RFID silicon chip replacement set to rekindle interest

“There is huge interest in replacing the silicon chip in an RFID tag, and nowadays that is driven by more than cost,” says Dr Peter Harrop, chairman of RFID consultancy IDTechEx. “Various alternatives being developed across the world, such as edible tags on meat, and tags that work at exceptional distances without a battery, are showing critically improved performance. “Some are exceptionally thin and, of course, that cost saving of up to 90% is vital for really high volume tagging of postal and consumer items, which can never be achieved using silicon chips.” Harrop cites companies such as Kovio, Sologie and Sun Chemical, which presented their work at the recent Smart Labels USA event on the possibilities of using printed electronics on RFID tags. Kovio’s keynote presentation covered nano-silicon printed RFID, and explained how it intends to commercialise the technology by the end of this year, and enable it to conform with the most popular RFID specification, ISO 14443. The organisation says it will be working with Cubic Corporation to launch RFID tickets as its first product.