New RFID Chip

Tego, the leading provider of high memory RFID tagging solutions, announces the TegoChip™ 2000, a 2 kilobit RFID chip for tagging aircraft parts that require only birth record storage and identification. Tego’s high memory technology is widely used in the aviation industry to track parts that hold substantial maintenance histories, while TegoChip 2000 is optimized for tracking parts with less record-keeping needs. 

Meeting aviation demand to greatly expand the range of aircraft parts that can be cost effectively tagged, TegoChip 2000 is the first RFID chip to fully comply with the Air Transport Association’s (ATA) Spec 2000 “low memory” format with extended EPC codes up to 496 bits. Its EPC limit already supports the new Tag Data Standard 1.6 (TDS 1.6) that GS1 EPC Global ratified in September to include new Aerospace and Defense definitions. 

TegoChip 2000 provides 1536 bits of user memory supporting even the largest aviation birth records using any and all fields allowed by Spec 2000. Other low memory RFID products typically range from 512 to 1500 bits in total and are not suitable for Spec 2000 applications -- they cannot support extended EPC codes without “stealing” memory from the user space where birth records reside, and they can be forced to leave mandatory data out of the birth record. 

TegoChip 2000 also meets the AS5678 RFID tagging standard for flyable parts. Built using Tego’s inherently rugged memory architecture, all TegoChips will reliably hold data for decades in aerospace applications exposed to radar, temperature extremes, and increased radiation levels at altitude. For tagging items that don’t require the greater capacity of Tego’s high memory products, TegoChip 2000 is a practical extension of the TegoChip family, and it complements the low memory Radion tag introduced by Tego last April for gamma sterilization applications. 

Enabling birth records to be created with a low memory chip greatly expands the range of aircraft parts that can be cost effectively tagged. For example, oxygen tanks and life vests need to be accounted for but do not carry the record-intensive maintenance history needs of other aircraft parts. High memory tags have been used in such applications, but only because a lower-cost solution optimized for low memory ATA Spec 2000 requirements was not available.