RFID Passive HF Mode 1

Blackroc have been involved in the development and integration of HF RFID hardware and systems since HF was first commercialised around 1996. Seen back then as the RF technology solution to perceived weaknesses in legacy LF RFID systems, (cost, speed, and tag flexibility), HF became rapidly adopted in many areas where lower cost, flexible tags were needed, and where faster data transfer times were required. Like LF, HF is an inductive RFID system which means that its effective read range is limited to around 1 metre. Its range limitation was one of the main reasons for the development of UHF technology which offers greater read range and faster data transaction speeds.

HF has worldwide licence exempt usage at 13.56MHz frequency.
HF (Mode 1) is now embodied under ISO 18000 Part 3. It shares that space with Magellan's (Mode 2) HF technology (which is a version of HF using a much faster communication scheme). HF Mode 1 is extensively used in many track and trace systems worldwide and dominates the library market.

HF technology at 13.56 MHz is also used extensively for access control and ticketing applications under a different control and communications regime. Embodied under different standards such as ISO 14443, systems such as NXP's MIFARE technology and Sony's Felica systems, are adopted increasingly for access control, and will soon be united under a new standard known as NFC (Near Field Communications) which could revolutionise the use of HF access control RFID particularly in conjunction with mobile phones acting both as readers and tags.