Mounting passive RFID tags

Numerous market studies predict very large, even incredible, business volumes for RFID technology applications.

However, RFID applications have been slow to be deployed on a large scale, despite the many economic benefits provided by the services rendered by the technology:

• Automated, real-time traceability versus loss of information or difficulties in acquiring this information, for production or product distribution, for example;

• Controlled logistics, versus lack of visibility of product circulation, leading to a need for overstocking to compensate for possible "line losses";

• Efficient anti-theft system integrated very early in the value chain, versus anti-theft system installed at the end distributor and not valued throughout the distribution chain;

• Authentication system to combat counterfeiting...

all of which can be achieved by a single element: an RFID tag.

Yet many applications today require the use of RFID technology: air transport, for example, which handles around 1.5 billion pieces of luggage a year, suffers from an incomplete read rate, resulting in the loss of 25 million pieces of luggage a year, and a cost of around $2 billion a year for airlines. But how can 1.5 billion tags be produced tomorrow, when the total market in 2010 represented some 4 to 5 billion units? Can the market absorb growth of nearly 35% on a single application, and what's more, on an application for which one of the dominant criteria is price?

The cost of RFID tags currently seems too high for some applications to take the plunge, but is this really the only reason for the delay?

Isn't the mismatch between production capacity and the announced size of markets also a factor that is disrupting the adoption of RFID technologies?

Lower RFID tag prices are a key factor in the technology's success, but are they enough?

Are production volumes adapted to the size of existing and future markets (represented by new applications)?

In this article, we present the assembly techniques currently in use, and their suitability for market requirements. We will also take a look at the research avenues available to promote the deployment of RFID.