Controversy Erupts Over Plastic RFID Tag Claim

Filed in archive Tags and Readers on February 10, 2006

Controversy erupts in the world of RFID. Two companies are claiming to have been the first to develop a fully functioning plastic RFID tag.

Philips says that it disagrees with PolyIC, which claims to have been the first to develop the plastic tag. In this letter to the EE Times, a representative of Philips writes:

"While we at Philips may have to agree to differ with PolyIC over which of us was first to achieve a fully functioning 13.56-MHz RFID tag in plastic (see Feb. 7 story) I hope we can agree that Europe is making great progress in implementing radio frequency circuits in plastic semiconductor materials."

Don't you love the way I sensationalized this article? Controversy "erupts." Actually, this is a tame and civilized Dispute. I've seen more heated arguments at Thanksgiving dinner over who gets the drumstick.

Read more about the controversy here. And here. And here.