An Introduction to RFID Technology
Abstract
In recent years, radio frequency identification technology has moved from obscurity into mainstream applications that help speed the handling of manufactured goods and materials. RFID enables identification from a distance, and unlike earlier bar-code technology (see the sidebar), it does so without requiring a line of sight.1 RFID tags (see figure 1) support a larger set of unique IDs than bar codes and can incorporate additional data such as manufacturer, product type, and even measure environmental factors such as temperature. Furthermore, RFID systems can discern many different tags located in the same general area without human assistance. In contrast, consider a supermarket checkout counter, where you must orient each bar-coded item toward a reader before scanning it. So why has it taken over 50 years for this technology to become mainstream? The primary reason is cost. For electronic identification technologies to compete with the rock-bottom pricing of printed symbols, they must either be equally low-cost or provide enough added value for an organization to recover the cost elsewhere. RFID isn’t as cheap as traditional labeling technologies, but it does offer added value and is now at a critical price point that could enable its large-scale adoption for managing consumer retail goods. Here I introduce the principles of RFID, discuss its primary technologies and applications, and review the challenges organizations will face in deploying this technology.
Written by arjun on November 8th, 2008 with
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