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Item Level RFID - Forecasts, Technology, Standards

By Dr Peter Harrop, Raghu Das and Glyn Holland

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Description

It used to be thought that item level RFID meant little more than tagging very low cost retail items - something to do last of all. However, it has become big business in parallel with pallet, case and other tagging and far more profitable because it gives excellent paybacks to everyone, not just retailers. Indeed, the biggest opportunities in the near future are not in supply chain efficiency at all. Archiving, including libraries, the anti-counterfeiting of drugs etc. and the location and monitoring of standing assets in hospitals and the military are driving the market at present.

Retail apparel, jewellery, rented apparel/ laundry, aircraft parts, general components and equipment are also being profitably tagged. In contrast to pallet and case tagging - something of a financial disaster for most RFID suppliers and their customers, the consumer goods manufacturers - item level tagging often involves safety and security. Customers demand quality and often extra functionality. They are prepared to pay for this.

IDTechEx has invested massively in research in China, Australasia, North America, Europe and elsewhere and it has searched of its unrivalled database of 2100 RFID case studies in 81 countries. Experts have been widely interviewed and IDTechEx experts have distilled their own analysis, which includes surprises such as how the Chinese are both leapfrogging the technology and getting near to placing very large orders.

In this report you will understand the coming playoff between Near Field UHF and HF, the evolution of standards, winners and losers, detailed paybacks by applicational sector and much more besides. It describes the next wave of very large orders - not for what is popularly believed and not where most of the industry predicts it will occur. Get ahead with this unique resource, the antidote to superficial Western newsletters, press releases and the pronouncements by interested parties about how their frequency or technology will conquer all.

The second report: Item Level RFID - 100 Case Studies, Paybacks, Lessons Learnt concentrates on one hundred users' case studies, paybacks and the lessons learnt. Buy both reports and receive a massive discount.

