How RFID Works

An RFID system consists of three parts: a scanning antenna, an RFID tag which includes all of the information about a product, and a reader which decodes and interprets data on a tag. These three pieces fit into a process where:

• Data is first stored in an RFID tag in either a read-only or read-write format. The tag is either battery powered or passive.
• When the tag comes within range of a scanning antenna, electromagnetic (EM) energy triggers the tag to start sending data in the form of radio waves.
• These radio waves are picked up by the antenna and send to the reader which decodes the waves as digital information.