Whether they’re filled with insulin, anti-thrombosis medication, or other medicinal substances—injection pens have versatile uses and become firmly established in healthcare. When it comes to dispensing drugs, not only the pen’s content plays a key role but so does the related NFC label enabling a medication to be identified, authenticated, and tested for its expiration etc. by means of a smartphone and app. To ensure truly trouble-free readability of the smart pens from any angle, the experts from Schreiner LogiData have achieved a decisive evolution of the label antennas.

In many cases, the inscription “Scan here” indicates where users need to position their smartphones for reading the label. But what if there’s no such description? “That’s when readability must be ensured from truly any position,” said Team Leader Hartmut Wiederrecht, explaining the situation prompting the further technological development and the requirement from the Schreiner MediPharm business unit as the expert in the pharmaceutical sector.

Emission Characteristics of Inlays

To obtain a precise idea of what inlay has what kind of emission characteristics, the team used various NFC antennas, software specifically developed for that purpose, and a highly complex design that the experts developed and optimized over a longer period of time based on in-depth technical knowledge. “It was fascinating to see the differences in the antennas’ performance in various orientations,” Wiederrecht recalled. “And I’m honest, a particularly small antenna did pose a few challenges to us.” Yet the extensive photogrammetric image makes it possible for the RFID experts to enhance the design and to precisely optimize the NFC antennas for pen labels.

Valuable Findings

The measurement setup provided the Schreiner LogiData team with valuable findings. Not only serving as the basis for current projects, they also drive the development of future solutions to ensure that customers will enjoy reliable NFC data transmission even under challenging conditions.