Passive gamma-resistant RFID tags integrated into gamma-sterilizable pharmaceutical components

The single-use bioprocessing is an attractive new approach of biopharmaceutical manufacturing. Digital identification of single-use bioprocess components is critical to facilitate their asset management, to document electronic pedigree, and to provide authentication. This identification can be achieved using radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. In this study, we critically analyze the challenges for the gamma-sterilizable RFID tag technology to retain the reliable read/write ability of the tags after their gamma irradiation. In RFID tags, the gamma radiation induced loss of device performance (i.e. the ability to reliably write and read data from an integrated circuit (IC) memory chip) originates from two independent sources such as (1) radiation effects on the non-charge-based storage memory material and (2) radiation effects on the performance of analog and digital circuit components of an IC memory chip device. Our interdisciplinary knowledge of product design, analytical instrumentation, RF engineering, and Six Sigma statistics has resulted in the design and implementation of the tag interrogation concept that insures the high reliability of tag read/write after the gamma irradiation.