It is freaking the heck out to learn how small a RFID chip can be these days. It is as small as a dust speckle and you’ll probably never know they’re there. On the 13 Feb, Hitachi showed a prototype of a tiny, new “powder” type RFID chip measuring 0.05 x 0.05 mm. The new chips are 64 times smaller than the previous record holder, the 0.4mm x 0.4mm mu-chip from Hitachi as well. The chip are packed with 128 bits of static memory, enough to hold a unique 38-digit ID number. Hitachi claimed the main application is likely to be anti-counterfit since the size make the new chips ideal for embedding in paper, where they could verify the legitimacy of currency or event tickets. It is also possible to implant such chips under the skin and track everyone down, probably the first applications will be criminals, law offenders and terrorists. Beyond that, let your fevered imagination wander.

On a separate note, two weeks ago, the Institute of Microelectronics (IME) in Singapore announced the development of a single reader chip for ultrahigh frequency (UHF) RFID which dramatically reduce both the price and form factor of portable RFID readers. Professor Dim-Lee Kwong, Executive Director of IME said:

Singapore has placed strong emphasis on RFID technology and has been a leading adopter of it. IME has been playing a vital role to apply its technological knowledge in bringing out innovative and low cost RFID solutions - first we did it with the tags with external and internal antennas and now we have delivered the highly integrated and low cost reader IC to complete our offerings.

In recent years, RFID systems are gaining popularity and are being used in numerous applications, such as supply chain management, inventory control, identification for pharmaceutical and library books. IDTechEx expect that 1.71 billion tags will be sold in 2007 and the market will rise to $27.88 Billion in 2017. To learn more about RFID, watch the following video: [poll=4]