Foresights
Radio frequency identification (RFID)
What is it?
A radio frequency identification (RFID) tag can carry information that allows a tagged object to be identified at a distance by an electronic reader that uses safe, low-power radio transmissions. RFID is not new. It has been used in car immobilizers for more than 10 years and has also been applied in toll collection, inventory control, building security and library systems.
One of its most important features is its range. The majority of tags have a range of less than 1m, and some applications limit this further to around 30cm. Newer technologies using UHF have a range of up to 7m. Read range depends on a variety of factors, such as the reader’s output power and the tag’s size – the smaller it is, the shorter its range. Longer antennae on the tag and reader also increase range.
RFID tags are now cheap and the technology seems destined to be widely used. Many analysts are predicting double-figure growth over the next few years. Industry specialist IDTechEx forecasts a US$4 billion market for RFID by 2007, rising to US$10 billion by 2013 with 50% of the market comprised of hardware (tags and readers) and the remainder made up of software, services and infrastructure. PA believes that growth will plateau after three to four years until tag costs fall sufficiently to make item-level tagging a reality, which will stimulate a second wave of growth.
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