Compliance 📅 September 25, 2026 ⏱ 12 min read

RFID on Aircraft Parts: What AC 20-162B, AC 119-2A and ATA Spec 2000 Chapter 9-5 Actually Require

A technician sweeping a UHF RFID handheld along steel racking of boxed serialised aircraft rotables in a Part 145 stores area, with a goods-in bench read point and a part nameplate in the foreground

The document in force for RFID on aircraft parts is AC 20‑162B, face date 10/11/2018, which cancelled AC 20‑162A, widened the scope to active and battery‑assisted passive tags, and changed what it says about data format. Alongside it sit AC 119‑2A of 8/23/21 for operators and repair stations, two SAE tag standards, two free FCC sections and one paid A4A chapter — 9‑5 — that nearly every supplier page cites. This guide assembles the free, citable half of that chain from the documents themselves, then turns it into the half a buyer controls: what a stores handheld and its SDK must do.

The advisory circular in force, and how to check it

The document in force is AC 20-162B, Airworthiness Approval of Installed Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Tags and Sensors. Page one carries “Date: 10/11/2018”, “AC No: 20-162B” and “Initiated By: AIR-6B0”; the FAA’s own record shows it Active, issued 2018-10-11. Paragraph 3 cancels “AC 20-162A … dated April 6, 2016”.

The scope moved with the letter. AC 20-162A was passive-only by its title, and its paragraph 3 recorded that the revision “removes guidance on … airworthiness approval of low-power active RFID tags or battery assisted passive RFID tags.” The B edition brings them back: paragraph 1 covers “passive, battery-assisted passive (BAP), and active” tags and sensors. Paragraph 4 draws the boundary the other way — tags meeting SAE AS5678A or AS6023, and ultrahigh frequency devices meeting 47 CFR 15.245. AC 20-162B is guidance: it offers an acceptable means of showing compliance rather than adding a requirement of its own.

The two-minute edition check

Read the suffix in the AC No. field at the top right of page 1, with the face date beside it. A current specification reads “AC 20-162B” with 10/11/2018. The FAA’s current-AC export carries 20-162B and 119-2A; its cancelled export carries 20-162A and 119-2, whose PDFs are still served from the same faa.gov folder as the current ones. That is how stale citations survive, and why the suffix check belongs in the specification review rather than in the reviewer’s memory.

What the FAA asks of the data on the tag

Paragraph 6.2.4, RFID Data Format, is the one to read twice: using the standards identified in ATA Spec 2000 “is one means to ensure data standardization and traceability”. Spec 2000 is the named route — “one means to ensure data standardization and traceability” — and 6.2.4 closes by recording that applicants are not required to use it, which is why the reader must read whatever arrives.

That is a deliberate widening. The cancelled edition’s paragraph 8.3 read in full: “Passive RFID tags data should meet the latest revision of A4A Spec 2000, chapter 9-5.” One pointer. The B edition points at ATA Spec 2000 as a whole, drops the chapter-level pointer its predecessor carried, and closes by recording that applicants are not obliged to use it — so a stores reader earns its place by handling records written to chapter 9-5 and to a manufacturer’s own map alike.

6.2.1 — the plate stays primary. The marking required by 14 CFR part 45, subpart B remains on the host part, and the tag rides alongside it as “an ancillary to” that marking.
6.2.2 and 6.2.3. Tag data must agree with the readable part 45 markings. Where one plate carries both, “The human readable marking will act as the primary part marking”.
6.2.5 — a fixed identification record. Once a tag is installed, paragraph 6.2.5 asks that its identification data stay exactly as installed.

Paragraph 6.1.1 sends intended function to AS5678A or AS6023, and 6.2.6 confirms that adding a tag needs no part number roll. Three obligations therefore land on the reading equipment rather than the tag. Read what is there, in any format or revision, including records written before your software existed. Evidence that it is unaltered — report memory lock state alongside content, so the fixed-data expectation is demonstrated at receipt. Keep the plate primary — reconcile the record against the plate and raise a conflict for a human to settle.

