World's Smallest Gen2 RFID Chip Is Cheaper Than Rivals, Can Be Integrated Onto a Silicon Chip

The smallest Gen2 chip yet made, the part is embeddable in silicon circuits — and could lead to new ways to track and protect chips.

Researchers at North Carolina State University have created what they say is the smallest-ever second-generation radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip — paving the way to lower-cost RFID tags and tags embeddable in new devices, including silicon chips.

"As far as we can tell," says Professor Paul Franzon of his team's work on the project, "it’s the world’s smallest Gen2-compatible RFID chip. The size of an RFID tag is largely determined by the size of its antenna – not the RFID chip. But the chip is the expensive part. In practical terms, this means that we can manufacture RFID tags for less than one cent each if we’re manufacturing them in volume."

The newly-designed Gen2 RFID tags measure just 125 micrometers (μm) by 245μm — a figure beaten by some RFID tags based on Gen1 technology, but a first for the more advanced Gen2 standard. Smaller chips mean more can be placed on a single silicon wafer, dropping the cost per tag considerably — but there is another reason to celebrate, too.

"Another advantage is that the design of the circuits we used here is compatible with a wide range of semiconductor technologies, such as those used in conventional computer chips," explains first author Kirti Bhanushali. "This makes it possible to incorporate RFID tags into computer chips, allowing users to track individual chips throughout their life cycle. This could help to reduce counterfeiting, and allow you to verify that a component is what it says it is."

"We’ve demonstrated what is possible, and we know that these chips can be made using existing manufacturing technologies," Franzon concludes. "We’re now interested in working with industry partners to explore commercializing the chip in two ways: creating low-cost RFID at scale for use in sectors such as grocery stores; and embedding RFID tags into computer chips in order to secure high-value supply chains."

The team's paper, "A 125μm×245μm Mainly Digital UHF EPC Gen2 Compatible RFID tag in 55nm CMOS process," was presented at the IEEE International Conference on RFID last month, but has not yet been made available for public access.

Gareth Halfacree
Freelance journalist, technical author, hacker, tinkerer, erstwhile sysadmin. For hire: freelance@halfacree.co.uk.
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