For RFID tags to replace UPC bar codes and become truly ubiquitous, they must be dirt cheap, as in a penny or two each. Two groups of researchers report that they've prototyped plastic radio-frequency identification tags (RFID) that could be far less expensive than the silicon-based circuitry in today's tags. Separate groups from Philips Research Laboratories and PolyIC presented their all-plastic devices last week. A key breakthrough is that they operate the 13.56 megahertz that's emerged as the industry standard. From Science News:
"It's not just one or two elements that we've proven in the lab. We've proven the entire thing," says Philips' engineer Leo Warmerdam…
In another talk at the conference, Markus Böhm of the company PolyIC in Erlangen, Germany, described an experimental 13.56-MHz tag that PolyIC produced last fall. This device sends back just one bit of information. "It's just a very simple signal saying 'I'm here,'" says PolyIC physicist Wolfgang Clemens.
Despite such progress, many hurdles remain before plastic RFID tags will show up in supermarkets or mailboxes. For instance, neither team used printing technology to make its device–a must for inexpensive production. Also, neither tag broadcasts its signal more than a few centimeters.
