Printed Electronics: Chipless first generation (Glossary)

Chipless RFID tags are evolving in two stages. First have come those that are intended for closed, usually secure systems where non-conformance to standards is a positive advantage. The two big successes here have been Wiegand Barkhausen electromagnetic wire arrays in HID contactless cards for secure access, where 80 million have been sold at about $2 each and acoustomagnetic foils forming 10 cent labels in 30 million AstraZeneca Diprivan syringes for error prevention. By contrast, the largest supply of one type of chip-based RFID tag into a single application has been 80 million Innovision tags for Hasbro toys. Both of the chipless best-sellers store about 24 bits and can be interrogated at a few centimeters. The Diprivan application is error prevention by electronic handshake: the wrong drug or dose can not be dispensed. It completely eliminated such errors over the seven years it has been used and currently 4.5 million such labels are used yearly just on Diprivan.

 

See the IDTechEx report Printed & Chipless RFID - Forecasts, Technologies & Players