Electronic labels made from plastic semiconductors can now pick up
and respond to radio signals at a frequency suitable for use on
products.

At an electronics conference in San Francisco this week, two
European industrial-research teams described plastic
radiofrequency-identification (RFID) prototypes with those advanced
capabilities.

Although silicon-based RFID tags are already in wide use—for
instance, in so-called smart cards used to pay mass-transit fares—the
new developments bring closer the prospect of RFID tags becoming as
common as bar codes, or perhaps even more so, the researchers say.
Besides labeling consumer products, plastic tags might make novel
electronic tracking and transactions possible, from computer monitoring
of what’s in the refrigerator to mail routing by means of smart address
labels.

To make that leap, tags must become much less expensive than is
possible if they’re made of silicon. Hence, the move to plastic.

By Peter Weiss

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