Finnish technology leads the world in the replacement of traditional bar codes. In a few years' time a tag or transponder the size of a postage stamp will be replacing the bar codes in goods and revolutionizing ordinary people's everyday life, for example, in shops. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is already being used by industry, but a technical breakthrough by the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) will make the technology cheaper and better.

A transponder that uses RFID technology consists of a microchip-based memory circuit and an antenna that is attached to it. It is possible to store information about products sold in a shop (price, qualities and origin) in this detector, which is integrated into a plastic card or small adhesive label. The information is read by an interrogator or reader, which in the future may be the size of a mobile phone or already built into the phone.

No more shop queues

RFID technology has been used for years in many applications such as access control cards, burglar alarms or industrial logistics, but only now is the technology developing to the level demanded by mass production and usage in terms of price and effectiveness. A new transponder developed by VTT in association with the US company Atmel Corporation can give information about an article to a reader four metres away. The information goes through obstacles and regardless of the position of the article in relation to the reader. A significant point about using the transponder is that the information in its memory can be changed using the RFID reader but without changing the transponder itself. There is no need for a separate battery, because the transponder receives the energy it needs from the transmitter's radio signal.

The new RFID technology will open up almost limitless opportunities for different applications both in people's everyday life and in commerce and industry's processes and logistics. Instead of using a bar code, it will be possible to mark almost all products with an RFID adhesive label, the price of which will presumably fall to some centimes with the passage of time.

For example, a customer in a food shop could use RFID technology to find out at the shop door whether the products he or she needs are in the shop and on what shelf. A transponder can be used to read the prices of purchases directly from a trolley, and in the future perhaps the sum will be charged directly from the customer's account. This would save time and make queues a thing of the past.

Business opportunities enormous

In the years to come there will be a need for hundreds of billions of transponders. Besides shops, applications in industry, traffic and access control will benefit considerably from RFID, which is already being applied in practice at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport for directing taxi traffic and in recognizing Finnair travellers automatically at the e-gate, and by the paper industry for the logistical control of rolls of paper.

It is thought that RFID will spawn a considerable amount of business in the next few years. The Finnish companies in the field are heavily involved in developing the technology and systems. Rafsec, a subsidiary of the paper giant UPM-Kymmene, produces the antennas needed for transponders and attaches them and the memory circuits to the adhesive labels at its plant in Jyväskylä.

In addition to transponders, enormous numbers of readers will be needed. The high-tech company Idesco at Oulu has been specializing in the development and production of RFID readers for more than ten years. Likewise SysOpen delivers the data transfer software needed to ensure that RFID information is available on companies' data systems.

>> www.vtt.fi
>> www.rafsec.com
>> www.idesco.fi
>> www.sysopen.com

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A transponder contains a 3x2 mm memory circuit and an antenna.