GoToTags is proud to announce the addition of NFC tag products to the GoToTags catalog featuring STMicroelectronics (ST) NFC chips. In the past NXP has maintained a decisive market dominance over the NFC chip production market. ST, a well-established manufacturer of electronics, semiconductors, and microchips, has responded, leveraging their expertise to establish themselves as a direct competitor to NXP. In addition to manufacturing NFC controllers to be used in NFC devices, ST has introduced a new high-quality line of NFC chips. GoToTags is now offering the new ST25TN and ST25TV chips in a large variety of ST NFC tag products.

Previously, the NFC chip market was primarily limited to the offerings created by NXP. This near monopoly on NFC chip technology is rife with problems for companies utilizing these chips. Diversification of supply is crucial to maintaining consistent production and competitive pricing. The COVID pandemic hit the world of chip manufacturing hard, creating a worldwide chip shortage, along with significantly increased demand for similar UHF RFID chips. The shortage is so extreme that governments are stepping in to increase manufacturing capabilities around the globe. The combination of low supply and a single dominant manufacturer drove price increases that went unchecked without competition. Diversification within this virtually single-company industry takes a powerhouse semiconductor production company who is willing to dedicate their expertise and resources to give the NFC chip market a next best (or potentially better) alternative. That is exactly what ST has achieved.

Founded in 1987 in Switzerland, STMicroelectronics has a long history of innovation with a focus on reliability and sustainability. Their journey into the world of NFC has produced exciting products which have proven to perform admirably compared to the NXP options. ST now offers a full suite of Type 2 and Type 5 NFC chips that match NXP’s performance and usability at competitive pricing. Prices of ST chips are equal or lower than their NXP counterparts. Additionally, the process of switching from NXP to ST chips is seamless thanks to the layout of ST chips being wire compatible, making it easy for manufacturers to implement an ST NFC chip into an inlay originally designed for use with an NXP chip.

All these factors combine to make the transition from NFC tags with NXP chips to this new collection of ST NFC chips seamless. While the chip inside may have a different name, the functionality and performance are interchangeable for most applications. These are still the same NFC tags companies are accustomed to implementing and end users are comfortable interacting with. This interchangeability does more than give NFC tag users another choice to make. This high-quality alternative will mitigate supply chain issues and lower chip prices over time with the natural progression of business competition.

A comparison matrix of NXP NFC chips to ST NFC chips:

ST’s new NFC chips offer similar features as their NXP counterparts (listed above) with a few differences. The Kill Feature is one notable feature that is available on ST chips. A common feature in UHF RFID chips, ST has found benefit in including the Kill Feature in their NFC tags, as well. Once an NFC tag has reached the end of its usefulness, ST NFC tags can be permanently deactivated, rendering it unable to be read or used ever again. This action is used in situations such as preventing tag hijacking and competitors looking to glean information about the usage of NFC tags.

GoToTags has conducted testing on NFC tags containing NFC Forum Type 2 ST25TN and NFC Forum Type 5 ST25TV NFC chips and found equal read and write performance on desktop and smartphone devices compared to their equivalent NXP chips. NFC tags containing ST chips can even be read and encoded with both the GoToTags Windows App and Encoder App. Given these findings and the fact that ST chips are equal or lower cost, we believe that the ST NFC chips are a valid, and oftentimes preferable alternative to the traditional NXP NFC chips.

Simple inlays such as the Type 2 Simple NFC Inlay – ST25TN01K (9CYND9VCEL) and Type 5 Simple NFC Inlay – ST25TV512 (6UMGQPD58N) are ideal products to test how ST chips perform for specific applications, but the full array of inlays and tags are now available for purchase in the GoToTags Store. Most of the GoToTags product catalog can now be made with ST chips via custom order and an ever-growing list of regularly stocked ST NFC tags can be found here. Contact GoToTags today with any questions or to get a sample order for engineering verification.

