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Hitachi develops RFID powder ::: Pink Tentacle
February 15, 2007
Hitachi develops RFID powder ::: Pink Tentacle
RFID keeps getting smaller. On February 13, Hitachi unveiled a tiny, new “powder” type RFID chip measuring 0.05 x 0.05 mm — the smallest yet — which they aim to begin marketing in 2 to 3 years.By relying on semiconductor miniaturization technology and using electron beams to write data on the chip substrates, Hitachi was able to create RFID chips 64 times smaller than their currently available 0.4 x 0.4 mm mu-chips. Like mu-chips, which have been used as an anti-counterfeit measure in admission tickets, the new chips have a 128-bit ROM for storing a unique 38-digit ID number.
The new chips are also 9 times smaller than the prototype chips Hitachi unveiled last year, which measure 0.15 x 0.15 mm.
This almost feels like science fiction. In “The Diamond Age” by Neal Stephenson, there was a war between micro-computers of that size. Looks like we’re headed in that direction. However, the first uses for this seem to go beyond paper and allow for basically tracking anything. This makes it clear why IPv6, the next generation protocol for the Internet, is optimized for hundreds of thousands of IP addresses per square meter. When RFID of this size become IP addressable, we will live in a wholly different internet.
