Exploration of disruptive technologies for low cost RFID manufacturing

Significant developments have taken place in defining technology standards and identifying avenues for technological innovations to reduce the cost of manufacturing RFID tags below the $0.05 price point. The Auto-ID center at MIT has been the central coordinating body with participation from 5 universities and over 100 industry partners. The primary focus of these efforts has been in developing a standard which minimizes the logic capability of on chip circuitry and using radical innovations to reduce the cost of assembly of the RFID tags. Various disruptive innovations are underway to explore lithographic techniques which can reduce the cost of fabrication in the sub 100 nm regime wherein photolithography faces significant challenges. This research analyzes the value chain in the RFID industry and reviews potential technology strategies using the double-helix model of business dynamics and Porter's five forces framework. It also explores the current state of the art in RFID tag manufacturing and proposes the application of disruptive technologies in conjunction with innovations in assembly and packaging to enable a low cost RFID system design. Five key emerging technologies which are examined in detail are Nanoimprint Lithography, Step and Flash Imprint Lithography, Inkjet Printing, Soft lithography and Spherical Integrated Circuit Processing. These are analyzed in terms of application to RFID tag manufacturing. Current innovations in high speed and low cost assembly and packaging techniques are also examined. Fluidic Self Assembly, Vibratory Assembly, Chip on Paper techniques are reviewed in terms of application to RFID manufacturing. A systems thinking approach is also pursued to explore the drivers for wider acceptance of RFID-based

Department dc:contributor.department

System Design and Management Program.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Kommandur, Badarinath, 1968-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• James M. Utterback.

• System Design and Management Program.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/34800

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/34800