{"id":1244,"date":"2021-05-17T12:24:41","date_gmt":"2021-05-17T16:24:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ece.ncsu.edu\/?p=239546"},"modified":"2021-05-17T12:24:41","modified_gmt":"2021-05-17T16:24:41","slug":"smaller-chips-open-door-to-new-rfid-applications","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/my.ece.ncsu.edu\/communications\/2021\/smaller-chips-open-door-to-new-rfid-applications\/","title":{"rendered":"Smaller Chips Open Door to New RFID Applications"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Researchers at North Carolina State University have made what is believed to be the smallest state-of-the-art RFID chip, which should drive down the cost of RFID tags. In addition, the chip\u2019s design makes it possible to embed RFID tags into high-value chips, such as computer chips, boosting supply chain security for high-end technologies.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as we can tell, it\u2019s the world\u2019s smallest Gen2-compatible RFID chip,\u201d says Paul Franzon<\/a>, corresponding author of a paper on the work and Cirrus Logic Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NC\u00a0State.<\/p>\n

Gen2 RFID chips are state of the art and are already in widespread use. One of the things that sets these new RFID chips apart is their size. They measure 125 micrometers (\u03bcm) by 245\u03bcm. Manufacturers were able to make smaller RFID chips using earlier technologies, but Franzon and his collaborators have not been able to identify smaller RFID chips that are compatible with the current Gen2 technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe size of an RFID tag is largely determined by the size of its antenna \u2013 not the RFID chip,\u201d Franzon says. \u201cBut the chip is the expensive part.\u201d<\/p>\n

The smaller the chip, the more chips you can get from a single silicon wafer. And the more chips you can get from the silicon wafer, the less expensive they are.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn practical terms, this means that we can manufacture RFID tags for less than one cent each if we\u2019re manufacturing them in volume,\u201d Franzon says.<\/p>\n

That makes it more feasible for manufacturers, distributors or retailers to use RFID tags to track lower-cost items. For example, the tags could be used to track all of the products in a grocery store without requiring employees to scan items individually.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother 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,\u201d says Kirti Bhanushali, who worked on the project as a Ph.D. student at NC\u00a0State and is first author of the paper. \u201cThis 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve demonstrated what is possible, and we know that these chips can be made using existing manufacturing technologies,\u201d Franzon says. \u201cWe\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The paper, \u201cA 125\u03bcm\u00d7245\u03bcm Mainly Digital UHF EPC Gen2 Compatible RFID tag in 55nm CMOS process,\u201d was presented April 29 at the IEEE International Conference on RFID. The paper was co-authored by Wenxu Zhao, who worked on the project as a Ph.D. student at NC\u00a0State; and Shepherd Pitts, who worked on the project while a research assistant professor at NC\u00a0State.<\/p>\n

The work was done with support from the National Science Foundation, under grant 1422172; and from NC\u00a0State\u2019s Chancellor\u2019s Innovation Fund.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\"Researchers have made what is believed to be the smallest state-of-the-art RFID chip.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","ncst_content_audit_display":false,"ncst_backToTopFlag":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[180],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research"],"displayCategory":null,"acf":{"ncst_posts_meta_modified_date":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.ece.ncsu.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.ece.ncsu.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.ece.ncsu.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.ece.ncsu.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.ece.ncsu.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1244"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/my.ece.ncsu.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2513,"href":"https:\/\/my.ece.ncsu.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1244\/revisions\/2513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.ece.ncsu.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.ece.ncsu.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.ece.ncsu.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}