The operator-side companion, and the chapter it names

AC 20-162B addresses certification applicants. The stores side lives in AC 119-2A, Operational Use of Radio Frequency Identification Systems Onboard Aircraft — face date 8/23/21, AFS-300, paragraph 4 cancelling “AC 119-2 … dated October 17, 2017”. Its audience includes certificate holders under 14 CFR parts 65, 145 and 147 and persons performing maintenance under part 43 — which is how a repair station stores team lands inside an AC titled “onboard aircraft”. AC 20-162B still cites the 2017 edition, so a reader following the older trail arrives at a superseded document.

5 — scope. Passive, battery-assisted passive and active devices, “only if installed on aircraft and aircraft components that comply with” 47 CFR part 15, § 15.245.
5.5.1 — hardware standard. The current editions of “SAE Aerospace Standards AS5678, Passive RFID Tags Intended for Airborne Equipment Use, and AS6023, Active and Battery Assisted Passive Tags Intended for Aircraft Use”, with testing criteria in RTCA DO-160.
5.5.2 — data content. Spec 2000 chapter 9 “defines data standardization for all RFID tag configurations”; bar code initiation and control go to section 9-4. Because tagged components move between operators through pools and OEM overhaul, the AC treats tag content held to the standard’s shareable fields as good practice, with anything proprietary kept in the maintenance system.
8.3 — birth record data. Birth record data stays as installed once the tag is on the part. A part number change during maintenance is the carve-out, and for it: “Refer to ATA Spec 2000, chapter 9, section 9-5.”
9.7.4 — retention. Data “may stay with that tag for a part’s life cycle, which may exceed 30 years”, and should be consistent with the format of, and limited in content to, chapter 9.

Paragraphs 9.7.1 to 9.7.3 and 9.5 shape software more than any read-rate figure: revision-controlled documents, proprietary data and personally identifiable information such as technician names belong in the maintenance system rather than the chip, and operators keep a manual procedure ready to take over whenever the system is unavailable. The tag holds an identifier and a birth record; who did what, when and to what result belongs in the signed record, under AC 120-78.

The chain a buyer can actually verify

Five links, one family of which costs money. Each row is a document you can name in a purchase order:

Link	Document, as its face reads	Cost	Ask for
Tag scoping rule	47 CFR part 15, § 15.245, headed “Operation within the bands 902-928 MHz … and 24075-24175 MHz” — the section both ACs scope the installed tag to	Free (eCFR, Cornell LII)	Confirmation that the installed tag falls inside the § 15.245 scope both ACs set
Reader radio approval	47 CFR part 15, § 15.247, headed “Operation within the bands 902-928 MHz, 2400-2483.5 MHz, and 5725-5850 MHz” — paragraph (a) covers frequency hopping and digitally modulated intentional radiators	Free (eCFR, Cornell LII)	The reader’s own equipment authorisation grant for the destination market
Tag qualification, passive	SAE AS5678, current revision AS5678B, Passive RFID Tags Intended for Airborne Equipment Use (issued 14 December 2006, revised 5 February 2020)	Paid (SAE)	The tag maker’s certification statement, revision letter shown
Tag qualification, active and BAP	SAE AS6023, Active and Battery Assisted Passive Tags Intended for Aircraft Use (issued 21 February 2017)	Paid (SAE)	The tag maker’s AS6023 certification statement
Data content	A4A Spec 2000, Automated Identification and Data Capture (Ch. 9), Revision 2023.1	Paid (A4A; included for ATA e-Business members)	The revision your customer or OEM encodes to
Operator records	14 CFR parts 43, 91, 121, 125, 129, 135, with AC 120-78	Free (eCFR)	The reader’s log export format and fields

Keep the first two rows apart when you draft the specification. Section 15.245 is where both ACs scope the installed tag, and its paragraph (a) applies to intentional radiators used as field disturbance sensors. The reader is a separate radio approval: in the United States an interrogator in the 902–928 MHz band is certified under § 15.247, and its evidence is the reader’s own grant. Ask for the grant against the reader, and for the scoping confirmation against the tag.

AS5678 and AS6023 qualify the tag. The reader is ground equipment, evidenced by its radio approval, its memory-map behaviour and its log. Two suppliers, two documents, two clauses. A tell on revisions: AC 20-162B names AS5678A, AC 119-2A asks for “the current editions”, and the title changed between them, from Intended for Aircraft Use to Intended for Airborne Equipment Use — so the wording in a specification says which revision its author had open.

