Smartrac has introduced a range of RAIN RFID inlays based on Impinj's latest Monza R6-P chip. The inlays are optimized for serializing items, such as apparel, electronics, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals or jewelry, according to the company. Smartrac inlays made with the Monza R6-P chip include the Miniweb, ShortDipole, DogBone, Spine, Viper and Belt models.

The Monza R6-P was introduced in April 2015 (see Impinj Intros New RFID Chips, RFID Reader System-in-Package). The chip is compliant with the RAIN RFID, ISO 18000-63 and EPC Gen 2 standards for passive ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID tags and readers, and features read sensitivity of up to -22.1 dBm, a dipole antenna, write sensitivity of up to -17.3 dBm, up to 128 bits of Electronic Product Code (EPC) memory, a 48-bit serialized tag identifier (TID) and up to 64 bits of user memory. With Impinj's ItemEncode software, the Monza R6-P offers encoding throughput up to 9,500 tags per minute. With the additional EPC and user memory, kill-password capability and a range-reduction switch, Smartrac reports, advanced usages such as loss prevention, brand protection and enhanced privacy are enabled. The Monza R6-P tag chip also includes such technologies as automatic performance adjustments and encoding diagnostics.

For loss-prevention applications, Smartrac says, brand owners, service bureaus or retailers can write a store code into the user memory of each item's Monza R6-P chip. Thus, an exit gate is able to detect within a few milliseconds whether or not any particular tagged item is sold. Using the kill command and a password, the tag can be rendered unreadable once the item is sold, in order to ensure customer privacy. This prevents the item from being tracked or counted after sale, according to the company.

Chip memory can also be used to store individual brand protection codes (BPC), which are supplied by the brand owner or their representative, for verification by retailers or others at future points in the supply chain, Smartrac reports. The BPC is derived from the chip's unique TID number, which is encoded and fixed by the chip manufacturer.