Meaning

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is a technology that uses communication via radio waves to
exchange data between a reader and an electronic tag attached to an object, for the purpose of
identification and tracking. Some tags can be read from several meters away and beyond the line of
sight of the reader. The application of bulk reading enables an almost parallel reading of tags.R

The importance of RFID in a globalized world

RFID is helping retailers around the world improve customer satisfaction and increase sales. The technology
is transforming the retail industry by offering retailers real-time visibility into inventory and product
movement to improve store productivity and loss prevention. Many of the world's largest retailers have
mandated RFID tagging. This move affects more than 200,000 manufacturers and suppliers, driving the
worldwide market for hardware and software to support RFID. RFID in Retail Industry is one day workshop
to help explain retailers and marketers best RFID practices, reducing out-of-stocks, automating inventory
management, boosting customer loyalty, customer personalization , presenting specific and proven retail
applications through case studies that help participants build their business cases and calculate their return
on investment.

In today's flat and globalized world, there are few boundaries. Goods and people are moving
from one country to another and then to yet another continuously. In fact, many countries'
economic survival depends on obstruction-free movements of goods and people. Imagine what
would happen if one of the main seaports is bombed. Our global supply chains are fragile at
some key points.

It is very important to fine-tune the people, processes and technologies that conduct, manage and
protect global trade. RFID comes into picture.

RFID Application Overview

There are almost as many RFID applications as there are business types. TI has established a leadership
position in these basic categories:

 Automotive - Auto-makers have added security and convenience into an automobile by using RFID
technology for anti-theft immobilizers and passive-entry systems.
 Animal Tracking - Ranchers and livestock producers use RFID technology to meet export
regulations and optimize livestock value. Wild animals are tracked in ecological studies, and many pets
who are tagged are returned to their owners.
 Asset Tracking - Hospitals and pharmacies meet tough product accountability legislation with
RFID; libraries limit theft and keep books in circulation more efficiently; and sports and entertainment
entrepreneurs find that "smart tickets" are their ticket to a better bottom line and happier customers.
 Contactless Payments - Blue-chip companies such as American Express, ExxonMobil, and
MasterCard use innovative form factors enabled by TI RFID technology to strengthen brand loyalty and
boost revenue per customer.
 Supply Chain - WalMart, Target, BestBuy, and other retailers have discovered that RFID
technology can keep inventories at the optimal level, reduce out-of-stock losses, limit shoplifting, and
speed customers through check-out lines.

Almost from the beginning, TI was there: helping establish standards; supporting the RFID supply chain of
inlay and label manufacturers; and consistently applying leading-edge semiconductor technology to the core
of RFID, the transponder.

TI is unique among RFID semiconductor suppliers because it exercises complete design and manufacturing
control over the entire transponder – a semiconductor chip and antenna. This value-add enables TI to offer
a wider range of innovation whether it be in creative form factors, more attractive credit/debit cards, or
technical issues such as read range and reliability.

Innovation has been the touchstone of TI's long history in RFID. It co-invented the smart tag, pioneered
creative form factors such as key fobs, and executes its own antenna design.

TI's commitment to applying the best technology and supporting its partners has paid off. The 2006 RFID
Marketing Strategies Report, a survey of more than 550 end users, providers, and prospects, ranked Texas
Instruments as #1 in thought leadership and the most desired business partner.

Limitations

No RFIDLIMITATIONS WITH RFID TECHNOLOGY Limitations with RFID technology are: standard has been set
yet. (The Auto-ID center has worked with standard bodies Uniform Code Council and EAN International to come up
with electronic product The demand should also drivecode, but it is not yet considered a standard). down the price.
(Wal-Mart says that a need for one billion RFID tags should Thedrive down the price to five cents each.) The other
major limitations are: smart tag technology is yet to be perfected , today on an average 20% of the Physical
limitations like reading through liquidtags do not function properly  Accurate read rates on some items can be very
low or metals still exist Nylon conveyor belts and other RFs can disrupt the tag transmissions in Increase in
expenses - the suppliers will have to equip theirwarehouses warehouses and transport vehicles with readers. These
readers have to be connected to the computer networks for exchange of information. All these mean additional costs
related to hiring technical consultants and additional Wal-Mart inventory networks are burdened with the task of
handlinghardware. data of billions of their products. The company has to hence invest in extremely sophisticated
system to process the data properly

ADVANCEMENT

Technological Advancements
Technological advancements are the high-octane fuel that powers the continued acceptance and growth of
new technologies. These advancements can provide the following advantages:

 Make existing applications easier to use

 Offer more functionality
 Drive deployment costs down
Technological advancements open the door for new applications that were not imaginable or possible before.
In the following section, we explore some of the more significant technological advancements that are under
development today.