Security services is a $132B worldwide industry whose foundation was built on trust. Retailers, local governments, airports, corporate offices, banks, malls, and more trust that guards will execute their assigned patrols at an agreed upon frequency and be present to detect anomalies, deter undesirable activity and to respond when immediate action is necessary. The value of the service is derived from the assured safety of events, facilities, and assets thanks to this scheduled patrol. To prove that value, security companies need high quality and reliable data.

Before Connected Things technology was adopted by the security industry it was nearly impossible to prove the efficiency and completion of duties. A successful service provider could keep diligent records, engage in rigorous guard selection and training programs. However, verifying all actions were executed as promised proved very difficult. Guards could be trained, but once deployed, how could service providers guarantee that patrols were taking place as they should? Paper logs could be utilized, but they leave too much room for error and the honor system doesn’t make a trustworthy business model.

Security providers needed a way to prove to customers that the job had been executed as promised. They needed verifiable and accurate records confirming a guard visited a scheduled list of locations during their shift – proof of presence. Providers also needed a way to identify training and process optimization opportunities within their offering. They needed Connected Things.

Connected Things is the concept of linking a physical Thing to its digital counterpart, bridging the gap between the physical and digital. In the case of security patrols, each guard is a Person with a registered account in the security services software system. The guard has a smartphone with an app (called a Device) to carry with them on their patrols. This makes the Device a reliable proxy for the Person. Connected Things tags are then affixed at the location to be accounted for, making the tag a proxy for a Place.

When a guard on his rounds uses his Device to interact with the tag, a data set of time-coded interactions is built, connecting the Place to the Device used. This sequence is now documented proof that the Person visited the Place in the real world at a particular time. With this technology in place, security firms finally had the ability to prove that a specific guard was present at a specific location at a specific time. This record gives customers data-backed proof in real time that their facility is secure.

Barcodes, specifically QR codes, were the first Connected Things tags to be used to digitize guard check-ins. Barcodes rely on a printed pattern of black and white areas to store information that is read by a reader using visible light from either a dedicated barcode scanner or using ambient light and a smartphone’s camera. Each barcode is correlated within software designed for guard check-ins to the location it is placed, and security guards can easily scan the codes along their tour.

Barcodes are cheap to create and the QR code variety can store an impressive amount of data for their format (huge ones can even store the entire game Snake). They became widely used throughout the industry for their ability to validate services had been rendered as promised.

Barcodes are a great solution for many sectors and have solved tough problems for the security services industry. However, it became quickly apparent that QR codes were not the right Connected Things technology for every job.

To begin with, barcodes are not ideal for low-light locations due to their dependency on physical light. While it is not an insurmountable issue, it is a problem that needs to be addressed in the implementation process. Inclement weather can also wear away at the tag, rendering it unreadable. Finding a spot to affix the tag that is protected from the elements yet still accessible to a visible light scanner is not an achievable feat at all checkpoints.

Barcodes also fall victim to the human element. A bad actor or bored teenager can easily deactivate a barcode with a sticker or a pen; a clear example of the pen being mightier than the sword. Subversion tactics get even more creative as barcodes become more prevalent. Some enthusiasts even train themselves to read linear barcodes by sight.

If a guard is unable to successfully interact with a tag in a particular place, the guard cannot generate a digital record that they were at that place. While Connected Things technologies are extremely reliable when implemented and maintained correctly, subversion by malicious actors is always a threat, and are the main source of technical breakdowns that lead to a failed Connected Things interaction in security settings.

Malicious intent isn’t the only culprit to data fidelity failure. Even the best-trained, professional, and well-intentioned guards can fall victim to their own psychology and seek shortcuts to executing their duties. For example, a guard that is highly knowledgeable about a building they are securing may judge a particular checkpoint on their rounds to be so low risk as to not be mandatory to visit as often as the schedule specifies. They may then find technical workarounds to generate a record of a visit without actually visiting the place by taking a picture of the tag and printing a duplicate. This action breaks the critical assumption that each tag is a proxy for a specific place.

