Cambridge, MA, April 14, 2010 – ThingMagic, Inc. (www.thingmagic.com), a leading developer of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, today announced the Mercury6e (M6e) UHF RFID Module as the latest addition to its embedded RFID reader product family. The M6e is the world’s smallest 1 Watt, four port module, delivering market-leading performance and significant time-to-market advantages to original equipment manufacturers (OEM), value added resellers (VAR), and solution providers looking to add RFID to existing product lines, or designing and building new solutions from the ground up.

"Setting new standards for tag read performance, power management, and protocol support in a small form factor, the M6e is ideal for adding RFID to a wide variety of stationary and mobile devices, and can be used as the platform for developing fixed/finished RFID readers with market leading capabilities," said Yael Maguire, co-founder and CTO of ThingMagic. “The M6e builds on leading performance, quality and reliability users have experienced from ThingMagic, and we believe this addition to our embedded RFID product family will allow customers to innovate in new ways."p>

Building on industry recognition as the market leader in embedded RFID innovation and implementation (see ThingMagic Tops ABI Research Embedded Passive UHF RFID Reader Module Vendor Matrix), the M6e is designed to the RFID tag read/range and power management performance standards of full size RFID readers, but is small and efficient enough to be used in a wide variety of mobile applications.

 

The M6e offers a number of industry firsts, including:

 

• The first 4 port UHF RFID module with multi-protocol support; expanding the number of applications supported with a single module.
• The first 4 port UHF RFID module that operates at greater than 30 dBm; delivering greater read range for multi-antenna reader configurations.
• The first UHF RFID module to deliver FCC and ETSI support in a single module configuration at 36 dBm EIRP and 33 dBm ERP, respectively, allowing solution providers to offer a wider range of global applications.
• The first commercially available UHF RFID module based on the Impinj® Indy™ R2000 chip. Using ThingMagic’s software stack, the M6e provides market-leading read rates and custom command support across a variety of tag types.

 

Complementing several industry firsts, the M6e offers world leading performance and design advantages, translating to faster prototyping, lower development cost and faster time-to-market. Performance and design advantages are supported by:

 

• A compact size of 2.7” long by 1.7” wide by 0.3” high.
• Built-in thermal management, eliminating the need for a separate heat spreader.
• Four antenna ports, eliminating the need for a multiplexer in certain design instances while offering greater port expansion through multiplexing in others.
• An RFID tag read rate of up to 400 tags per second and a tag read distance of over 30 feet with a 6 dBi antenna.
• ThingMagic’s Software Defined Radio (SDR) architecture, supporting remote upgrades, new tags, new RFID standards, security improvements, and other system advances as they emerge.

 

ThingMagic embedded RFID modules have been integrated into leading solutions across several markets including retail, automotive, healthcare, manufacturing, industrial automation and others. The M6e expands this broad vertical market and end user application support by delivering advanced features such as Multiprotocol Support: EPCglobal Gen 2 (ISO 18000-6C) with DRM (transmit and receive), ISO 18000-6B, and I-PX; increased receive sensitivity, ensuring that all tags - even emerging high-performance semi-passive tags - can be read at any distance they can be powered-up; continuous Read, allowing relative tag position and movement to be derived by the user; Settings Recall; HW PA Protection; and built-in USB and RS-232 connectivity.

 

Beta Program

 

ThingMagic is conducting a beta test program for the M6e. This program offers customers and prospects the opportunity to gain early access to the M6e for evaluation and design-in, while executing a defined test plan. For more information, please contact ThingMagic sales at sales@thingmagic.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 1-866-833-4069 (+1 617-499-4090 for callers from outside the U.S. and Canada).

 

ThingMagic is attending the RFID Journal LIVE!, Conference April 14-16 in Orlando, Florida, hosting meetings and product demonstrations in Room S220 A (level 2) of the Orange County Convention Cetner.