Which document each clause comes from

A4A publishes the chapter as Spec 2000: Automated Identification and Data Capture (Ch. 9), Revision 2023.1, listed at USD 530 at the time of writing, with access included for ATA e-Business Program members. Its own description puts the scope at the permanent identification of parts, shipping and receiving identification, and traceability, with part marking by bar code, data matrix and RFID.

Every clause in this guide is traceable to a free FAA advisory circular, to the eCFR, to the free GS1 Gen2 standard, or to A4A’s own published description of the chapter, so each quotation above can be checked against a document you can open today. Three roles need the licence itself: whoever writes the data-content clause, the records owner who signs off the memory map, and the software lead implementing encode and decode. Buy it before the acceptance test is written.

What the licence adds is the normative detail the free circulars point at — the field definitions your customer or OEM encodes to, and the revision number that belongs in your paperwork. Quote that revision in the purchase order and again in the acceptance test so the two agree, and the paid layer stays a one-time purchase rather than a recurring argument.

What all this means for the handheld and the SDK

The reader-side reference is the GS1 EPC Gen2 UHF air interface standard, Release 3.0.1, ratified February 2026, free to download — the document that turns “read the identification data” into addresses.

Where identification data actually sits

A Gen2 tag has four logical memory banks, addressed by MemBank: 00 Reserved (kill and access passwords), 01 EPC, 10 TID, 11 User. Inside the EPC bank the stored CRC sits at 00h to 0Fh, the protocol-control word at 10h to 1Fh, and the identifying code begins at 20h; user memory, where implemented, may be partitioned into files, the first File_0. A part record is therefore two addresses: the code from 20h of bank 01, plus — where a fuller record exists — words in File_0 of bank 11. So the SDK must read by bank, word offset and length and return raw hex beside any decoded view: a record encoded years ago against a map nobody kept still has to come off the chip.

Lock, permalock, and the call that evidences 6.2.5

Gen2 already holds the behaviour the FAA asks for. Lock can lock, permanently lock, unlock or permanently unlock the passwords, the EPC bank, the TID bank or File_0; BlockPermalock locks user-memory blocks permanently. The property that matters: locked or permalocked identification memory is, in the standard’s words, “unwritable but readable”. Permalocked identification memory is a single tag state — permanently readable, permanently fixed. That is precisely what paragraph 6.2.5 asks for. So lock-state reporting is an acceptance criterion: at goods-in the useful read returns the record, its bank’s lock state, and the TID — with all three, paragraph 6.2.5 is evidenced on receipt rather than asserted.

TID as an anti-substitution check

TID memory carries an 8-bit allocation class identifier at 00h to 07h — E0h or E2h. Where it is E2h, locations 00h to 1Fh are permalocked at manufacture. Capture the TID with the part record at first receipt and store the pair: a swapped or re-encoded label then surfaces as a familiar part number on an unfamiliar chip — the cheapest integrity check available on a serialised rotable.

Encode, verify, and the figure that sizes the bench

A Write moves one 16-bit word at a time under link cover-coding; the optional BlockWrite moves several without it. An encode worth accepting is one scripted unit: write, read the same words back, compare, apply the lock, re-read the lock state, log a pass or fail — operator identity in the log, alongside the timestamp and the device. The figure that sizes the station is write sensitivity: a tag answers an inventory round from appreciably further than the distance at which it writes reliably, so size the encode geometry from the write figure and fix the jig at that distance.

Paragraph 9.7.4 adds the horizon: data may travel with a part for a life cycle exceeding 30 years. Pin the memory map and read procedure into the acceptance test, and keep a retained set of every tag generation in service so that test can be re-run after each firmware upgrade.

