RFID technology

Sustainable RFID technology and materials

We work with enterprise and technology firms to deliver sustainable proximity, id and traceability with RFID and NFC. Our RFID technology provides touch-free CX and powerful data to turn everyday activities and objects into fast data collection points that increase profitability through more efficient business operations.

Starting out

If you're new to RFID

The basics of RFID and the ways you can use it.

Developers

Steps to
adopting RFID

We’re going to take you through what

you need to do and the tools to do it.

Innovations

What's new in proximity tech

Here are the many ways we’re using

proximity technology.

Applications

Access & Travel

Smart mobile solutions:

Secure and convenient access to smart transportation, events and services.

In our daily lives, contactless access is becoming increasingly present as it increases security and improves the flow of people. Hotels, corporations and campuses rely on our secure, contactless technology to manage their access control systems.

Access

Travel

Hotel door key cards

Electric vehicle charge cards

Workplace security access

Travel cards

Event access and attendee tracking

Vehicle tracking tags

Staff and visitor identification

Toll management cards

Vehicle access key cards

Sustainable RFID cards for identification,
security and access.

Applications

Pay & Retail

For digital natives:

Easy and secure payments using on-the-go cards, smartphones and wearables.

Point-of-sale, consumer engagement and loyalty programmes can all benefit from our smart retail products.

Pay

Retail

Contactless payment cards

Loyalty and discount cards

Contactless payment wristbands

Membership cards

QR code tap + pay stickers

Gift cards

Climate-positive printed electronics

Unique and sustainable RFID technology

You can now choose to have your RFID card or wearable free of metal and plastic, creating a recyclable solution to reduce the environmental impact of your company.

By using silver ink to make a contactless antenna rather than metal, we’ve developed a biodegradable and recyclable RFID card made from a durable paper board. On paper recycling chains, landfill operations, or their emissions, our printed electronics material combination has no environmental impact.

Here's how brilliant brands are working with us

Travel

Smart RFID travel cards to go places in Manchester.

Pay

Enabling contactless payments for on-the-go fans.

Access

Secure RFID unleashed for next-gen Google gurus.

Experience

Sustainable tech for cutting edge Formula E racing.

Services

Global printing and personalisation
Product design
Prototyping
Testing
Production management
Supply chain

Looking for a proven RFID technology partner to support development?

Tell us more about your project. We work closely with system integrators, OEM manufacturers and product developers to produce custom RFID cards, smart cards, access cards, NFC cards and RFID wristbands. We are also able to provide personalised, secure encoding and customisation of data.

Switch to the enterprise quality of innovative contactless RFID technology.

FAQs - RFID technology

What is NFC?

A short-range wireless connectivity technology, it only works when two devices are brought close together, so unlike Bluetooth (BLE), eavesdropping is almost impossible. What’s more, it is unique in the way it uses energy. Only one of the two devices needs to be powered an interaction to take place. The first can power the second, so the second can save its battery for other things – or not have a battery at all. NFC offers both one and two-way communication. A hotel door lock is a great example of this as its signal powers the chip inside the Hotel Key Cards to let you into your room.

What is RFID?

RFID or Radio Frequency Identification enables one-way wireless communication, typically between an unpowered RFID tag and a powered RFID reader. RFID operates across low frequency (LF), high frequency (HF) and ultra-high frequency (UHF) frequency bands and offers scanning distances from 10cm to 100m.

RFID is generally used for airport baggage handling, road toll collection and asset tracking as it does not require a direct line of sight to the reader and can be scanned from much further distances.

How does NFC work?

NFC-equipped smartphones and other devices can exchange data with each other with a simple tap or wave using a High Frequency (HF) 13.56 MHz radio wave. You may have made a contactless payment with your bank card or even Apple Pay, it’s all possible thanks to NFC. Gone are the days of having to scan a barcode or swipe a magnetic stripe, it’s all done automatically.

How does RFID work?

In much the same way as NFC although there is a difference in that Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags can be active rather than passive which helps to increase the scan strength and read distance. RFID uses electromagnetic fields to identify and track tags attached to objects automatically. The RFID system consists of a small radio transponder, a radio receiver, and a transmitter. When an electromagnetic interrogation pulse is triggered from a nearby RFID reader device, the tag transmits digital data, usually an inventory identification number, back to the reader. This number may be used to track inventory goods.

There are two types of RFID tags:

Passive tags are powered by energy from the RFID reader’s interrogating radio waves
Active tags are powered by a battery and thus can be read at a greater range from the RFID reader, up to hundreds of metres

RFID Technology