Chipless RFID: A Unique Technology for Mankind

The present era of digitization is looking forward to updating the manual system with automation. The chipless Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), a well-known wireless technology, eliminates the hurdle of human intervention and comes into the Automatic Identification (Auto-ID) technology market. Although the low cost of optical barcodes dominates them for many years, their restricted read distance, reduced information storing capacity, and significant manual involvement in their operation call out the need for an alternative. The conventional RFID overcomes all the above-mentioned shortcomings of an optical barcode. But the cost of the RFID is an important problem. This article reviews chipless RFID which benefits over existing Auto-ID technologies. An overview of the basic RFID system, categories of RFID tags, and a comparison of chipless and chipped RFID tags are outlined. Understanding the relevance of chipless RFID in the future, the classes of chipless RFID tags, the challenges that come across in designing a chipless RFID, the principle of operation of a backscattering chipless tag, and design parameters like Radar Cross Section (RCS) are discussed. This article throws light on RFID tag printing, data capturing techniques of chipless RFID, certain materials used for tag manufacturing, chipless RFID-based sensors, potential applications, followed by current challenges and future directions of chipless RFID tags.