Recent developments in organic electronic materials and processing are creating new opportunities for manufacturing lower cost electronic circuits and devices, changing the way in which radio frequency identification (RFID) tags are manufactured, priced, and applied, according to recent analysis from Venture Development Corp. With additional development, VDC says, design and manufacturing process improvements this technology could become viable for the production of high-volume, low-cost RFID transponders.
“Though still inferior to silicon-based technologies, these new materials and products have the potential to significantly influence the electronic circuit and display technology industries. Seeing that integrated circuits (ICs) represent approximately 30-50% of a typical passive RFID transponder, these new developments could reduce tag prices to below $0.05– finally achieving expected pricing levels and providing a unique identification (UID) code for item-level applications,” VDC says.
Louis Bianchin, senior RFID analyst at VDC says, ‘Organic, polymer-based, or chip-less RFID tags could bring tag prices down below five cents, at which point the potential of item-level RFID tagging should be realized. An organic RFID tag, as opposed to silicon-based RFID tags, can provide higher yields, decrease material costs, and reduce the number of processing steps.”
Printed electronics are expected to influence the manufacturing process by providing fewer rejects, lower material and component costs, and simplified integration into end products. Devices based on organic electronics are still in development and are currently perceived to be inferior to those of silicon, the research firm says, but based on preliminary results, the performance of available organic semiconductor technology is sufficient for low-cost circuits used in less complex applications that require lower IC performance.
For more on RFID, go to VDC’s URL. Also search atop any page at www.controleng.com .
Edited by Mark T. Hoske , Control Engineering editor in chief