Table of Contents

	EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
1.	EXPERIENCE OF ITEM LEVEL TAGGING - AN INTRODUCTION
1.1.	Library
1.2.	Healthcare
1.3.	Rented textiles/ laundry
1.4.	Retail apparel
1.5.	Footwear
1.6.	Gas cylinders, beer kegs
1.7.	Food
1.8.	Tires
1.9.	Assets
1.10.	Parts, components, equipment, supplies
1.11.	Postal
2.	TECHNOLOGIES
2.1.	Systems issues
2.1.1.	EPCglobal and The Internet of Things
2.1.2.	EPCglobal NetworkTM
2.1.3.	Middleware
2.1.4.	Read vs read write
2.1.5.	Early filtering of data
2.2.	Passive tags
2.3.	Active tags
2.3.1.	Real Time Locating Systems (RTLS)
2.4.	Frequencies
2.5.	Near Field UHF vs HF for item level tagging
2.6.	Radio regulations
2.7.	How converters can make item level RFID labels
2.7.1.	Low cost entry - wrapping the electronics
2.7.2.	Making the antenna as well
2.7.3.	Getting involved with chips and batteries
3.	NEEDS BY APPLICATIONAL SECTOR
3.1.	Summary
3.2.	Books
3.2.1.	Libraries
3.2.2.	Books in retailing
3.2.3.	Books at manufacture
3.3.	Drugs anti-counterfeiting
3.3.1.	Supply chain
3.3.2.	Attitude of legislators and the industry
3.4.	Compliance monitoring packages
3.4.1.	Patient compliance
3.5.	Error prevention in general
3.6.	HF vs UHF for pharmaceuticals and other volume products
3.7.	Other healthcare
3.7.1.	Assets
3.7.2.	Recording information - hearing aids etc
3.8.	Healthcare needs satisfied in 2016
3.9.	Retail items
3.10.	Document management and archiving
3.11.	Tires
3.12.	Aircraft and other parts and tools
3.13.	Postal items
3.14.	Military
3.15.	Industrial parts and equipment
3.15.1.	Beer kegs and gas cylinders
3.15.2.	Components and replacement parts
3.16.	Privacy issues
3.17.	Success factors
4.	STANDARDS
4.1.1.	Benefits of standardisation
4.1.2.	Types of standard
4.1.3.	Open and closed application systems
4.1.4.	Standards organisations
4.1.5.	Types of standard relating to item level RFID
4.1.6.	ISO 18000 and Gen 2
4.1.7.	Market reach of UHF vs HF standards
5.	MARKET FORECASTS AND TIMELINES
5.2.	Unique volumes and requirements
5.3.	Rapid change in technology
5.4.	Benefits
5.5.	Increase in printing of item level tags
5.6.	Impediments to item level tagging
	APPENDIX 1: IDTECHEX PUBLICATIONS
	APPENDIX 2: GLOSSARY
	APPENDIX 3: INTRODUCTION TO RFID
	APPENDIX 4: UBIQUITOUS ID CENTER, JAPAN
	APPENDIX 5: EUROPEAN RADIO REGULATIONS AT UHF
	TABLES
2.1.	Basic EPC coding structure
2.2.	Comparison of potential features of HF and NF UHF item level tags
2.3.	Frequency preferences for item level and baggage tagging in 2006
3.1.	Examples of global potential for numbers of item level tags and benefits by sector
3.2.	Short and Long Term Anticounterfeiting Strategies
3.3.	Telemetry technologies available and their drawbacks for patient monitoring
3.4.	HF vs UHF for pharmaceuticals
5.1.	Total item level market value in $ billion
5.2.	Global demand for item level tags 2006-2016
5.3.	Number of items shipped yearly by those global leaders that are interested in item level RFID
5.4.	Item Level applications in 2006 by number sold globally and other details
5.5.	Typical 2006 selling prices and quoted prices of RFID tags for various item level applications at one million quantities compared with pallet/case tags
5.6.	Item level unit sales of RFID tags by application 2006-2016 in billions yearly
5.7.	Item level tag price in US$ cents by application, 2006-2016
5.8.	Item level tag value $ billions by application, 2006-2016
5.9.	Systems and software value in $ billion by application, 2006-2016
5.10.	Examples of global potential for numbers of item level tags and benefits by sector
5.11.	Some of the leading territories and users so far by applicational sector
5.12.	The unequal share of gain and cost of item level tagging between retailers and their suppliers
5.13.	Level of item level tagging activity across the world
5.14.	The regions with the most ambitious item level rollouts
5.15.	Some US regulations driving item level RFID
	FIGURES
1.1.	Library label
1.2.	DVD for library with UPM Raflatac annular HF label showing through from underside
1.3.	The Tagsys HF RFID label used to tag items of Pfizer Viagra, GlaxoSmithKline Trizivir and other drugs from other suppliers
1.4.	Symbol RFX6000 1x1 Pharmaceutical UHF RFID tag. Actual size: 25.4mm x 35.1mm
1.5.	Plastic moulded RFID tags for laundry
1.6.	Tagging and interrogating laundry in France
1.7.	Disposable paper stitched tag used for stock control on apparel by Marks and Spencer. This folds from top to bottom before stitching. The RFID insert is shown to the left of where it is embedded in the tag. The insert is the size of a credit card.
1.8.	ChampionChip race timing tags that are attached to marathon runners' shoe laces, racing bicycles etc. The middle picture shows the LF inlet, magnified. This inlet is moulded into the two types of plastic fixture shown in the picture.
1.9.	On the right, a one centimeter thick, three centimeter diameter LF tag made by Sokymat for TrenStar the asset manager and RFID system integrator, compared with an HF label of the type that can also be used on some very metallic objects, shown on the left
