Printed electronics could transform RFID industry

Low cost printed electronics have the potential to transform the RFID industry, industry experts have predicted.

ABI Research said that the impact of this manufacturing technology will not be significant for some years to come, contrary to some expectations.

"Printed electronics (antennas, transistors and batteries) could eventually change the dynamics of the RFID industry," said ABI Research industry analyst Sara Shah.

"Applied directly to materials such as corrugated cardboard, they would allow manufacturers and distributors to create their own 'smart packaging' and bypass the whole RFID tag production chain."

Shah added that printed antennas that operate in the HF and UHF bands are available now, and that a large proportion of UHF RFID antennas could eventually be produced by printing.

But their ideal market, UHF supply-chain management, is growing more slowly than originally expected.

Printed transistors on the other hand, which only operate with quite low performance in the LF band and conform to no standard, are not yet available.

"When printed transistors arrive in 2008 they will not be able to compete with silicon transistors," warned Shah.

"With their low frequency operation and incompatibility with existing readers, they will not be suitable for open loop supply chains until standards emerge for item-level LF tagging.

"They should, however, carve out their own market for tagging very low-cost, non-critical objects in the meantime."

The analyst believes that printed transistors might find a role in closed-loop asset management systems which could produce viable levels of demand, especially since end-users have seen much success in this application with conventional tags.

Shah expects that printed batteries will eventually become part of the RFID market as well, enabling the addition of temperature, humidity and light sensors to RFID tags.