The value of a tag for security providers is its ability to be a perfect unique proxy for a location. The biggest flaw in using barcodes for security applications is that they can be easily duplicated. Technology advanced and suddenly everyone has a camera in their pocket capable of duplicating the barcode and transporting it elsewhere. An easily duplicated tag cannot be relied upon as confirmation that a guard was indeed present at that location at the time of scanning.

While barcodes are cheap to deploy initially, their vulnerability to destruction and duplication means they can be disabled repeatedly. Replacing a barcode tag can incur three types of costs and in the case of security services, all three come into play. First you have the cost of the tag itself. Replacing one might not be a huge blow to the budget, but repeated petty vandalism quickly becomes a costly operational nuisance.

Second is the human time cost. A damaged or disabled tag requires a person to travel to the location to identify the bad tag, remove the tag, come back later to install the new tag, and update the software to correlate the new tag with that location. In situations where tags are being disabled repeatedly, this process is a tedious waste of resources.

Third is the opportunity cost. During the time period between the destruction of the tag to its replacement and establishment within the software, value and revenue can be lost. While a tag is out of commission, digital records are interrupted. Reporting falls back to unreliable analog methods, destroying the continuity and reliability of the data collected for that location. The damage to data quality when tags are out of service cuts to the core of the security industry’s value proposition and is a major liability for the use of barcode tags in a security setting.

Not all projects need the highest quality data, but in the security services world, data fidelity is the difference between success and failure. Barcodes solved many problems for the security services industries, but they did not go far enough for high traffic areas and high value assets. Fixing this shortcoming didn’t require the implementation of a completely new technology, just a shift in one aspect of the Connected Things system – the tag type. Enter NFC tags.

NFC tags have fundamental differences from barcodes that give them the capability of being more secure and provide a more complete data picture than a barcode ever could. While barcodes utilize visible light, NFC utilizes an RF field. NFC tags use an RF signal generated by a reader to energize a tiny integrated circuit that stores data, requiring no separate power source. The information encoded to the tag is stored within the chip versus the visible matrix of markings printed on the surface of the tag, making NFC tags immune to the scribbles that would disable a barcode. An NFC tag requires destruction of the chip or antenna assembly to disable functionality.

Different tags are designed to withstand varying degrees of wear and tear. The array of available NFC tags includes options that can withstand wet conditions, temperature fluctuations, a degree of physical impact, and even laundering. Some NFC tags can even be hidden within products and structures to prevent bad actors from knowing the tag is present. They can be innocuously integrated into a location only the guards are aware of, like behind light switch covers or even embedded in plaster walls. A QR code is quickly identifiable as something with information and purpose, making it a tempting target for opportunists. An NFC tag’s ability to be unseen greatly reduces loss and damage operational costs for the simple fact that only a select few know it exists.

The ability to utilize NFC tags in a more tamper-resistant way already elevates them above barcodes in a security setting, but the benefits go even deeper. Each NFC tag has a chip, each with its own unique identifier (UID), which is a read-only ID encoded by the manufacturer onto the chip. When used correctly, NFC tags are much more difficult to clone than barcodes. While data encoded on an NFC tag can be cloned, this presents a far greater technical challenge than cloning a barcode.

The most secure way to use NFC tags in a security application is to incorporate the tag’s unique, manufacturer-supplied, read-only UID. This UID is immutable—if the tag is functioning it will always be able to identify itself uniquely among all NFC tags. Relying only on the user-encoded NDEF memory leaves NFC tags nearly as vulnerable to cloning as barcodes. Mobile app developers should also ensure their software validates the unique signature of the NFC chip in each tag. This signature offers proof the tag comes from a trusted manufacturer.

More readers are now capable of reading the UID directly off the chip, eliminating the need for earlier workarounds such as UID encoding. In addition to standalone NFC readers, both Android and iPhones can now verify the UID. Android has had this capability since Android 4.4. While iPhones have had a certain level of NFC capability since iPhone 6, iPhone 13 and the soon-to-be-released iPhone 14 are both capable of reading the UID on an NFC tag via native SDKs.

