Cambridge, Ma. ” Going after mobile, portable and handheld Radio Frequency ID (RFID) designs requiring minimum power and space, ThingMagic, Inc., has just released its M5e-Compact embeddable RFID engine.

Built around the company's Mercury OS software, the new RF engine has a transmit power of +23dBm (200mW). EPCglobal Generation 2 DRM compliant, it is optimized for Generation 2 RFID tags.

According to Yael Maguire, ThingMagic co-founder and CTO, the M5e-Compact consumes one third of the power and is half the size (56 mm L x 36 mm W x 5 mm H) of the company's current Mercury5e, enabling a variety of RFID applications for asset tracking, warehouse and inventory management, location awareness, and other use-cases that require a powerful, customizable, yet very small RFID reader solution.

It uses the Intel RFID Transceiver R1000 chip, and is available with a development kit for creating test and use environments for Generation 2 RFID tags (samples provided).

ThingMagic M5e-Compact modules and development kits are available now on an OEM basis to manufacturers of label makers, print and apply machines, and other embedded, mobile and handheld RFID devices.