DataMatrix-Code

The two-dimensional DataMatrix-Code is an advancement of the one-dimensional barcode, known from many food packagings. With the DataMatrix-code information is very compactly displayed in a square or rectangular zone as pattern of dots.

Information in the DataMatrix-code is displayed in two layers, in the horizontal and the vertical. In contrast to the barcode, with the DataMatrix-code much more information can be printed and thus the information density can be increased. It is oftenly used for labelling in the automotive engineering, with analytical apparatuses and instruments (chemical and pharma industry) but also increasingly used in the handling of documents (tickets, mailing).

The DataMatrix-code ensures that in case of illegibility of 25% of the information fields, the data can still be readl without error, for example when parts of the code are covered or destroyed. This advantage of the high readability is ensured by redundant data, which is present in different parts of the DataMatrix and encoded by the ECC (error correction code).

The DataMatrix-code offer a significantly higher security against fraud and is much safer to read than the barcode. Because the DataMatrix-code offers the ECC, it replaces more and more the barcode.