Memory location	What sits there	Clause that cares	What the SDK must expose
Bank 01, from 20h	The part’s identifying code	AC 20-162B 6.2.2	Read by bank, offset and length; raw hex plus decoded view
Lock state, bank 01 and File_0	Locked, permalocked or open	AC 20-162B 6.2.5; AC 119-2A 8.3	A lock-state query separate from the data read
Bank 10, 00h to 1Fh	Class identifier; for E2h, permalocked at manufacture	Substitution control	TID returned with every record; Select on the TID bank
Bank 11, File_0	The fuller part record	AC 119-2A 9.7.4	Block reads and BlockPermalock state

Scope, plainly: we supply the reading equipment and the software — handhelds, fixed read points, Android and Windows SDKs and the application holding the record. Airborne tag qualification under AS5678 or AS6023 is a separate standard with its own specialist supplier, which is how our manufacturing and export quotations are written.

Reading a part tag in a Part 145 stores area

A Part 145 stores area is steel racking, boxed serialised rotables with a machined face somewhere on them, tags from more than one generation, and aisles that call for a handheld rather than a portal. Calibrated tooling there is a separate population, handled in tool tracking; this is parts and their records.

The primary workflow is a handheld sweep with a defined pass pattern — bay by bay, at a fixed reader setting, written down so it repeats next quarter. Two places earn a fixed read point: the goods-in bench and the shipping bench, single-item reads at known geometry where a pass or fail means something. The sweep is ordinary inventory work; what makes it airworthiness work is the serialised asset register behind it, which keeps part record and TID paired for the life of the part.

Label choice on a machined face

An on-metal label — built with a spacer or ground plane so the metal becomes part of its antenna — is the right choice flat on a clean machined face, and it buys that performance with a thicker build, a higher unit price and a flat non-critical mounting area to sit on. Budget for both when the host surface is metal. AC 119-2A paragraph 8 asks operators to document cases where tag location affects read performance and to hold drawings making installation repeatable; 9.9 keeps the location clear of fit, form and function; 7.2 wants a replacement procedure where overhaul would degrade the tag.

Two reads, two acceptance criteria:

Cycle count — a population read. The figure is a first-pass read rate across a defined sweep of a defined bay; a miss is resolved by a second pass.
Receiving inspection — a single-item read with three outputs: record, TID and lock state, accepted at 100% on one item at a fixed distance.

Rather than quote a range, derive one: measure antenna to the deepest tag on the shelf, through whatever is stacked in front of it, and run the link budget — our power budget walkthrough works the arithmetic step by step. That number belongs in the acceptance test, tied to a named bay, tag part number and reader setting. And paragraph 9.6.2 keeps an interface open: manual inspection remains a valid path to a serviceability determination, so the manual workflow stands beside the scan as a first-class route.

Why the volume is rising

Oliver Wyman’s Global Fleet and MRO Market Forecast 2026–2036, published February 2026, puts global MRO demand at $136 billion in 2025, up 8% from $126 billion in 2024, and expects spending to approach $193 billion by the end of the decade. About 30,000 in-service commercial aircraft excluding Russia were flying in early 2026, forecast to reach roughly 41,000 by the end of the period at a 3.2% CAGR. Average fleet age approached thirteen years in 2025, maintenance deferred between 2019 and 2023 produced what the report calls a bow wave effect, and about 17,000 unfilled orders sat on the books at the start of 2026.

Read that operationally: more serialised rotables through more shops, with turnaround pressure landing hardest on the records step. The binding constraint in a stores area is rarely which shelf a part sits on; it is proving which part this is and that its birth data stands unaltered. A traceability problem ahead of a tracking problem — which is why AC 119-2A spends more text on what a tag should carry than on how far it should read.

Specifying the reader: a tender checklist

Paste into a specification and fill the blanks; the numbers belong to your shelves.

Memory map read and verify. Read any bank by number, word offset and length; return raw hex beside any decoded view; return the payload of the EPC bank from 20h or File_0 whether or not it decodes.
Lock state and TID. Lock state of the EPC bank, TID bank and File_0, locked distinguished from permalocked, as a call separate from the data read; and the TID returned with every record by one inventory operation, with Select supported on the TID bank.
Encode and verify. Write, read back, compare, lock, re-read lock state and log, as one operation returning a single pass or fail.
Log retention and export. Reads and encodes exportable with timestamp, device and operator identity and result.
SDK platform coverage. Android, Windows and whatever bridge your application needs, with a documented API and a sample project that builds.
Firmware support window. Stated in years, with a named upgrade channel and a re-run of the acceptance read after each upgrade.

