A Little QC Goes a Long Way

“It is our opinion that the current high yields are in large part due to the capacity of the inlay supply exceeding the demand. The processing machinery for inlay production is running at 60–70 percent capacity, and in this mode, the reliability of the chip/strap bond is quite high,” says Harris. “However, once the predicted increases in demand begin to materialize for item-level and pharma usage, these machines will be pushed back into the 85–95 percent capacity range of production speed, and inlay failure rates will rise again, possibly dramatically in some cases.” What this means for converters is that they’ll have to take measures to reduce the number of bad labels printed by separating bad inlays before they are incorporated into the labels. So the future remains bright for RFID technology, but converters must be vigilant when it comes to the inlays they receive for their customers’ products. pP