1. RFID and the Printing Industry
A ten year view
Dr Peter Harrop
IDTechEx
Phone

2. IDTechEx is an independent strategic analyst on RFID, smart labels, smart packaging and printed electronics. Our core services provide:
Consultancy
Publications
Conferences
Clients include:
Hewlett Packard
Shell Oil
Rexam
Whirlpool Europe
Guinness UDV
Thin Film Electronics
Schiphol Airport
Major Japanese
computer, printing and packaging companies
Independent market and technology research reports covering RFID, printed electronics & smart packaging topics
Smart Labels Analyst – monthly.
Printed Electronics Review
World’s largest RFID case study knowledgebase-1800
Global Conferences: USA, Europe and Asia
RFID Smart Labels
Printed Electronics
Smart Packaging
Active RFID

3. What is RFID?
Radio Frequency Identification is the electronic reading of data on small objects called tags using radio frequencies or thereabouts
Compared to barcodes, magnetic stripes, print etc, RFID has few problems of orientation, obscuration or reading many at a time. It is also useful for other tasks.
RFID is an enabling technology

4. Reader sends signal and “reads” response
RFID System Basics
Tag
Reader sends signal and “reads” response
For range of more than a few meters, the tag may have a battery in it = “active”

5. Cumulative sales in millions of tags 1943- start of 2006

6. Evolution of RFID applications
Item level
postal,
retail,
drugs etc
in very
high
volumes

7. Possible sales in 2006 Application Number million Why Drugs item level
Pfizer, GSK anticounterfeit ….
Library, laundry, apparel 80
1-2 year payback: cost, service
Pallets/ cases
500 $0.09 billion
Big problems but will save cost/ improve service
Cards
285 $0.63 billion
China national ID: financial, security, transport
Tickets/ secure documents 25
Portugal, Japan: security, speed
Air baggage 85
Las Vegas, Hong Kong: cost, service, security
Livestock
100 $0.2 billion
New laws: safety, cost
Car clickers 46
Consumer demand
Passports 10
New laws: security
Other
131
Manufacture, health, vehicle etc

8. RFID tag numbers
Mainly
apparel
drugs
postal
retail

9. RFID “Other” tag numbers

10. Global Potential (Billion/Year)
A few examples of RFID tag potential
Global Potential (Billion/Year)
RFID Leadership
Library 0.1 Singapore
Museums, art galleries 0.1 Europe
National ID cards 0.1 China
Laundry 1 Europe
Animals 1 Thailand, S America, US, Eur.
Tires Europe
Military items 2 US
Blood 2 Europe/US
Archiving paperwork 2 US
Air baggage 2 US, China
Air freight 2 US
Drugs US
Pallets, cases 40 US, Europe
Books 50 Japan
Postal 650 Europe
Retail items 10,000 Europe/Japan/US
ITEM LEVEL IN RED

11. Passive RFID Examples

12. Passive RFID – largest item level application in retailing is apparel
Marks & Spencer, UK
Tokyo Shirt Japan
Liti, Japan
Goldwin Sportswear, Italy
Metro Germany (trials only)
DHL Fashion France

13. Many large niche markets for RFID
RFID + GSM
Press the button and the incident is recorded centrally with ID and alarm
Active with passive RFID
Locating children in theme parks and sending messages
Some use RFID + Bluetooth or WiFi

14. More roads have tolling
Reader deployment – open flow traffic at LAX airport

15. Monitors blood samples, foods, drugs
RFID labels with sensing
KSW Microtec RFID tag with printed paper battery and temperature sensing MHz, range one meter $1-2
Infratab $0.45?
Partly screen printed
Monitors blood samples, foods, drugs

16. Applications of Low Cost RFID
Logistics
Security
Safety
Traceability / product recall
Anti-counterfeiting
Proof of ownership
Product handshaking
Carrying information around
Transactions
Positioning / locating
Amusement – toys
Brand enhancement
Diagnostics
Often more than one application:
20% of applications replace nothing
e.g. car clicker, talking drugs, Star Wars toy…

17. The Electronic Product Code (EPC) System – unique ID of vast numbers of things, interrogated over the internet
EPCglobal:
Managed by GS1
Standardisation of EPC tag types and common infrastructure
Over 550 sponsor companies
RFID Tagged Products, Cases or Pallets

18. Smart Shelves
A smart shelf system for DVDs in a Tesco supermarket in the UK that has increased sales by 4% due to reducing stockouts

19. Main Uses of Low Cost RFID
2006
Secure access/financial
Transport
Supply chain
Yearly: 1.3 billion
2016
Supply chain
Security
Transport
Yearly: 593 billion
Starting to be printed directly onto packages and products for highest volumes – no need for a label?

