HF RFID v UHF RFID

What’s the difference between HF and LF RFID?

High-frequency RFID (13.56MHz) is most commonly used RFID today and is often referred to as “MiFare”. It is used within contact-less credit cards, transport tickets, event tickets and hotel room keys to name only a few of its current deployments. NFC (including Apple Pay) is a subset HF RFID 13.56MHz further standardizing this format. This frequency was chosen for these applications in part because of a good balance between security, cost and ease of use.

MiFare, iCLASS, NFC (subset of HF RFID)

Low-frequency RFID (125KHz) is the oldest kind of RFID and is commonly used as a security door card lock mechanisms and private parking gate entry. This can be read from longer distances than HF RFID which is undesirable in certain applications such as secure payments.

HiD Classic, Standard Proximity Card.

There has been much debate about which is better, High Frequency (HF) or Ultra High Frequency (UHF) RFID.

HF RFID or HFID’s (High Frequency Identification) is the most common form of RFID in use today. Used in a multitude of applications, close proximity HFID requires chips to pass through or pass in close proximity (less than one meter) of a scanner or RFID reader.

UHF RFID is more of an emerging technology that is used for remote or distance tracking. It provides the facility to write as well as read chips. For example, if a ticket holder passes through a turnstile, a RFID antenna can transmit specific access instructions to their ticket or card for the event they are attending on that occasion.

So, HF and UHF RFID are different, and are used for different purposes. Stimare RFID is in a unique position to offer combinations of both packages. This means that Stimare clients can not only read RFID chips, but can also remotely change or rewrite content as required.