The movie "The Graduate" has a scene in which a single phrase has become famous: "One word: plastic."Today if the movie were being re-filmed, that line might read something like "One phrase: organic electronics."

OK, OK ... maybe not.

"Organic electronics" may never become as popular in consumer parlance as "plastic," but it is a phrase I certainly have been hearing more about lately.

Organic electronics roughly means electronic components made out of plastic. Wikipedia defines it as:

"Organic electronics, or plastic electronics, is a branch of electronics that deals with conductive polymers, or plastics. It is called 'organic' electronics because the molecules in the polymer are carbon-based, like the molecules of living things. This is as opposed to traditional electronics which relies on inorganic conductors such as copper or silicon."

Some of the so-called "chipless RFID tags" you may have heard about, dispense with the silicon chip and instead use organic (plastic) electronics. (There are other methods of manufacturing chipless RFID tags, but not germane to this particular discussion.)

Chipless tags can be produced much cheaper than Gen 2 tags. However, cost is not everything, despite all the emphasis among analysts about getting to a sub-five-cent tag. As IDTechEx points out, up to now, chipless tags have been read-only and contain rather small amounts of capacity. By their very nature they do not comply with the Gen 2 standard put into production during 2005. Consequently, the use of chipless tags has not taken off in the marketplace in a big way.

Plastic tags have another challenge: they can be produced in lab or clean room settings but have not been suited to mass production environments. Great in theory -- just not practical.

PolyIC recently announced it has perfected a technique for the first 13.56 MHz plastic RFID tags capable of mass production. PolyIC is a joint venture between Siemens AG and Leonhard Kurz GmbH. If their manufacturing technique can be put into production it could mean that plastic chipless (i.e., non-silicon chipped tags) will actually start to live up to their promise, and gain some traction in the marketplace. Photo credit: PolyIC.