. But unlike other wires, fuses are made of carefully selected materials and dimensions so that if the current-voltage combination in the wire exceeds a certain limit, the fuse “blows”. When the fuse blows, a section of the wire is typically completely vaporized – there’s nothing left. At that point, the fuse has been converted to an open circuit and current stops flowing.
Fuses are usually used as a form of over-current protection to prevent damage to electronics and fires in houses. But because the fuse can exist in two states – blown or not blown, a collection of fuses could be used to store binary data similar to the cups of water. Unlike the cups though, that could be emptied or filled at will, once a fuse is blown there’s no going back. So whereas the cups could be “rewritten”, a message carried by a collection of fuses is permanent. That permanence can be a good thing though. Unlike the cups of water which could be disturbed by sun or wind or rain, the fuses are downright rugged. Once blown, no amount of sunlight is going to cause a fuse to regrow. Even in the unblown state, there is little chance of conversion to an open-circuit unless it’s for the right reason.
The memory on the TegoChip is actually very similar to a collection of fuses. Ok, we’re not literally blowing fuses. There are no tiny explosions happening on the chip. But the chip does contain semiconductor structures that start out as open circuits, and after exposing them to enough voltage and current, those structures are irreversibly transformed into short circuits. This is very different from the flash memory storage described in Part 2. I often refer to flash as an example of an electronic memory, meaning the circuit structures always remain the same, while electrons are routed around and stored in those structures to form data. The fuse memory on the other hand I refer to as mechanical storage. The memory elements themselves undergo a physical change in order to represent a zero or a one. And that physical change is permanent. As with the real-life fuses, no amount of temperature or radiation is going to cause the fuse on the TegoChip to “regrow”. And that’s exactly why the data stored in a TegoChip will last for hundreds of years. Or in the presence of high temperatures. Or when bombarded with obscene amounts of radiation.
But wait, the memory is permanent. That’s means those words in memory cannot be changed; cannot be rewritten. Isn’t that a problem? It certainly could be, but that’s another ingredient in the Secret Sauce. Let’s back this up a little. Flash memory is indeed a type of RAM, or random-access memory, which means if I write a value to an address in memory, I can come back later and store a different value in that same location. Each location is rewritable. The Tego fuse memory is known as PROM or programmable read-only memory. The “programmable” part of that means the memory can written to or “programmed” to give it its initial value. But after it’s programmed, the memory can only be read – no more writes allowed. (We also sometimes refer to this as OTP or one-time programmable.) That’s very different from flash and therefore very different from every other RFID tag. But is it a problem?
This is where it pays to think about exactly how the memory in an RFID tag gets used. The “ID” in RFID is actually pretty useless if it keeps changing. The ID number on a tag is a lot like a social security number. If everybody keeps changing their number, it’s just no longer useful as an identifier. The same is true for a lot of data that would go into the User Memory of a tag. Suppose you wanted to store someone’s birth certificate on the tag, like on a passport or driver’s license. By it’s very nature, that data should never get changed, so it’s perfectly suited to the Tego fuse memory.
On the other hand, not all data is suitable for permanent storage. Even the ID number sometimes goes through a few iterations before its made permanent. So we’ve got that covered too. Part of the Tego fuse memory is a memory management structure that makes PROM locations look like RAM. How does it do that? By using multiple PROM locations. Suppose you write the value “Amy” to location 100 in User Memory. Later you come back and write “Nancy”, also to location 100. When you read back from location 100, what value will you get? Since this is a TegoChip made up of only one-time programmable fuse memory, you might be thinking you’re going to get “Amy”, but in fact you’re going to get “Nancy”. Internally, both values are stored. “Amy” and “Nancy” are both permanent residents of the TegoChip, but the memory manager knows enough to return Nancy to you and keep Amy a secret.
So there it is – the Secret Sauce revealed. The TegoChip uses permanent “mechanical” storage in the form of on-chip fuses to store data in incorruptible structures, and it uses behind-the-curtain trickery to make the memory look re-writable just like flash-based chips. Pretty snappy, huh?
I know, I know, there’s still one unanswered question here: How does FRAM fit into all this? FRAM will be the subject of Part 4. (I did say there was going to be a Part 4, didn’t I?) For now know that FRAM is neither flash nor fuse based. Get ready for PZT crystals.
RFID technology has been adopted for diverse applications in a wide range of industries. However, for many years, the life sciences and healthcare fields missed out on the full benefits that RFID delivers because they did not have a solution that could survive their specific rugged supply chain needs. Traditional RFID chips and tags are not capable of surviving sterilization by gamma and e-beam radiation.
