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The Amtech AT5110 identified railroad equipment with passive RFID: a trackside reader supplied radio energy, and the tag reflected that signal in a pattern that encoded its ID. Because it harvested power from the reader rather than using a battery or making its own radio transmission, it could be read as a railcar passed a wayside reader. The tag was part of the technology behind North American AEI, or automatic equipment identification.
How the AT5110 reads a moving railcar without a battery
EE Times’ 2006 teardown describes the AT5110 as a passive backscatter tag operating at 915 MHz. A wayside interrogator sends an RF signal toward the passing car. The tag’s antenna captures energy from that signal and converts it to DC power for the integrated circuit. The circuit then changes how the antenna reflects the incoming radio wave, encoding the tag’s identifier in the returned signal. The reader detects that modulation and decodes the ID.
In other words, the tag does not generate a radio signal of its own. It briefly uses the reader’s signal both to power its electronics and to carry its response back. That is what makes battery-free identification possible; the reader and tag must still be positioned and configured so the reader can energize and detect the tag as the car passes.
What is inside the tag
EE Times reports an Atmel IC and 120 bits of ID data stored in EEPROM. The teardown also describes a sealed enclosure designed to withstand water, dust, temperature exposure, and vibration. Its listed service life was “indefinite”; that is the specification EE Times reported, not a guarantee that every installed tag lasts forever or never needs inspection.
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#1 Best Overall
- Important Note: These are blank cards without pre-programmed card numbers. You cannot directly add them to RFID locks or use a card reader to read them. Before use, you must first write data(card numbers) into them by a 125KHZ RFID card writer. They are not IC cards or NFC cards. They don't work for TTLock or Tuya smart locks which use 13.56MHZ frequency. More product info and FAQ is listed in the Product Description. Please read the description before purchase.
- Round-coin-shape sticker, with adhesive back. You can stick it on other stuff (but not metal) if necessary.
- Frequency: 125kHz; Chip: ATMEL T5577 (compatible with other universal 125kHz tags); Sensing Distance: 2.5 to 10 cm (1 to 4 inch); Data Storage Life: 10 Years.
- Writable & Rewritable. It can be erased and written 100,000 times. Suitable for making new and back-up tags.
- Approx Size: 25mm Diameter, 1mm Thickness. Casing Material: White PVC Plastic. Waterproof & Durable. Package includes 10 PCS.
What an AEI tag means
AEI stands for automatic equipment identification. In this rail context, an AEI tag is a transponder attached to a car or other railroad equipment, carrying an identifier that trackside readers can collect without a person manually recording the passing equipment. The AT5110 was one Amtech transportation tag used on railroad equipment; it later sat within TransCore’s transportation RFID lineage.
AEI is the identification system and standardization effort, not simply a synonym for any RFID sticker. The rail deployment depended on tags mounted on cars, readers installed at wayside locations, and compatibility with the adopted standard. A generic consumer RFID label or hobby reader is not a drop-in substitute for that system.
Rank #2
- Frequency: UHF 860-960MHZ Chip: ALIEN Higgs-3
- Protocol: EPC Class1 Gen2, ISO18000-6C
- EPC: 96bits ,TID: 32bits User: 512bits
- Reading distance:1~8 meters(depends on the Reader)
- Applications: Supply Chain Management; Distribution Logistics; Product Authentication; Asset Inventory and Tracking; Baggage Handling and Tracking
How Amtech’s approach became the North American AEI standard
Softrail’s AEI history traces the standard to a renewed Burlington Northern search for automatic railcar identification in 1986, after earlier optical ACI systems had failed. The subsequent trials compared competing transponder approaches before the rail industry settled on a common system.
- January 1988: Burlington Northern equipped 1,500 taconite railcars in northern Minnesota with both General Railway Systems and Amtech transponders. It installed three wayside reader sites for each vendor.
- Six-month test: Burlington Northern reported accuracy above 99.99% for both systems. The result was presented at the AAR Communication and Signal Annual Meeting in 1988 and prompted the railroad to ask the Association of American Railroads (AAR) to create an AEI standard.
- August 1989: The AAR told vendors that Amtech’s technology had been selected.
- Summer 1990: After evaluating side and under-car placements, the AEI committee decided that each car should carry two tags, one on each side.
- 1991–1994: The AAR made the standard mandatory in 1991. The implementation period ran from 1 March 1992 through 31 December 1994, with a target of tagging all 1.4 million cars in North American interchange service.
According to the historical figures reproduced by Softrail, more than 3.1 million Amtech tags had shipped by 31 December 1994, and more than 95% of the North American railcar fleet was tagged by that date. Softrail also reports more than 3,000 readers installed by the end of 2000. These are historical deployment figures, not measures of present-day coverage.
What matters when evaluating a rail RFID system
The historical AEI experience and the AT5110 teardown point to several practical comparison criteria. A strong read result in a trial is only one part of a system: readers must cover the route, tags must be mounted where they can be read, and the hardware has to withstand railway operating conditions.
- Read accuracy at speed: Assess accuracy under the operating conditions that matter, including the speed and traffic patterns in scope. Burlington Northern’s above-99.99% result was for its six-month 1988 test of the two transponder systems; it is not a universal performance guarantee.
- Reader coverage and placement: Consider where wayside readers are installed and whether their coverage suits the routes being monitored.
- Tag mounting and maintenance: The AEI committee’s choice of two tags, one on each side, followed testing of side and under-car placements. Placement affects exposure, accessibility, and the chance that a reader can see a tag.
- Environmental durability: Check that enclosure design addresses dust, water, vibration, and temperature extremes relevant to the railway environment.
- Standards compatibility: Confirm that tags and readers work within the applicable AEI system rather than assuming all RFID equipment is interchangeable.
- Identifier capacity: The AT5110 teardown reports 120 bits of ID data in EEPROM. Compare identifier requirements with the actual capacity and format supported by the system.
- Lifecycle requirements: Consider how tags are inspected, replaced, and managed over time. The AT5110’s “indefinite” listed service life does not eliminate the need to evaluate lifecycle practices.
What the AT5110 demonstrates—and what it does not
The AT5110 is a concrete example of passive RFID adapted to rail operations: reader-supplied power, backscatter identification, a sealed tag enclosure, and deployment as part of a standardized system. Its significance is not that every RFID tag can identify any train car, but that a coordinated tag-and-reader network can automatically identify tagged equipment as it passes suitable readers.
Rank #4
- Chip:T5577 (compatible with other universal 125kHz tags),Frequency: 125kHz
- Note: You canNOT add them to RFID locks directly. They are blank RFID tags, no data inside. You need to use a 125kHz RFID card writer to write card number into them to use. Round-coin-shape sticker, with adhesive back. You can stick it on other stuff (but not metal) if necessary.
- Writable & Rewritable. It can be erased and written 100,000 times. Suitable for making new and back-up tags.
- Size: 25mm Diameter, 1mm Thickness. Casing Material: Black PVC Plastic. Waterproof & Durable. Package includes 10 PCS.
The historical account establishes the development and rollout of North American AEI, while the 2006 EE Times teardown documents this tag’s reported design details. Those sources do not establish current fleet coverage, present-day product availability, or performance of newer rail RFID systems.
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