In order to give tough competition to Impinj in the RFID market, the leading semiconductor manufacturer STMicroelectronics has launched its Gen2 RFID chips. The new chip is named as XRAG2, which has been certified by EPCglobal.
Impinj had earlier entered into the market with Gen2 silicon Texas Instruments similar to that of RFID chips. To hit the chip market, STMicroelectronics added some extra features which the Impinji chips fail to provide.
Based on 160-nanometer technology, the STMicro’s RFID chips includes 128 bits of user memory and supports the optical block erase and block write Gen2 commands. It also supports more than 10,000 write/erase cycles. It possesses high data retention capabilities. In simple, the latest chip can store information for 40 years.
Impinj’s Texas Instruments Gen2 silicon is based 130 nanometer technology. However, STMicroelectronics selected 160 nanometer technology as it is produced more affordably which results in a lower price for inlay providers and end users.
STMicro claims that 130 nanometer silicon requires more expensive processing. The 160 nanometer technology maintains balance between cost and performance.
Read