Fortunately, Tego has the first UHF RFID technology proven to withstand gamma, ebeam, ethylene oxide, and autoclave sterilization methods, as well as cold storage to -80C. This enables an entire industry to incorporate RFID into medical device manufacturing and labelling, biologic processing and healthcare supply chain processes.
In one particular application, Tego is working with a large life sciences provider that uses gamma and e-beam sterilization in its manufacturing process. Their products are processed and stored in bottles, which have been fitted with Tego’s passive UHF tags. The provider maintains a running inventory of more than 20 million bottles, which are kept in a deep freeze for up to 60 days before final processing and delivery.
A key challenge is the need for cradle-to-grave traceability, in the event that manufacturing problems should trigger recalls. Tracking each and every bottle with a high level of efficiency – and without disrupting their entire business operation – is a formidable task that was previously addressed with an elaborate barcode system. However, the barcode reading process was labor-intensive and susceptible to reading errors due to the extreme cold.
Additionally, the company maintains a supply chain that’s spread across several hundred locations worldwide, making it cost prohibitive to create a company-wide, global database of inventory. The Tego solution enables radiation-resistant RFID tags to be applied to each pharmaceutical bottle and to store unique identifying numbers, as well as separate information about the bottle’s contents and whereabouts throughout the supply chain.
To allow end-to-end visibility of the data throughout the healthcare supply chain, Tego tailored their TegoView software for this particular application to enhance overall productivity and efficiency. The company is seeing significant benefits with the Tego RFID system fully deployed.
When the company used barcode labels to track products, shipping pallets often had to be broken down and cases opened so that workers could manually scan bottles one at a time. Now with the Tego solution, all the bottles inside a case can be read without opening the lid. As a result, a shipment that used to take eight hours to process can now be received in roughly 30 minutes.
Furthermore, the Tego solution eliminated the need to build a costly corporate network for sharing data collected at each location throughout the global supply chain. The high-memory TegoTag allows collected information to be stored directly with the asset, allowing each location to maintain a local database for a smaller, more secure and more cost-efficient solution. When bottles are inspected, either by quality assurance personnel or by government agencies, they can simply read the RFID tag to get the entire history of the bottle and its contents.
To learn more about how radiation-resistant RFID technology is benefitting the life sciences and healthcare field, and to read more details about this application, click here.
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In Part 1 we went over the significance of non-volatile memory in an RFID tag, and talked about the different forms of radiation resistance. We’re interested in having not just the electronic chip survive exposure to radiation, but the data stored in memory as well. Now here we are in Part 2 where I’ll explain how flash memory works and why it doesn’t like radiation. The Secret Sauce is coming, but you’ll have to wait for Part 3 for that.
So… non-volatile memory. We know from Part 1 that means the stored data hangs around after power is removed, which is a crucial feature for a passive RFID chip. But how does that work? Nearly all RFID chips use a memory technology known as EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read-only memory), more commonly known as flash memory. To describe how flash memory works I’m going to start with an analogy.
One question that I get quite often is “How is it that you can make a tag that can withstand crazy amounts of radiation while no one else can even come close? How is that possible?”
It’s that last part that gives away what people are really thinking. “How is that possible?” It’s a reasonable question given that there has been serious demand for radiation-resistant RFID tags for as many years as there’s been RFID, but no one has managed to pull it off. Most people I meet think it’s impossible. So when someone asks how is it possible, what they’re really saying is, they don’t believe it.
But once you understand what’s going on inside the tag, it’s really quite simple. And perfectly believable. So I’m going to explain here just how the Tego tags pull off this technological feat that was once thought impossible.
I was in DC a few weeks ago for a standards meeting. The RFID on Parts technical team has been putting the finishing touches on the latest version of Spec 2000 Ch9-5, so I was there for three days trying to get the standard ready for release.
At this stage in the process there’s always a mind-numbing amount of minutia to work on, but it has to get done. Just to provide some flavor, there was quite a bit of haggling over the length of the PNO field (spoiler alert: it will be increased from 15 to 32 bits). We decided that the unit of measure code need not be restricted to just pounds and kilograms (fathoms anyone?). And in the Birth Record on Multi-Record tags, PNR is now… wait for it… forbidden. I know, I know, this stuff can be pretty tedious.
For some time now, there has been a lot of hype around the Internet of Things (IoT) concept. And for good reason. The interconnectedness of smart assets – products, machines, appliances and even buildings – opens up a world of possibilities.
