Printed Electronics RFID

A neat "robot" terminal has just been announced by electronics giant NEC. It combines a touch-sensitive screen in its chest with an RFID reader terminal for gathering data from the e-money phones that are popular in Japan.

Kovio Inc., a privately held Silicon Valley company, announced this week the development of the world's first silicon ink based RFID and launch of its printed silicon RFID platform for item-level intelligence.

A unique combination of wireless technologies will allow the next generation of cell phones, PDAs, or wireless laptops to be used as readers for virtually any sensor application, ranging from glucose testing with a cell phone to remote temperature checking of an appliance in a secondary home, using a laptop.

At Europe's largest RFID conference, RFID Europe, in Cambridge UK 30th September - 1 October, the most impressive users, developers and suppliers of ruggedised and apparel RFID will present their new advances and view of the future.

While most investment in printed electronics has been by material companies, KURZ is one of the few printing companies that has invested significantly in the subject, bringing much needed printing expertise to the industry.