Tag, You're It Radar Cross Section of Chipless RFID Tags

Mass deployment of RF identification (RFID) is hindered by its cost per tag. The main cost comes from the application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chip set in a tag. A chipless tag costs less than a cent, and these have the potential for mass deployment for low-cost, item-level tagging as the replacement technology for optical barcodes. Chipless RFID tags can be directly printed on paper or plastic packets just like barcodes. They are highly useful for automatic identification and authentication, supply-chain automation, and medical applications. Among their potential industrial applications are authenticating of polymer bank notes; scanning of credit cards, library cards, and the like; tracking of inventory in retail settings; and identification of pathology and other medical test samples.