ViewTag Chooses Powercast Wireless Power Technology for Electronic Bag Tag

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Powercast Corporation, the leader in radio-frequency (RF)-based long-range wireless power technology, announced that ViewTag, the pioneer of the electronic bag tag, has selected its Powerharvester^® Chipset for battery management so that the ViewTag Electronic Bag Tag (EBT) can be reused over 3000 times.

The digital ViewTag snaps onto luggage and allows customers to tag their own bags, reducing their airport check-in experience to a simple bag drop. British Airways is the first to roll ViewTag out to its customers, with more airlines expected to launch in 2020. Passengers use their Bluetooth-enabled phone and the airline’s app to check-in, get their boarding pass and synchronize their itinerary to their tag. Passengers can also easily transfer the tag between bags.

ViewTag is equipped with radio frequency identification (RFID), Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), a digital display, a lithium battery, and Powercast’s Powerharvester Chipset, which is comprised of a wireless power RF-to-DC converter chip and boost converter IC. Powercast’s technology preserves the battery by keeping the tag dormant until it detects and harvests RF energy over the air from nearby airport RFID scanning equipment, at which time it updates the screen with the passenger’s itinerary. The tag is capable of over 3000 itinerary updates.

Powercast will display ViewTag at CES 2020 in its booth #42161 at the Sands Expo.