Printed RFID: thanks for the memories

Sara Ver-Bruggen - 26 Jan 2011

Printed electronics developers are teaming up to exploit a new boom in RFID.

In 2010 the retail industry has been responsible for reigniting interest in RFID item-level tagging. Changing its tack Walmart, which previously pushed RFID tagging onto suppliers by making them tag pallets of stock, has been working with some of suppliers to implement electronic product code (EPC) labels at the point of manufacture so it can also benefit by streamlining its supply chains through better inventory control.

Demand for mobile phones with the ability to read chips will also drive the adoption of item-level product tagging. In Japan, where the market for near field communication (NFC) smartphones numbers over half a million, cashless payments are the largest application - but the trend for using phones as interfaces for gaining product, marketing and promotional information is growing.

More brands and retailers are investing in smart product labelling and tagging. Apple's patent for a mobile device integrated with an RFID reader suggests the firm is preparing to exploit this smartphone evolution and pave the way for wider RFID adoption at the product level.

Rewritable RFID

While most printed RFID efforts are focused on developing write once organic RFID devices, Norway-based developer of printed polymer memories Thin Film Electronics has turned its attention to commercialising a chip with the capacity to be repeatedly rewritten as the platform for future flexible electronic systems.

The company spent its formative years developing a high-density memory by depositing a polymer over a silicon circuit.

As 'flash drive' technology became popular, however, it switched its focus in 2006 to developing memory tags for standalone applications. These were targeted at the toys and gaming industry, to develop physical games such as trading cards with online interactivity.

The gaming applications should arrive during 2011, providing Thinfilm with a first commercial market to supply. Over the past two years production partners in Korea and Germany - InkTec and PolyIC respectively - have proven the production of the memories on their proprietary roll-to-roll (R2R) presses, using print techniques such as gravure. PolyIC also makes passive organic RF circuits on its line, currently used in tickets.

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This article appears in full in Volume 3, issue 3 of +Plastic Electronics magazine, analysing the route to market for printed memory and RFID in 2011-12.
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