Deployment of Connected Things is well underway on a large scale within the securities services industry. Don’t be surprised if you haven’t heard about it before; this has been accomplished behind-the-scenes for the same reason NFC tags are often hidden from sight. Security firms, including major players like Allied Universal and Trackforce, have been using NFC tags placed at checkpoints within secured areas along the route patrolled by guards.

Beyond the data’s value to customers, security providers also use this information to improve their offerings. This accuracy-rich data also allows companies to recognize opportunities for optimization. By calculating the average time it takes a guard to complete their rounds, they can identify outliers who may need more training to stay efficient. Firms can also build more accurate quotes for customers, having an exact understanding of the manpower that is required to cover similar situations in the past. Depending on the software being used, time stamp accuracy can be calculated down to the millisecond or better, giving firms the opportunity to maximize the use of each guard.

Correctly configured NFC systems are finally giving guard tours the trustworthy assurance of proper execution that firms and customers demand.

While NFC tags are better suited for security than barcodes, it is important to choose the right NFC tag for your application. Each situation and application has unique considerations to insure tags function properly and stay operational as long as possible. It’s best to discuss your specific needs with GoToTags experts, but let’s discuss the biggest considerations you’ll need to keep in mind when choosing an NFC tag.

For security services, NFC Tokens are most commonly used. Tokens are a great option because they are rigid and are designed to hold up to the elements in varying degrees. When you’re looking for the ideal tag for your needs, ask yourself the following questions:

This question brings up several variables. The shape of the mounting surface may inform what type of tag you should use. Curved surfaces require the flexibility of an inlay or sticker. If the mounting surface is metal, electronic, or magnetic, you will need to choose an on-metal tag. These tags have a layer of ferrite shielding that allows the tag to function on these surfaces when a traditional tag would not. Other surfaces have their own challenges that need to be addressed.

Another decision that will be determined by the mounting surface is how you intend the tag to be attached. If it is a material that can be drilled into, you might want a tag that has both adhesive on the back and a center hole for extra secure mounting with a screw or nail.

NFC tags can either be purchased pre-encoded from the GoToTags store or firms can encode their own tags. Whether you buy pre-encoded tags or encode your own, the data encoded on the tags should be optimized for security and to make cloning impossible.

GoToTags works with major security services providers around the globe and has sold millions of NFC tags for security firms. GoToTags often works with corporate offices for tag selection, encoding data, and creates purchasing agreements to facilitate the ordering of NFC tags by field offices. These purchasing agreements allow GoToTags to know the volumes a customer will need in the future and maintain stock levels that are high enough to fill future orders. GoToTags also helps orchestrate general education on NFC, encoding, and security best practices like avoiding UIDs encoded into the NDEF user memory. We can even set up landing pages for field offices to purchase from directly with fast delivery from our locations in the US and Canada.

Pre-encoding by our expert team also ensures that every tag received will have consistent and reliable manufacturing quality. Retailers such as Amazon and its individual sellers do not offer pre-encoding services. If a security firm buys tags from these sources, they should plan to orchestrate encoding themselves after taking delivery of the tags.

The move to use of Connected Things technologies in the security industry has made it clear that the core value offered by security firms rests in their ability to assure customers their data is accurate. As barcode and NFC Connected Things tag technologies both advance and proliferate, firms should continue to ask themselves if their approach is maximizing the value of their data. Contact GoToTags if your firm would like help developing a Connected Things strategy that minimizes vulnerabilities and maximizes data value.

Over the past fifteen months, it’s become clear that while global supply chains are efficient, they’re also brittle. Unprecedented demand patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic led to shortages of toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and N95 masks. The pandemic also significantly disrupted labor markets and production. Pandemic disruptions have now revealed a brittleness in semiconductor supply chains that has been building for at least two decades, putting nearly all chips used in consumer products and industrial and commercial processes in short supply. Automotive ECUs, microcontrollers for factory automation, medical devices, gaming consoles, smart toasters—nearly everything requiring semiconductors—are affected.

