Schweizer Electronic AG, situated in Schramberg, Germany, and Siemens AG Österreich, with registered offices in Vienna, Austria, have agreed to extensive cooperation for the manufacture and marketing of RFID transponders with the integrated sensor technology known as "SEAGSens". Schweizer Electronic is responsible for the manufacture of the transponders developed in collaboration with the Hochschule Offenburg (Offenburg University) and Siemens.

Siemens will assume the distribution and marketing. The SEAGSens will be used in seamless temperature monitoring, tracing and the clear identification of blood bags, medications or foodstuffs, among others. Schweizer Electronic is to operate the RFID business in the context of a "Schweizer Tracking and Tracing Solutions" business unit.


The initial situation.
To achieve the required quality level of temperature-sensitive pharmaceutic products, monitoring of the complete cold chain has to be ensured. Therefore, Schweiser designed the requirements for a tracking and tracing system for blood products in close collaboration with Siemens AG Österreich and 'Universitätsklinik für Blutgruppenserologie und Transfusionsmedizin' located in Graz.

The challenge.
The complete temperature profile of blood bags has to be monitored from vein of donor to vein of recipient. Thus, the monitoring device must be able to withstand the centrifugation processes necessary for blood fraction (up to 5,000 G) without malfunction. The operation costs per run have to be low.

The solution.
A digital sensor is measuring the temperature very accurately at a freely selectable time cycle. The microcontroller is analyzing the temperature/time data and stores up to 30,000 measurement readings in a memory chip. The memory can be read out contactlessly at any time via the RFID wireless interface (HF frontend). Schweizer developed a special housing and battery technology to ensure centrifugation ability.


The benefit: monitoring of long periods through high memory and battery capacity.
Due to the long operation time, costs per run are comparatively low. The integrated battery allows a continuous useability of more than 3 years. The temperature focused quality control reduces the wastage rate of blood products considerably. By the unique identity of each single blood bag, incorrect transfusions with all their harmful consequences are efficiently eliminated.