Passive RFID

Numerous apparel companies have reported increased sales of up to 20% using RFID to monitor shelf stock levels. It is now emerging as the first major application of RFID in retail, with a strong business case. In 2008, IDTechEx research finds that 38% of the money spent on RFID in retail is specifically for apparel tagging. Here Dr Peter Harrop, Chairman of research firm IDTechEx, summarises the findings from the new IDTechEx report RFID in Apparel 2008-2018.

One million transistors is not enough for the RFID chip in the new e-passports because, increasingly, they have to double as driver's licenses, multipurpose cards and other media.

Last year, about $2.5 billion was spent on tags and systems at HF (13.56MHz), ten times the amount on RFID at any other frequency and representing 50% of the global RFID market. Now IDTechEx tracks a rush of technology innovation and new market opportunities.

In the build up to the annual IDTechEx RFID USA event in Boston this February and the latest IDTechEx RFID forecasts, Raghu Das reviews RFID progress in 2007.

The prosperous RFID business is on track to grow from about $5 billion in 2007 today to over $25 billion in 2017. Without collusion, most analysts agree to figures in that region and several of them see huge volumes of extremely low cost tags forming a part of the growth - even hundreds of billions in ten years from now. This seems to sit awkwardly with some press reporting that RFID retail initiatives have stalled. As one of those analysts, let IDTechEx explain.

This year, for the first time, China has become the world's largest market for RFID by value. A new report

With about $5 billion being spent on RFID in 2007, of which about $2.24 billion is for tags, what are the favourite RFID specifications?

In the last few weeks alone, orders for well over US$100 million of contactless (ie RFID) smart cards and associated systems have been placed. The business is surging forward with the percentage of smart cards that are contactless rising to 16% of deliveries in 2007 after having been stuck at around 5% for the preceding twenty years. Learn more.

In 2007, approximately 650 billion articles will be sent through postal and courier systems around the world. After retail, the tagging of each postal item is the next largest potential market for RFID by volume of tags. There are numerous significant RFID roll-outs in this sector which are under publicized, and here Raghu Das from IDTechEx summarises the latest progress.

With the launch of an RFID Investment Summit to be held in Boston on Feb 20, Raghu Das, CEO of IDTechEx looks at the recent investor interest in RFID and particularly active RFID and Real Time Locating Systems.

RFID technology is moving on apace in some areas. Certainly EPC Gen2 tags have demonstrated spectacular performance improvements when tagging cases and pallets. However work is still needed.

An analysis of 75 case studies from 18 countries of Active RFID in action shows the hot sectors in this technology vertical.

Definitions of RFID frequencies

Item level tagging is going to be the biggest market for RFID. However, despite many companies wanting everything at one frequency - UHF - the limitations of far field UHF systems with water and metal have hindered this. Recently there have been big developments in near field UHF, with companies citing performance similar to that of HF tags. IDTechEx provides an independent analysis.

Definitions

The fifth - and largest - IDTechEx event RFID Smart Labels USA event

As processes are scaled up and costs have to come down, we see printed electronics increasingly being made with traditional high speed printing technology, particularly as suitably thin, high integrity inks become available. Read about this battle.

RFID tags that do not contain a silicon chip are called chipless tags. The primary potential benefit of the most promising chipless tags is that eventually they could be printed directly on products and packaging for 0.1 cents and replace ten trillion barcodes yearly with something far more versatile and reliable. Learn more from exclusive new IDTechEx research.

Active RFID is little reported, but its use is growing rapidly. New IDTechEx research

New advances in RFID technology benefit food, pharmaceutical and other key markets

It is popularly believed that HF (13.56 MHz) RFID is limited to one meter range. However, there are many reasons to seek longer range at HF and it has even been available and in use for some time.

RFID and Printed Electronics: enabling smart labels

Latest developments in batteries for RFID

The standards drivers

RFID systems consist of the following components:

An introduction to RFID standards

Which frequency will win?

Tag choices

Where RFID can help...

Definitions

Definitions

One system fits all?

The gateway to open systems

The Electronic Product Code and RFID

A basic guide to responsive label technologies

EPC, PML, ONS and Filters

RFID tags with batteries for longer ranges and/or more functionality

The Smart Label Revolution

An overview of RFID frequencies for chip based tags

The difference in data structure on tags

A comparison of the two types of RFID technologies

The size problem of UHF tag antennas cracked?

How RFID standards affect the application of the technology

It is essential to consider anti-collision in order to read many tags at a time