To date, much of the hype has revolved around consumer applications. We already are starting to see vehicles with networked sensors that can take evasive action to avoid accidents. And one of the most enduring examples of IoT technology remains the vision of a refrigerator that calls to remind you to pick up milk.
But let’s not forget the considerable value that the Internet of Things brings to industrial and commercial applications. As a recent article in Forbes asks, ‘Where does IoT have the greatest potential to create economic value?’ Continue reading…
The Tego team had a great visit with attendees at the first annual RFID in Energy, Mining and Construction Conference organized by the RFID Journal on August 12-13 in Perth, Australia.
Thanks to Martijn Truijens of Woodside Energy, we were invited to attend the conference and demonstrate how leading mining and construction companies are using RFID technologies to track tools and equipment, manage inventory and streamline business processes.
It was great to see many of the vendors Tego has worked with over the years — many of which are providing both active and passive solutions to oil and gas end users. Overall, it was a great show, and we look forward to next year. Continue reading…
I just finished presenting at RFID Journal’s virtual event: “RFID in Aerospace and Aviation.”
The approach I took was to provide a history of tagging flyable parts on aircraft. I think it’s a very interesting story and there are a lot of insights to be gained by looking back over the past ten years. There have been some key market drivers along the way, and clear indications that the sector has embraced the value of high-memory tagging. The programs have not just gone according to plan, they have been accelerated well beyond the original rollout plans.
I won’t go over the whole presentation here, although I might do that at some point. If you missed it, here are the slides so you can at least see the timeline. But even better, the questions I got from the audience were interesting and many may appreciate the answers. So here they are with my paraphrased responses: Continue reading…
Waltham, MA – April 1, 2014 – B/E Aerospace, the world’s leading provider of interior aerospace products and solutions, and the world’s leading provider of aerospace fasteners and consumables for the commercial, business jet and military markets, has selected Tego, Inc. (Waltham, MA, USA) as its RFID solution provider for tagging aircraft seats, galley packages, and life support systems in their world-wide manufacturing processes.
B/E Aerospace is rolling out its RFID tagging program across several of its market leading product lines. By using Tego’s complete RFID tagging solution, B/E is the largest manufacturer of aerospace parts today to achieve compliance with the latest 2013 version of ATA Spec 2000 and the very first to deliver tagged seats to meet the requirements of the global Airbus Quality Initiative announced in 2013.
Tego is the leading developer of high-memory RFID chips, tags and software for creating smart assets and the foremost provider of ATA Spec 2000 compliant solutions for tagging flyable parts. Tego offers the only fully integrated high-memory chip, tag, and software solution tested and verified by airframe manufacturers. TegoViewTM software ensures 100% compliance with ATA Spec 2000, Chapter 9-5 and TDS 1.7 standards for RFID tagging of aircraft parts and systems.
“We selected Tego as our solution provider because of the company’s integrated product offerings, its complete understanding of the technical requirements, and its leadership in deployment,” said Dan Buckler, Director of Quality and Compliance at B/E Aerospace.
“Our partnership with B/E Aerospace to deploy their enterprise tagging program across multiple sites and for cabin interior product offerings reaffirms Tego’s identity as premiere provider of [tagging] programs.” said Timothy Butler, President and CEO of Tego, Inc. “We are excited to be working with one of the industry’s best and look forward to a long standing relationship creating smart assets for B/E Aerospace. ”
B/E Aerospace is the worldwide leading manufacturer of aircraft passenger cabin interior products for the commercial and business jet aircraft markets. B/E Aerospace is also the leading global distributor of aerospace fasteners. B/E Aerospace has leading worldwide market shares in all of its major product lines and serves virtually all of the world’s airlines, aircraft manufacturers and leasing companies through its direct global sales and customer support organizations.
www.beaerospace.com
Tego’s high-memory RFID solutions, including best-in-class semiconductor chips, tags, and application software are creating distributed interconnected smart assets that communicate wirelessly and without batteries. With the ability to read and write information directly on assets, organizations can automate processes, make intelligent decisions at the point of use, and know immediately the history, condition and status of any asset. Today, through Tego innovation, smart asset capabilities are providing solutions previously not possible or imaginable. Tego, founded in 2005, is based in Waltham, MA. For more information, visit www.tegoinc.com.
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For more information, contact LaVerne Cerfolio, Director of Marketing at (781) 547-5680 x2009
(Waltham, MA – January 28th, 2013) Honeywell Aerospace, one of the largest parts suppliers to Airbus and Boeing, has selected TegoView? software to improve its supply chain processes and expedite its new RFID parts tagging program. Honeywell, working with systems integrator ID Integration, is rolling out its RFID tagging program across their aerospace organization. By using TegoView’s workflow, Honeywell is streamlining its parts tagging process and assuring data accuracy on RFID tags being attached to components through efficient dasu_tabase connectivity and defined templates that reduce user input errors.
