Printable RFID Tags

Printable RFID tags could replace bar codes to make checking out of a store a snap

Newly developed radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology could usher in the era of checkout line-free shopping. The inexpensive, printable transmitter can be invisibly embedded in packaging offering the possibility of customers walking a cartload of groceries or other goods past a scanner that would read all the items at once, total them up and charge the customer’s account while adjusting the store’s inventory.

More advanced versions could even collect all the information about the contents of a store in an instant, letting a retailer know where every package is at any time.

RFID tags are almost everywhere already. They are being used to identify and track everything from farm animals to shipping containers and passports to library books. But to date RFID tags have been largely silicon-based. Paper or plastic tags printed as part of a package would cut costs dramatically and the roll-to-roll technique, which uses a gravure process rather than inkjet printers, could replace the barcodes that currently appear on just about everything we buy.

The researchers have already developed a three-step process to print one-bit tags, including the antenna, electrodes and dielectric layers on plastic foil. Work is underway on 16-bit tags that would hold a more practical amount of information and be printable on paper as well.

Gizmag