Unfortunately, NFC, UHF RFID chips and NFC controllers are no exception to these shortages. Factories in China have reported price increases and dwindling supply for chips including the widely-used NXP NTAG213 as well as its less widely-used sibling NTAG215. The MIFARE Ultralight and Ultralight EV1 have long been more difficult to source, a problem that may be exacerbated by the current shortage. Production lead times are also increasing as a limited number of advanced semiconductor foundries are struggling to meet demand and shipping disruptions are causing delays.

NFC chip shortages create downstream disruptions as chips are incorporated into final product NFC tags. NFC chips are bonded to antennas to create NFC inlays which are then converted into NFC tags in the form of cards, stickers, tokens, key fobs, badges, wristbands, and more. Custom products like NFC stickers and cards printed with custom graphics always have longer lead times than off-the-shelf products, but chip shortages mean that firms will need to plan even further ahead to keep custom tag projects on schedule.

GoToTags is taking action to ensure chip shortages have as small an impact as possible on our customers’ projects, whether they’re using off-the-shelf tags or creating custom tags. By planning ahead and thinking creatively, companies deploying NFC tags can avoid many of the problems posed by the shortage.

In this post, we’ll discuss why these shortages are happening now, why they’re affecting NFC chips, and the steps GoToTags is taking to insulate our customers from their effects. Most importantly, we’ll detail how firms deploying NFC tags over the next twelve to eighteen months should adapt their project planning to minimize the potential for unexpected delays.

In 2021, a global chip shortage is a major problem. A wide array of products now contain integrated circuits and unavailability of chips for these products is delaying their production. However, part of the reason for the shortage is the very supply chain innovations that helped make smart products ubiquitous in the first place.

Since the early 2000s, chips have been getting more complex, compact, and capable, and the tools and knowledge to manufacture them have been getting more specialized. The industry discovered that consolidating these advancing tools and knowledge sets into fewer, more specialized manufacturers offered significant cost advantages compared to a distributed manufacturing model.

Today, major chip companies like AMD and Qualcomm do still design their own chips, but outsource their manufacture to a handful of specialized foundries (many in China) like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and Samsung Electronics. While NFC and UHF RFID chips are relatively simple, cheap, and easy to manufacture, consolidation means that in the midst of market disruptions, they are now competing with every other chip type for manufacture.

It has taken a pandemic for the semiconductor industry to reevaluate its consolidated manufacturing model, but the good news is that major semiconductor manufacturers are taking steps to insulate chip availability from future economic disruptions. Intel and TSMC are both building new fabrication plants in the US. Intel is also entering the market as a manufacturer of chips for other firms, offering more capacity and a domestic alternative to overseas fabricators more exposed to political and trade disruptions.

Chip foundries take time to build, so the security offered by these new projects may take a few years to be fully realized. Market predictions are difficult to make, but the next twelve to eighteen months of continued uncertainty may prove to be the high point of shortage-induced disruption.

GoToTags is working to ensure our inventory of commonly used products remains sufficient to meet our customers’ needs. Tactically, we’re working closely with our network of suppliers to avoid price increases while maintaining availability. As we monitor the market for NFC and UHF RFID chips closely, we’ll continue to keep customers informed on how the ongoing shortage will affect projects and the actions they’ll need to take to insulate themselves.

Strategically, we’re strengthening our partnerships with chip manufactures including NXP, STMicroelectronics and EM Microelectronic to ensure a reliable supply of NFC chip wafers. As we continue to invest in more of the chip supply chain, we’ll have more control over availability.

We’re confident that most of our standard inventory products won’t become unavailable or face major price increases. Custom products including NFC stickers and cards will pose more lead time and availability challenges industry-wide, but many of these challenges can be managed. GoToTags will work with you to develop a strategy for your custom product projects, beginning with the first steps discussed below.

