EPC’s Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) solution is being used by the two big players of the RFID arena: the U.S. Department of Defense (see section on DOD mandate) and Wal-mart (see section on Wal-Mart mandate). However when they picked the technology they were more concerned about case and pallet tagging than item level tagging. Any attempt to use the EPC solution for item level tagging failed (EPC Class 0 and Class 1 Gen 1) according to Craig Hamon.

The two early RFID adopters geared their investment toward UHF and want to use it for item level tagging regardless of the US Food and Drug Administraion (FDA) and pharmaceutical industry willingness to look more into High Frequency (HF). DOD and Wal-Mart understandably would like to have a single solution but so far they have no infrastructure for item level tagging of goods within the supply chain at this time.

The issue at stake is “whether to include High Frequency options along side of Ultra-High Frequency options in supply chain applications primarily at the product tagging and product packaging levels.”

From a technological standpoint UHF is the solution to go with when it comes to achieve 3 to 5 meter read distance, which means case or pallet level tagging. However the technology struggles when it comes to differentiate various items located next to each other. That’s were the advantage of HF solution kicks in. Another advantage of HF is that it works better with water than UHF which is more easily absorbed. However UHF tags can be upgraded to match HF performances, even though costs wise it’s not the best choice.

The best solution seems then to use both technologies together. If dual tagging is not desirable due to the cost involved, an interrogator infrastructure able to read HF and UFH can take the best out of the technologies without driving the implementation costs too high. This kind of technology will be available soon according to the chairman of AIM Global RFID Experts Group.

Next step: in mid-May 2006 the FDA will meet with industry to receive comments on its RFID recommendations. The decision will then be made about which technology is going to be used in the pharmaceutical industry.