February 6, 2006 – Scientists at Philips Research have developed a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag operating at an industry-standard 13.56MHz that is based entirely on plastic electronics, and have created a 64bit code generator to prove the practicality of building plastic electronic circuitry complex enough for item-level tagging. The RFID tags could be printed directly onto a plastic substrate with an antenna to replace barcode ID technology.

The tags are partly derived from Philips’ participation in the PoliTag project funded by the German government, as well as the PolyApply project under the 6th European Framework Program. Performance results for the plastic RFID circuits are due to be presented at the International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in San Francisco, CA, Feb. 5-9.

“The realization of plastic RFID tags that operate at 13.56MHz is a precursor for wide-scale market acceptance in the coming years,” stated Leo Warmerdam, senior director at Philips Research. He added that Philips will explore codevelopment options with third parties to accelerate commercialization of the RFID technology. RFID tags are one of three application areas targeted by Philips R&D into organic electronics, alongside rollable displays and polymer memories.