Sensors and RFID Converge with Printed Electronics, Says RFIP Analysts IDTechEx

Sensor systems used to be an esoteric subject concerned with such things as life support systems in hospitals. However, the prospect of ubiquitous sensors is becoming a reality, saving lives, improving the quality of life of the disoriented elderly, coping with natural disasters, and much else besides. Now there is even a merging of RFID and sensing, with location of items using RFID triangulation and more sophisticated techniques, and some RFID technologies where sensing is a property of the chip rather than an add-on. For instance, Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) tags can inherently sense temperature and strain but are used for RFID as well. With the new printed transistor circuits, printed sensors are just another layer in the printing of the device. However, almost all sensor systems, including those combined with RFID need power (Active RFID), usually from batteries that are increasingly printed.