HF RFID - The Great Leap Forward

HF RFID - The Great Leap Forward published by IDTechEx Ltd. in May, 2008. This report consists of 197 Pages - Tables 20 - Figures 81 and the price starts from US $ 1145.

Introduction

HF is by far the most important frequency for RFID in value of market. This position will be strengthened in the next few years by dramatic improvements in HF RFID technology such as replacing the silicon chip with printed transistors, leading to 90% reduction in tag cost, new signalling techniques that improve many parameters, elimination of inlays and many other advances. This will make it a much stronger contender in supply chains and asset management. In addition, the standards for many exciting new markets for passive RFID, from RFID enabled phones to financial cards, national ID cards, passports and tickets are at HF and the new smart active labels will also be mainly at HF. Many applications typically met with LF RFID such as secure access and tagging metallic items are moving to HF. As a result, the global market for HF RFID will triple from $2.9 billion in 2008 to $8.6 billion in 2018, remaining a larger and more lucrative business than UHF passive RFID, the number two. This report analyses this great leap forward.

For over a decade, most RFID has been practised at High Frequency (13.56MHz). Last year, 50% of the global RFID market value was HF, expenditure on tags and systems at that frequency being ten times the amount spent on RFID at any other frequency. Its dominance was been retained as RFID entered a phase of rapid growth in the last two years mainly because of huge orders such as the $6 billion China national ID card scheme, the e-passport, now issued by over 70 countries, and financial cards such as the MasterCard Paypass. Gas cylinders and marathon runners previously tagged at LF are now tagged at HF.

After the huge orders we now see the huge improvements in performance. HF RFID is taking a great leap forward. Improvements of 50% to several hundred percent in range, tag cost, tag size, multi-tag reading, reader power, tolerance of environmental and electrical interference and more will be seen in mainstream applications, thanks to the breakthroughs of ten or so companies, most of them little publicised. For example, Kovio will print silicon nanoparticles into the few thousand transistors of a typical ISO 14443 tag at one tenth of the cost of the silicon chip. Cambridge Resonant Technologies offers 50% more range to one tenth of the reader power and smaller tags. NanoMas prints better performing HF antennas with one tenth of the material on the cheapest polymer films thanks to silver particles only a few nm across. Take the ten times improvement in multi-tag reading from Magellan and the ten times improvement in range from DAG and, excitingly, it can be seen that most of these huge leaps forward can be used together for even greater gains. It is likely to make HF pull ahead as candidate for the biggest emerging market of all - very high volume item tagging. But there is more...

This unique 200 page report details the great leap forward in HF RFID technologies, with unprecedented advances hitting the market in the next two years and some earlier inventions entering the mainstream at the same time. Those of largest impact are covered, but we also examine the unusually large number of more modest advances that are now arriving. Together they may enable HF to retain its 50% share of the global RFID market as it that market quintuples in the next ten years because most of these advances are not available at UHF. We take a close look at the markets for RFID enabled mobile phones and contactless smart cards and tickets, showing how they will prosper together and we re-look at the tradeoff of Near Field UHF and HF for item level tagging in the light of the new advances. Particular detail is given on the most significant technical advances at HF such as those of Kovio and Cambridge Resonant Technologies. It is an unbiased assessment, with the problems of all these approaches being assessed as well as the opportunities. Standards are also considered, including the new HF standard ISO 18000-3 at HF and there is a glossary.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

1. INTRODUCTION

• 1.1. Many frequencies will always be needed
• 1.2. Why HF is the favourite RFID frequency
  • 1.2.1. HF compared
  • 1.2.2. The myth of the one meter limit to HF range
  • 1.2.3. Fractal antennas
  • 1.2.4. HF promoted for difficult environments
  • 1.2.5. Swept HF
• 1.3. How UHF has sometimes been oversold
• 1.4. Significance of printing chipless HF RFID
  • 1.4.2. Printing components on top of each other
  • 1.4.3. How transistors are designed
  • 1.4.4. State of play with frequency performance and the markets opening up
  • 1.4.5. New vertical geometry - VFETs
  • 1.4.6. Organic printed transistors in action - PolyIC
  • 1.4.7. Inorganic compound semiconductors for transistors

2. HF RFID ENABLED PHONES VS HF CONTACTLESS SMART CARDS 2008-2018

• 2.1. Comparison of NFC and RFID enabled phones
• 2.2. RFID enabled phones etc
  • 2.2.1. Why have NFC?
  • 2.2.2. Near Field Communications and RFID enabled phones
  • 2.2.3. Massive success in Japan, haggling and delayed rollout elsewhere
  • 2.2.4. Unlimited options for value added services
  • 2.2.5. The telcos are winning
  • 2.2.6. Where in the phone?
  • 2.2.7. The (never ending) trials
  • 2.2.8. Consumer response - say one thing, do another?
  • 2.2.9. Examples of trials of NFC phones
  • 2.2.10. Working groups
• 2.3. Contactless cards and tickets
  • 2.3.1. Sales projections for HF RFID cards
  • 2.3.2. Sales projections for contactless tickets
  • 2.3.3. Further growth in spending
  • 2.3.4. Financial cards are a major new market
  • 2.3.5. How China became the world' s largest market for contactless cards and tickets
  • 2.3.6. Sticking cards on phones
  • 2.3.7. Future card functionality
• 2.4. Will one option win?
  • 2.4.1. Watch Japan
  • 2.4.2. Companies that benefit
  • 2.4.3. League table of largest RFID companies