20. The peak in numbers is later
One day, highest volume RFID will be printed directly onto things but special inks and press adaptation will be needed
RFID printed direct
Barcodes printed direct
The peak in numbers is later

21. RFID value chain

22. The end game for highest volume RFID is direct printing

23. Pallet/case tagging – largest volume in 2006/7
Mandates and recommendations e.g. Wal-Mart, Tesco, Metro, Target, Albertson’s, Best Buy, US Military etc
A relatively unproven frequency – UHF – was chosen because it sometimes has long range without a battery
Wal-Mart is making RFID data it reads available to suppliers within 30 minutes though its Retail Link extranet website  
Wal-Mart gets a payback, even though there are technical problems

24. Item Level Tagging – largest volume after 2008
… happening faster than most think
Pfizer Viagra in US NOW, ten other drug brands by end FDA mandate expected 2006/7
Library – 50 million RFID labels yearly already, laundry, large retail items, parts in manufacture, aircraft parts, luxury goods – ongoing
DHL trials on courier parcels – tender taken for one billion yearly

25. Item level RFID labelling is the big opportunity
27 billion
Item
Pallet/ case
a few billion
0.5 billion

26. Large niche opportunities for label and label-like RFID
National ID – contactless cards (HF) $2-3 each
E.g. Italy – 50 million
U.K. – 58 million?
India – 600 million?
China – 970 million (anticipated completion 2010)
Electronic passport labels (HF) $3-4 each
400m
E.g. Australia (2004 roll out)
USA (2004 roll out)
Thailand
Europe etc.

27. Hot applications driving volume to 2015
Conveyances (e.g. pallets, containers), baggage etc – smart labels (UHF)
Potential demand 35 billion per year. E.g.
Pallets and cases for consumer packaged goods
Airline baggage (2 billion yearly e.g. McCarran Airport, 100m) plus airline cargo
“5 cent tag price needed to tag all conveyances”
Procter & Gamble, Coca Cola
Billions
10c 5c
Tens of Billions

28. Progression of item level tagging
First high volume retail products are expensive items
eg computers, printers, white goods, apparel, drugs etc
Next will come other expensive products plus high shrinkage products
eg DVDs, CDs, razors, batteries, perfume, cigarettes
“One cent tag price needed to tag most items”
Unilever, Procter & Gamble
“Apparel and footwear economically tagged at today’s prices”
Accenture
2016: <10% of products/primary packages carry an RFID smart label (in addition to a barcode).

29. The Printing of RFID
Printing of the antennas at UHF (around 900MHz) and above – mainly screen then gravure
Printing antennas at lower frequencies – some screen but faster printing of thick, high definition patterns needed
Printing the replacement for the silicon chip –Thin Film Transistor Circuits TFTCs – exploring offset litho, gravure, flexo, ink jet
Wild card – ink stripes flexo, ink jet

30. Technology overview EAS (Electronic Article Surveillance 1 to 4 cents)
Acoustomagnetic, swept RF (LC), electromagnetic.
Chipless RFID (0.1 to 200 cents)
For highest volume – TFTCs, ink stripes (many others)
Passive chip RFID (10 to 800 cents)
Ticket, label, card. Chip powered by the reader.
Active chip RFID (with battery from $1 to $100)
Long range (m), real time location, sensors.
Emits continuous signal for positioning.
Increasing cost &
sophistication

31. How to make high volume RFID tags today
The only fully proven technology involves a silicon chip and an antenna
Choose between putting the chip on a strap then putting the strap on the antenna or putting the chip directly on the antenna
STRAP

32. Choose substrate and antenna technology
Experimental screen printed UHF antenna on low grade card. Chip is applied on a strap
Polyester film is the most popular substrate at present. Antenna production is still often done by subtractive processes such as copper or aluminium etching but additive processes such as printing are more economical

33. Passive RFID: Main operating frequencies
125KHz=LF MHz=HF UHF GHz
Electric antenna - beaming
Inductive antenna - flooding
A rod like “dipole” on the tag
– many shapes for different
applications but poor conductance
and resolution OK
A coil talks to a coil
– high conductivity and
accurate shape needed

34. RFID challenges and considerations
Frequency characteristics
Directionality of tags
Range
Tag size
Antenna shape
Radio regulations (e.g. global variances)
Application environment
Data on tag or network
Read-only or read-write
Multi-tag reading
Healthcare: absolute performance criteria
Cause dangerous interference in e.g. hospitals and airports

