Study Published in JAMA on RFID Interference Ignores Real-World Use Cases, According ...( WESTMINSTER Colo. July 14 /- ...),Health

WESTMINSTER, Colo., July 14 /PRNewswire/ --

News Facts:

-- A study published last week in the Journal of the American Medical

Association (http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/299/24/2884)

reported that RFID systems can cause "potentially hazardous incidents

in medical devices" used in hospitals. Unfortunately, the report

ignores mainstream passive RFID readers in favor of an uncommonly

high-powered RFID reader used at an uncommonly close distance.

-- SkyeTek, Inc. (http://www.skyetek.com), a leading provider of passive

RFID reader technology, sees the study as making a strong case for the

upper limit of passive UHF output power (2 - 4 Watts) around medical

devices. However, it is important to note the study does not test for

today's most common passive UHF use cases which call for RFID reader

output power anywhere from 0.25 Watt to 1 Watt, the maximum allowed by

the FCC. By comparison, one of today's most popular cell phone models

emits 1.59 Watts.

-- The study also ignores the HF frequency entirely which comprises a

substantial, if not the largest, portion of passive RFID technology

used in hospitals today. The potential EMI coming from passive HF RFID

readers is significantly less than that coming from their UHF

counterparts.

Key Takeaways:

-- The passive UHF RFID reader used in the study is an unrepresentative

product used unconventionally.

-- Although the reader model was not specified in the study, it is most

likely the Feig ID ISC.LRMU2000 Fixed UHF Long Range Reader Unit

which has a maximum of 3 Watts of output power. The vast majority

of passive UHF RFID readers sold toda
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