New and Improved Tags

Innovation around the design and manufacture of RFID tags is an ongoing process. Some of the most
promising new designs are covered in the following sections.

Alternative Tag Designs

Many factors, including physical and environmental, affect the readable range and accuracy of tags. Some
examples are detection near metal or liquid and extreme weather conditions such as low temperature or high
humidity. Besides simply improving on existing technology to overcome these limitations, alternative physics
are being employed that can sidestep or leapfrog these limitations.

The majority of the work in the alternative physics area includes developments around chipless tags,
introduced in Chapter 3, "Components of RFID Systems." Chipless tags promise to improve upon the physical
limitations of radio frequency detection while potentially offering reduced costs due to the absence of integrated
circuitry. Chipless tags can be more easily applied near metal and liquid or embedded in items like paper,
thereby offering greater flexibility and functionality with their use. One chipless tag technology showing promise
in supply chain applications uses Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) technology. SAW technology involves the
propagation of radio frequency acoustic waves on the surface of polished crystals. Other promising chipless
technologies that have the potential to revolutionize RFID applications use nanotechnology, genomics, or even
chemistry to achieve chipless tagging and unique identification of objects such as paper currency and product
labels. You can find vendors that develop and supply chipless tag technologies at this book's companion Web
site, http://www.rfidfieldguide.com.

When it comes to major advancements in IC-based tag design, Smart Active Label (SAL) technology is gaining
momentum in the market. SAL offers enhanced range and accuracy attributes while being less vulnerable to
liquid or metal. A SAL tag is essentially a semi-active smart label with its power source in the form of a thin,
flexible battery. Using SAL tags, tagging and detecting cans of soda and bottles containing liquid can become
more practical and economical.

Tag Packaging

Tag packaging plays a significant role in the applicability and practicality of specific uses of RFID. Expect to see
tag and antenna packaging designs that will continue to push the envelope of creativity and ingenuity, much as
injectable and ingestible tags have done in the past. Chipless tags based on nanotechnology will certainly be at
the forefront of such developments.

Another entirely different approach to tag packaging that is very promising is related to printed electronics. This
involves the process of "printing" antennae, transistors, or even integrated circuits using conductive ink and
standard printing processes. The potential to inexpensively print a tag onto a box or the packaging of an item
unlocks a new set of possibilities for the widespread application of RFID in everyday items. Already, several
companies (identified in the vendor guide at this book's companion Web site, http://www.rfidfieldguide.com)
have designed smart label antennae that use conductive ink instead of copper.

Sensory Tags

Tags whose packaging integrates them with sensors can monitor, record, and even react to all sorts of
environmental conditions. Known as sensory tags, these tag types promote an entirely new set of applications.
The major advancements here will be around the coupling or combining of RFID tag technology with sensor
technology in very small form factors. Smart Dust is one such combination that offers the functionality of tiny
environmental sensors known as MicroElectroMechanical Sensors (MEMS) with active RFID tag-like
capabilities. Each such device is expected to be one cubic millimeter in size. The potential applications of this
technology span a wide area, from monitoring battlefield activities in a military operation to tracking the facial
movements of the disabled to control their wheelchairs.

Architecture for the New Network

RFID systems generate mountains of new data that need to be synchronized, filtered, analyzed, managed, and
acted upon, often in real-time or near real-time. Each tag is essentially a single computing device, albeit a very
simple one, that acts as one node in a network of, eventually, billions or even trillions of such devices. This new
network is dramatically different and in many ways more complex than even the Internet, the most complex
network ever known. This fact is due primarily to the number of nodes that could exist in the expanded model of
a worldwide RFID network, which will be several orders of magnitude larger than the number of nodes on the
Internet. This simply means that traditional computing architectures and infrastructures will not be adequate to
handle the dramatically higher data volumes expected in a network of RFID tags. Here, we discuss two
different approaches under development that address the requirements of this new network from both
hardware and software perspectives.

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