35. Tags Dead on Arrival (DoA) from supplier!
RFID Challenges and Considerations –problems with the UHF types chosen for pallets, cases and airline baggage
Tags Dead on Arrival (DoA) from supplier!
Some cases reports of >20%
Tags dead on touch (static electricity)
Severe problems with water and metal, especially at UHF
Need to print antennas at high speed with little ink – so they are cheap and do not crack
Range depends on antenna design and size and environment – many different antenna designs needed

36. FREQUENCIES – good things

37. Negatives become more extreme Negatives become more extreme
FREQUENCIES – bad things
kHz (LF) MHz (HF)
UHF 2.45GHz
Best compromise for most appllcations.
55% of tags ever made are HF and over 70% will be in 2016
Easily reflected or absorbed (read reliability problems with metal and fluids)
Health issues
Busy frequencies
Large tag for a few cms range
Range is unpredictable Expensive reader
Range usually under 1m
(signal drops as cube of
distance)
Slow data transfer Bulky tag e.g. “bullet” or
“button” at 125KHz
Negatives become more extreme
Negatives become more extreme

38. Value of sales shifts to UHF being more important but still number two
2016
MHz
MHz
2. UHF (but the largest number)
2. UHF
Cards (credit cards, secure access,
national ID etc), tickets,
library, laundry,
drugs, postal, passports,
most other items,
many conveyances
Pallets, cases, airline baggage,
some conveyances and vehicles

39. UHF tags need very different antennas for different applications

40. Solve some of the remaining problems
HF tags sometimes have screen printed antennas but they are bigger and have less range. Make them in high volume, cheaper and better
UHF tags are too large for highest volume item level and are too expensive
Good news – both UHF and HF silicon chip RFID labels will get down to 5 cents in billions and may get down to 3 cents in much larger quantities. Fully printed versions will eventually be one cent or less

41. It’s tough to handle the new very small chips
The new Hitachi Mew chip in 2006
0.15mm across, 7.5 µm thick
No supply famines?
No brittleness problems
Can go in paper etc.
Very low cost – potentially
one cent naked in tens of billions
This is the enormous old 0.3 mm version

42. Develop chipless tags – the end game for highest volumes
Acoustomagnetic million sold
Remote magnetics Simple Electromagnetic Radiation hard. Thinnest option, Barkhausen effect million sold. Very secure
Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) < 1M sold, Meets standards.
Radiation hard
Transistorless Diode based Suitable for insect tracking
circuits
Coil-capacitor (LC) Hundreds of thousands sold Thin and robust
Transistor circuits Polymer Electronics Printable onto products.
Meets standards.
Silicon film High frequencies possible

43. Develop entirely printed chipless tags – the end game for highest volumes
FIRST GENERATION: Closed systems i.e. single service provider, no standards, usually little memory - anticounterfeiting, antitamper, secure access, product diversion, in house- track and trace, automated error prevention. Acoustomagnetic, electromagnetic, LC Array SECOND GENERATION: Open systems i.e. multiple service provider, global standards e.g. EPC. Barcode replacement and more - SAW and later polymer TFTCs and maybe thin film silicon TFTCs and maybe the secret VTT/Panipol printed polyanilene label which has 96 bits read only but only at a few mm range and needs movement.

44. RFID without transistors Hidden Electronic Product Code (HidE)
Concealed printable memory for item level identification.
Compliant with RFID EPCTM Tag Data Standards*
Integrated to the package structure
Can be integrated to other functionalities
Tamper evidence, temperature sensing
Short range reading method (range up to ~mm’s)
A local electric field generated by a reading device
HIDE is decoded in less than a second when it passes through the field
lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
*Defined by EPCglobal IncTM

45. Printed thin film transistor circuits
50+ companies
Xerox, Toshiba, Plastic Logic, Epson, Canon,, IBM, PolyIC, OrganicID, 3M…
13.56MHz EPC label in 2007

46. Offset litho, flexo and gravure being tried
Experimental fully printed RFID labels - insulating, semiconducting, conducting and protective patterns
Offset litho, flexo and gravure being tried

47. IDTechEx forecast for item level tags
Billions of tags
45%
chipless?
99% labels

48. The RFID Knowledgebase – World’s largest database of RFID in action
For further information read:
Reports
RFID Forecasts, Players, Opportunities
Active RFID
Item Level RFID
Real Time Location Systems
Conferences
RFID Smart Labels Europe, London Sept
Printed Electronics USA 5-6 Dec
The RFID Knowledgebase – World’s largest database of RFID in action
Over 1800 case studies listed and growing every month.
Covering more than 1900 companies, 68 countries
Learn from the successes and failures of others
Tel: + 44 (0)