Sensors and RFID Converge with Printed Electronics

Published: September 17, 2006, By pffc-online.com

PRESS RELEASE

CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND—According RFID analysts IDTechEx, RFID and sensing are merging, with location of items using RFID triangulation, more sophisticated techniques, and some RFID technologies where sensing is a property of the chip rather than an add-on. For instance, Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) tags inherently can sense temperature and strain but are used for RFID as well. With the new printed transistor circuits, printed sensors are just another layer in the printing of the device. However, almost all sensor systems, including those combined with RFID need power (active RFID), usually from batteries that are increasingly printed.

The subject has become so important that a new conference has been announced that is dedicated to active RFID, meaning RFID with power in the tag to manage sensors and/or give long range. The Active RFID Europe event in London, September 20, at the Guoman Tower Hotel has many major companies speaking that are not traditionally associated with the subject (in the public's mind at least), such as Cisco, Lockheed Martin, Motorola, and Philips, as well as smaller companies with new announcements.

See activerfideurope.com for details or activerfidsummit.com for details on IDTechEx's upcoming American Summit in November.