Printable Nanocircuits: The barcode killer?

Filed in archive Tags and Readers on March 29, 2010

Is the end of barcode technology near? If we believe the words of South Korean researchers then they have developed a technology for printing RFID circuits on plastic films. This could mean that RFID tags might be available for as less as a penny.

A new version of RFID tags is expected to hit the market this year using printed transistors based on carbon nanotubes. Sunchon National University researchers in South Korea have printed plastic RFID tags with the use of common industrial methods such as ink-jet printing, roll-to-roll printing and silicone rubber-stamping.

With this process RFID tags will cost three cents per piece and soon the rates will plummet down to one cent per piece. Today RFID tags cost anywhere between seven to fifteen cents.

The picture looks positive but there are certain problems which will need to be sorted out as the prototype of the new tag is three times the size of traditional barcode and can just store one bit of information. Also the power signals are weak and can only work with readers which are only 10 cm away. This problem is expected to be sorted out with 64-bit tags being launched followed by 96-bit tag.