Airframe manufacturers are requiring their suppliers of repairable, high value parts and systems to attach high memory RFID tags to these assets. This allows all participants in the supply chain to trace the progress of assets and access information stored on them throughout their lifecycle from manufacturing to maintenance.
Tego, developer of high memory RFID chips, tags and software for creating smart assets, designed TegoView specifically to make tagging aircraft parts fast, easy and accurate. Pre-formatted templates guide workers through the process delivering 100% compliance with ATA Spec 2000, Chapter 9-5 and TDS 1.6 standards for tagging aircraft parts and systems.
“Aircraft components need to be easily traceable with full transparency throughout a product’s supply chain and lifecycle with the ability to verify their pedigree at all times, ” said Jim Evans, ISC UID/RFID Program Manager, Honeywell Aerospace. “After evaluating and testing TegoView’s ability to write and read RFID tags on parts, we are convinced we can meet the stringent requirements of our customers.”
“TegoView is being deployed across many Honeywell locations where we are setting up workstations that we can configure for desktop and mobile use, ” continued Evans. “One of our teams quickly learned the tagging process using defined templates and then walked the next group through the process. Pre?populated mobile and fixed readers with the same TegoView interface make tagging parts an extremely efficient operation. ”
“In an industry where thousands of airplanes each have millions of individual parts, airframe manufacturers and their suppliers need to manage and track an enormous inventory, ” said Timothy Butler, president and CEO of Tego, Inc. “This is where the automation and accuracy of TegoView for writing and reading RFID tags on parts is of the greatest value to our customers, not only for compliance but for improved supply chain processes.
“Some parts suppliers are learning the hard way that not all software is compliant, ” continued Butler. “Errors are appearing, rendering parts non-??compliant and endangering delivery of high value components.”
ID Integration president, Gary Moe, said, “We certainly enjoyed working with Honeywell and Tego to make this Spec 2000 RFID solution set a reality. Having worked with Honeywell for many years as their IUID systems integrator, we were able to leverage our knowledge of Honeywell’s operations and demanding standards to guide Tego through the rigorous testing and acceptance procedures. The end result is a Win-Win for all parties concerned. ”
Tego is an active member of the ATA standards committee and the primary architect of the Spec 2000 data container format. With workflow templates and built-in feedback, TegoView guarantees standards compliance and automates supply chain processes. In addition, airlines and MRO organizations can use TegoView to access accurate, current part information throughout its lifecycle from birth record to maintenance history.
Based in Phoenix, Arizona, Honeywell’s aerospace business is a leading global provider of integrated avionics, engines, systems and service solutions for aircraft manufacturers, airlines, business and general aviation, military, space and airport operations. Honeywell (www.honeywell.com) is a Fortune 100 diversified technology and manufacturing leader, serving customers worldwide with aerospace products and services; control technologies for buildings, homes and industry; turbochargers; and performance materials. Based in Morris Township, N.J., Honeywell’s shares are traded on the New York, London and Chicago Stock Exchanges. For more news and information on Honeywell, please visit www.honeywellnow.com
ID Integration is a ATA Spec 2000 systems integrator with over 20 years experience integrating direct part marking, label printing and RFID systems in manufacturing depot/overhaul facilities. Our expertise is integrating marking, printing, reading and verification turnkey systems to permanently mark legacy and new parts to meet the commercial aerospace Spec 2000 and DoD/NATO IUID requirements. ID Integration provides IUID data management and registration software along with Asset Tracking and Management systems using barcode and RFID technologies. We provide high and low memory RFID solutions to meet an organization’s asset tracking needs and ATA Spec 2000 requirements. ID Integration headquarters are in Mukilteo, Washington. For more information, visit www.id?integration.com.
Tego’s high?memory RFID solutions, including best?in?class semiconductor chips, tags, and application software are creating distributed interconnected smart assets that communicate wirelessly and without batteries. With the ability to read and write information directly on assets, organizations can automate processes, make intelligent decisions at the point of use, and know immediately the history, condition and status of any asset. Today, through Tego innovation, smart asset capabilities are providing solutions previously not possible or imaginable. Tego, founded in 2005, is based in Waltham, MA. For more information, visit www.tegoinc.com
Tego, TegoTag, TegoView, TegoDrive and TegoChip are trademarks of Tego, Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective holders.
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