1.10.	Time temperature recording label, including printed battery, for monitoring food, medical supplies etc.
1.11.	Enlarged picture of a UHF RFID insert for moulding into tire sidewalls when made into a protective label
1.12.	UHF RFID label containing the above insert for moulding into tire sidewalls, actual size
1.13.	Parasitic WiFi RFID tag for RTLS on assets etc, about 45 x 25 millimeters
1.14.	UHF RFID label used in the trials.
1.15.	Flap unit duplex actuator unit RFID tagged in the trials
1.16.	One version of item level RFID trialled by DHL on courier packages
2.1.	The Object Naming Service (ONS) tells computer systems where to locate information on the Internet about any object that carries an EPC (Electronic Product Code).
2.2.	EPCIS in the EPCglobal Network
2.3.	ZigBee modules by Telegesis
2.4.	Some examples of the different tags at the four main frequency bands.
2.5.	An exaggerated view of the difference in interrogator and tag cost for item level RFID at the different frequencies.
2.6.	Frequencies - the good things. With hoop antennas, HF can give several meters range
2.7.	Frequencies - the bad things
2.8.	Early pallet/ case tag at top compared with item level tag at bottom, both being Far Field UHF constructions
2.9.	Demonstration of NF UHF multitag reading of tagged balls in water by Impinj. The reader is the black base to the water tank
2.10.	Second demonstration of NF UHF multitag reading on small items by Impinj
2.11.	Progression to high speed printing of both UHF and HF RFID antennas
2.12.	A student railway discount sticker for China made by Shenshen Hyan Microelectronics in China using Parelec ParmodTM silver ink printed direct onto paper, no inlet being needed. First order in 2006 was for 15 million. Potential over 100 million yearly
2.13.	TAGSYS AK Tag Module on a FF UHF antenna
2.14.	One of the Impinj designs of FF UHF label for pallets and cases compared with its design of an H Field NF UHF label for small items.
2.15.	Combined NF/FF UHF labels and, top right, an H field NF UHF label
2.16.	The KSW Microtec combined UHF tag Taurus ™
2.17.	Global UHF allocations of license free bandwidth
2.18.	The TAGSYS HF tag that it claims is the smallest EPC inlet in the world
2.19.	A strap attached to a screen printed silver antenna for UHF RFID and, right, the picture enlarged
2.20.	Top: A screen printed silver UHF Near Field Far Field antenna for items by Alien Technology. Bottom: an etched aluminium HF antenna the size of a credit card by Expnotech. A screen printed version would look similar.
2.21.	RFID chip from Hitachi Mu Solutions with antenna on the surface
2.22.	The smallest RFID chips in the world, from Hitachi Mu Solutions and some of the benefits.
2.23.	A printed carbon zinc battery from Thin Battery Technologies as used in Sealed Air Time Temperature Recording (TTR )RFID smart labels
2.24.	The web assembly process of Thin Battery Technologies
2.25.	A probable scenario for the part taken by printing in the global market for RFID tags in 2016
3.1.	Level of non-compliance for different medical treatments
3.2.	RFID enabled patient compliance blisterpack from Information Mediary, Canada with sensors and electronics revealed
3.3.	Usage and background data is read from the device and logged
3.4.	Luer connectors in 'wrong' configuration
3.5.	Luer connectors in 'correct' configurations
3.6.	Traceability / medical devices in a manufacturer/distributor
3.7.	Traceability / medical devices within a hospital situation
3.8.	Applying Coil-on-Chip to hearing aids
3.9.	Square CoC tag chip enclosed in protective plastic coating
3.10.	How the intelliaid™ system works
3.11.	Intelliaid™ scanners
3.12.	Smart shelf for the simultaneous interrogation of large numbers of test tubes.
3.13.	Primary healthcare benefits of 11 billion item level RFID tags in 2016 by number
3.14.	A smart shelf system for DVDs in a Tesco supermarket in the UK that has increased sales by 4% simply by reducing stockouts.
4.1.	Maximum range vs memory for RFID applications under various core standards, with UHF tags not being widely available with more than eight kilobytes of memory.
5.1.	Total item level market value in $ billion
5.2.	Value of global demand for item level tags 2006-2016 in dollar billion
5.3.	Evolution of item level RFID by tag price showing earliest date of mass adoption of leading application in each price band
5.4.	Item level unit sales of RFID tags by application 2006-2016 in billions yearly
5.5.	Item level tag value $ billions by application, 2006-2016
5.6.	Systems and software value in $ billion by application, 2006-2016
5.7.	Possible scenario for value of item level RFID tags by application in 2016
5.8.	Possible scenario for number of item level RFID tags by application in 2016
5.9.	A probable scenario for the part taken by printing in the global market for RFID tags in 2016