3. KOVIO - PRINTED HF TRANSISTORS AT ONE TENTH THE COST OF THE SILICON CHIP

• 3.1. Exceptionally high mobility
• 3.2. Sharply reduced capital and process costs
• 3.3. Background to the standards breakthrough
• 3.4. Standards beyond ISO 14443
• 3.5. Product strategy of Kovio
• 3.6. Kovio rollout
• 3.7. Details of Kovio
• 3.8. Examples of Kovio patents

4. CAMBRIDGE RESONANT TECHNOLOGIES - ONE TENTH OF THE POWER AND MANY OTHER ADVANCES

• 4.1. Background
  • 4.1.2. Detuning
  • 4.1.3. Communication rate
• 4.2. OnTuneTM
• 4.3. Implementation
• 4.4. Benefits
  • 4.4.2. Application in Readers
  • 4.4.3. Application in tags
• 4.5. Cost
• 4.6. New tag types
• 4.7. Availability
• 4.8. Details of Cambridge Resonant Technologies

5. DAG SYSTEM - SEVERAL METERS RANGE NOW POSSIBLE AT HF

• 5.1. Reading difficult obscured cases in pallet loads
• 5.2. Company description
• 5.3. All RFID Store
• 5.4. Race timing

6. MAGELLAN TECHNOLOGY - TEN TIMES BETTER HF MULTITAG READING AND OTHER BENEFITS

• 6.1. Overview
• 6.2. The technology
• 6.3. Applications
  • 6.3.1. Casino Gaming
  • 6.3.2. Document Management
  • 6.3.3. Medical Implant tracking
  • 6.3.4. Pharmaceuticals
• 6.4. Details of Magellan

7. OTHER EXCITING NEW ADVANCES IN HF RFID

• 7.1. Truly nano silver ink HF antennas - NanoMas Technologies
• 7.2. Additive Process Technologies - electroplating HF antennas on paper
• 7.3. Leonhard Kurz - high quality, low cost HF antennas
• 7.4. Sirit Plug-n-Play
• 7.5. Tagsys HF advances in 2007/8
• 7.6. HF Generation 2 EPC Specification
• 7.7. Texas Instruments High Security Multifunctional HF chips
• 7.8. Pliant and PowerID

8. USING THE HF BREAKTHROUGHS TOGETHER

9. NEAR FIELD UHF VS HF FOR ITEM LEVEL TAGGING - THE BIGGEST POTENTIAL RFID MARKET

• 9.1. Needs of item level RFID
• 9.2. HF is long established for item level
• 9.3. Enter NF UHF
• 9.4. TFTCs not yet available and not necessarily as good
• 9.5. The-Package-Is-The-Tag™
• 9.6. HF in retailing
• 9.7. UHF patents hurdles - Intermec, Via Licensing
• 9.8. UHF regulations vary greatly
• 9.9. The battle to make UHF usable worldwide is far from over
• 9.10. Avoiding confusion between small items
• 9.11. HF extends its reach
• 9.12. Failing to learn from history - the anti-theft tag fiasco repeated with drug RFID?
• 9.13. Playing catch up with HF specifications
• 9.14. Strong marketing of UHF - and some balancing comments
• 9.15. Conclusions

APPENDIX 1: STANDARDS

APPENDIX 2: IDTECHEX PUBLICATIONS

APPENDIX 2: GLOSSARY

• 1.1. Features and benefits of Fractal Antenna Systems' technology
• 1.2. Advantages of printed and thin film transistors and memory vs traditional silicon
• 1.3. Some organisations that are developing TFTCs and their materials and their priorities
• 1.4. Advantages of horizontal vs vertical and single layer thin film/ printed transistors
• 2.1. Comparison of NFC enabled devices and contactless smart cards.
• 2.2. Global shipments of RFID enabled phones in millions by region 2008-2018
• 2.3. The good and the bad of the different proposed locations of NFC functionality in mobile phones.
• 2.4. Examples of NFC location in phones used in various trials and limited rollouts at the end of 2007.
• 2.5. Contactless cards market by applicational sector 2008-2018 number millions
• 2.6. Unit price of unprinted, unprogrammed contactless cards by applicational sector, US dollars
• 2.7. Value of global market for contactless cards 2008-2018, US dollars million
• 2.8. Value of global market for contactless cards and their systems 2008-2018 in US dollars million
• 2.9. Ticket number and unit value 2008-2018
• 2.10. Total value of global market for contactless tickets and their systems 2008-2018 in US dollars million
• 2.11. Examples of leading transport SVC card schemes
• 2.12. Some of the largest card and ticket schemes in China.
• 2.13. IDTechEx estimates of the RFID sales of some of the leaders in RFID cards and tickets, their parts and their systems in 2008
• 9.1. Comparison of potential features of HF and NF UHF item level tags

