CHAPTER 3
RECENT PARADIGM SHIFT IN RFID AND SMART ANTENNAS
3.1 INTRODUCTION
In the preceding chapter, a comprehensive review of the RFID technology was presented. The definition of the enabling automatic identification technology (RFID), its tag and reader architectures, different generations of RFID tags and readers, global standards and mandates, and, finally, the emerging application areas of the tag have been explained. In the very last section of the preceding chapter, the significance of the chipless tags compared to the expensive chipped tags has been highlighted. It is imperative that the tag must be chipless to compete with the trillions of optical barcodes printed per year. Figure 3.1 shows the projection of the RFID tag price versus the total usage of tags over 16 years starting from 2004 as reported by IDTechEx [1]. As can be seen, the RFID tag will replace the trillions of barcodes if they can be made for less than a cent. This will only be possible if the tags can be made possibly by direct printing on product or package like optical barcodes. According to the prediction, this will not happen soon and it may take more than a decade to reach to that level from its current status of more than 10 cents a tag (2009). Technical challenges in designing printed electronics at RF frequencies are the main hindrance of producing a tag for less than ...
