EPC stands for Electronic Product Code. It was conceptualized by the Auto ID Center at MIT. This organization developed the concept during an ambitious project meant to enable the identification of all physical objects. In a supply chain context this meant tracking of every manufactured unit on a global scale using unique serialized identifiers (license plates).

This concept came complete with the idea of have a global extranet managed by a global entity, a global entity responsible for managing and assigning unique ranges of identifiers to the manufacturer’s of the world (similar to the Uniform Code Council), an Object Naming Service, Physical Markup Language, a specific format of data for the serialized identifier (EPC), and a means by which the RFID tag communicates with an interrogator (air interface). The goal was to create an Internet of physical objects.

The Auto ID Center has since spun off a portion of the group dealing with the specifications of EPC into a not for profit organization named “EPC Global, Inc.”. For more information on this organization refer to this web site www.epcglobalinc.org. The portion of the original group that provides Lab testing and engineering remains part of the Auto ID Center.

The Electronic Product Code is a unique identification scheme that contains four distinct partitions:

This data structure is currently supported in several Classes of EPC and is available in more than one length scheme. For example there are 64 bit and 96 bit versions of EPC. Other versions include data capacities of differing sizes and types. Wal-Mart has focused on the use of a minimum of 96 bit EPC codes. This size may be increased with the pending Class 1 Generation 2 specification.

An example of a 96 bit EPC code

It has been estimated that using this identification scheme one could uniquely identify every grain of rice on Earth.

A few of the most recently visible EPC Classes for Ultra-High frequency (915 MHz), Passive RFID tags are described below:

There are other classes pertaining to High Frequency (13.56 MHz) passive, write/read many passive, semi active and active tags. These specifications exist but have not been the focus of such retail giants as Wal-Mart and Target.

Please call 1-877-526-3365 or email us at sales@ilsrfid.com for further information.