• 1.1. Passive vs active
• 1.2. Frequency
• 1.3. Frequencies - good things
• 1.4. Frequencies - bad things
• 1.5. Passive tags by frequency
• 1.6. Massive variety of UHF tags currently on offer
• 1.7. UHF passive range/memory choice
• 1.8. HF vs UHF range/memory choice
• 1.9. UPM Raflatac HF Tag (measuring 13cm by 8cm), pictured with a typical ISO credit card sized HF tag above. Even larger versions are used in some marathons
• 1.10. Marathon runners HF RFID enabled number by Muhlbauer
• 1.11. Reverse of Muhlbauer marathon runner' s number showing HF RFID
• 1.12. Fractal Antennas
• 1.13. The 1500 organisations across the world that are tackling printed and potentially printed electronics devices and key materials, showing approximate number by region and by major technology effort.
• 1.14. Some of the current options for printed transistors by frequency
• 1.15. Traditional geometry for a field effect transistor
• 1.16. Vertical organic field effect transistor VOFET showing a short channel length and a large cross section for current flow.
• 1.17. Important requirements in printing thin film transistors and memory
• 1.18. Logic circuits printed by PolyIC in Germany using a reel to reel process
• 2.1. Examples of contactless transactional media
• 2.2. Global shipments of NFC enabled phones in millions by region 2008-2018
• 2.3. Japanese train traveller paying for transport by resting a DoCoMo RFID enabled phone on a terminal and receiving a receipt.
• 2.4. Con Tag on a ticket machine that opens up a ticketing application in an RFID phone held nearby.
• 2.5. Some of the potential stakeholders in the NFC phone value chain
• 2.6. Basic functionality of an NFC enabled phone
• 2.7. Early type of NFC board for a mobile phone
• 2.8. Trial of NFC phones in Caen in France
• 2.9. Trial in Hanau Germany organised by RMV (Rhein-Main Verkehrsverbund), Nokia and NXP
• 2.10. Paying for transport by NFC phone in China
• 2.11. NFC payment and access in Taiwan
• 2.12. Payment by phone at Philips Arena Atlanta
• 2.13. Examples of NFC members
• 2.14. Contactless cards market by applicational sector 2008-2018, number millions
• 2.15. Unit price of contactless cards by applicational sector, US dollars
• 2.16. Value of global market for contactless cards 2008-2018, US dollars million
• 2.17. Value of global market for contactless cards and their systems 2008-2018 in US dollar millions
• 2.18. Total value of global market for contactless tickets and their systems 2008-2018 in US dollars million
• 4.1. High Q (low loss) and low Q (high loss) resonator
• 4.2. Two resonance profiles at different frequencies
• 4.3. High potential gain over a wide bandwidth
• 4.4. The system tunes to the stimulus frequency and ramps up to a pre-determined amplitude
• 4.5. OnTuneTM Benefits - Cambridge Resonant Technologies
• 5.1. DAG System HF tags on cases
• 5.2. DAG arch antennas in nuclear submarine.
• 5.3. DAG System in all RFID store
• 5.4. DAG System race timing
• 7.1. Two stage process
• 7.2. How does it work
• 7.3. Secobo - the new RFID transponder antenna from Kurz
• 7.4. Sirit Plug-n-Play
• 9.1. The HF tag that is fitted to Viagra
• 9.2. Early pallet/ case tag at top compared with item level tag at bottom, both being Far Field UHF constructions
• 9.3. Demonstration of NF UHF multitag reading of tagged balls in water by Impinj. The reader is the black base to the water tank
• 9.4. Second demonstration of NF UHF multitag reading on small items by Impinj
• 9.5. Progression to high speed printing of both UHF and HF RFID antennas
• 9.6. A student railway discount sticker for China made by Shenshen Hyan Microelectronics in China using Parelec Parmod silver ink printed direct onto paper, no inlet being needed. First order in 2006 was for 15 million. Potential over 100 million yearly
• 9.7. TAGSYS AK Tag Module on a FF UHF antenna
• 9.8. One of the Impinj designs of FF UHF label for pallets and cases compared with its design of an H Field NF UHF label for small items
• 9.9.Combined NF/FF UHF labels and, top right, an H field NF UHF label
• 9.10. The KSW Microtec combined UHF tag Taurus ™
• 9.11. Global UHF allocations of license free bandwidth
• 9.12. The TAGSYS HF tag that it claims is the smallest EPC inlet in the world

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