Fortunately, NFC and UHF RFID chips offer a certain level of interchangeability. If a chosen chip type becomes unavailable, we’ll work with you to understand your project requirements and match them to the features and capabilities of alternative chips.

For example, the NTAG213 chip is widely used and particularly exposed to the shortage, but NTAG215 and NTAG216 chips can cover its duties. Depending on memory requirements, the reverse is also true. NXP’s MIFARE series including the Ultralight EV1 can also substitute for many applications of NTAG series chips, as can chips from other manufacturers like STMicroelectronics. In most cases, there’s an alternative chip type that can meet project needs within their feature variations.

Lead times may be up to two times longer than normal during the shortage. Planning far ahead is essential to the success of projects involving custom products. Now is the time for companies planning NFC and UHF RFID projects to meet internally and map their needs for the next twelve to eighteen months as best as possible.

GoToTags balances the capacity to support big customer projects with the personalized service of our small team of experts. As you start to define your needs for the near future, we invite you to contact us and continue the conversation about how you can beat the global chip shortage.

After more than a year of COVID-19 and labor market disruptions, increasing inflation, and generally unusual economic swings, a global chip shortage isn’t helping anyone’s sense of trust or security in global markets. The good news is that this crisis is weatherable both by individual firms who can plan ahead and by the industry. It’s leading to long term changes that may make chip availability more stable in the long run.

Jon Garrison felt it just made sense. Spokane demonstrated a progressing technology scene in a region that continued to attract talent due to aspects of a quality living like affordability and access to outdoor activities. Garrison knew that GoToTags, itself a recent transfer from Seattle, aligned with his life outlook. GoToTags also held the appeal of an international company transacting across six continents.

For over 10 years Garrison held various positions as the regional and country CFO for a Fortune 500 broadband and cable TV provider in Europe during a time of rapid progression. His focus was to create a seamless connection between the consumer and their chosen content (video, online content, or data) and connecting people to one another (fixed and mobile; voice and data). In those 10 years broadband quickly developed on three fronts: access for and uptake by customers, exponential capacity increases supporting growth in demand, and exponential speed increases facilitating new content use over broadband. The developments during this time enabled on-demand programming, online gaming, and the Internet of Things.

Connected Things became the next development in the digital world as it moved toward the potential for most physical things to have a digital identity. Connected Things simplified the digital engagement since it did not require the physical object to have a powered connection to Wi-Fi or cellular like the Internet of Things does.

GoToTags connected physical things to digital experiences. Simply tapping an enabled smart-phone to a digital tag brought the digital experience relating to that product to your screen. Garrison found if he tapped a wine bottle instantly there was a video from the winery, tasting notes, and suggested food pairings. He tapped a water ski and a professional explained the performance of that particular ski with engaging video clips. Tapping the tag at a favorite restaurant allowed one to place an order for the table without a waitperson. Next to a painting in the museum the tag allowed a patron to learn more about the artist and painting. Each of these actions was initiated by the consumer’s desire to gather immediate detailed information through a seamless digital connection.

Garrison’s company of choice captured the digital experience in the GoToTags platform accessible to the brand or company as each tap was tracked as an individual interaction with data similar to that collected through other digital channels. Analyzed data allowed the company to better understand and manage their potential customers’ interaction at the packaging-based point of sale and their customers’ product interactions through the embedded tags product life.

Craig Tadlock, GoToTags CEO/CTO and founder, expert in near-field communication (NFC) technology that enabled the connection of physical things to their digital experience, developed the leading software platform to capture those interactions in high volumes. The GoToTags’ team helped customers solve their specific application needs and deliver the physical product, encoding, and platform support as they have done for nine years. Garrison joined the team as the COO/CFO by bringing strategic vision, financial expertise, and operational management as the organization scales to meet their accelerating growth.