The acceptance test fits in one sentence: “Not less than ___% first-pass read of ___ tags across ___ passes of bay ___, tag part number ___, at reader setting ___, per the sweep pattern in annex ___.” A testable read-rate figure names three things: the geometry, the tag part number and the pass count.

Require three things with delivery: the band configuration as shipped, per unit — our readers are built as FCC-band (902–928 MHz) or ETSI-band (865–868 MHz) variants configured per order; the reader’s own radio approval evidence for the destination market, which in the United States is its equipment authorisation grant under 47 CFR § 15.247 and which our certification documents by market guide covers market by market; and the read procedure and memory map used at encode, referenced from the acceptance test.

Scope note: this article walks the FAA route, free and citable from the radio rule to the recordkeeping clause. Before a European standard number or an authority position goes into a specification, confirm it on the issuing body’s own page.

Frequently asked questions

Does the FAA require RFID tags on aircraft parts?

RFID is an operator’s choice. AC 119-2A paragraph 1.2 records that using RFID in operational and maintenance environments is “not required by regulation”, and sets out the requirements that apply once an operator elects to use it. AC 20-162B is guidance offering an acceptable means of compliance rather than a rule of its own. Tags stay ancillary to the part marking required by 14 CFR part 45, subpart B, which remains on the part.

Is AC 20-162A still current?

The current edition is AC 20-162B, face date 10/11/2018, whose paragraph 3 cancels “AC 20-162A … dated April 6, 2016”. The FAA’s advisory circular record lists 20-162B as Active, issued 2018-10-11. The cancelled PDF is still downloadable from the same faa.gov folder as the current one, which is why specifications and vendor pages keep quoting the A edition — read the suffix and face date on page 1 before citing either.

What is ATA Spec 2000 chapter 9-5?

Chapter 9 of A4A’s Spec 2000 is Automated Identification and Data Capture, and AC 119-2A paragraph 5.5.2 says it defines data standardization for all RFID tag configurations. Paragraph 8.3 sends you to chapter 9, section 9-5 when birth record data has to change; section 9-4 covers bar code initiation and control. The chapter is a paid publication, Revision 2023.1, licensed from A4A and included for ATA e-Business Program members; every clause quoted in this guide comes from the free FAA circulars or A4A’s published description of it.

What is the difference between AS5678 and AS6023?

AS5678 covers passive tags. Its current revision is AS5678B, Passive RFID Tags Intended for Airborne Equipment Use, issued 14 December 2006 and revised 5 February 2020. AS6023, Active and Battery Assisted Passive Tags Intended for Aircraft Use, was issued 21 February 2017. AC 20-162B paragraph 6.1.1 accepts either as a means of showing intended function, and AC 119-2A paragraph 5.5.1 names both with test criteria in RTCA DO-160.

Can an RFID tag replace a part’s nameplate or data plate?

The human-readable plate remains the primary part marking. AC 20-162B paragraph 6.2.1 makes the tag “an ancillary to” the marking required by 14 CFR part 45, subpart B, and the host part continues to carry that marking. Paragraph 6.2.2 requires tag data to agree with the readable marking, and on an integrated nameplate paragraph 6.2.3 states that “The human readable marking will act as the primary part marking”. Design the workflow so the scan confirms the plate.

How long does aircraft part RFID data have to survive?

AC 119-2A paragraph 9.7.4 notes that data written to a tag “may stay with that tag for a part’s life cycle, which may exceed 30 years”, and should be consistent with the format of, and limited in content to, chapter 9. In practice the reader bought this year must read records encoded years earlier, so the memory map and read procedure belong in the acceptance test, with a retained tag sample set for re-testing after firmware upgrades.

What should a Part 145 stores RFID tender specify?

Bank-addressed reads that return raw hex, lock-state reporting that distinguishes locked from permalocked, TID capture with every record, a scripted encode-and-verify returning one pass or fail, exportable logs with timestamp and operator identity, named SDK platforms, and a firmware support window in years. Then an acceptance test written as a first-pass read rate on a named bay and tag part number over a named number of passes, with band configuration and the reader’s own radio approval evidence for the destination market supplied on delivery.