What is battery-assisted RFID?
There are three types of RFID tag: Active, Passive, and Battery Assisted Passive (BAP). Active tags use batteries to power all functions of the tag; both the receiving and transmitting of signal as well as the power for the processing and memory chips. Passive tags use no battery at all, and rely on drawing the power from the incident RF wave from a reader’s antenna. Battery Assisted Passive tags utilize a battery for the operation of the internal circuitry to manipulate and return the incident RF energy to a reader. By using an internal power source, active tags can store and transmit significantly more data over greater distances than a passive tag. Passive tags, however, are able to be designed very discretely in minute form factors, and cost orders of magnitude less than an active tag. Battery Assisted Passive tags allow greater read range without increasing overall costs substantially or adding too much bulk to a tag label.
