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Over the last few years, a great deal of attention in the radio-frequency identification (RFID) industry has focused on new applications and standards like EPC Gen 2. These days, attention has turned toward item-level RFID. According to the Cambridge-based research firm IDTechEx, from 2007 onward item-level tags and systems will be the world's largest RFID market. The total market for item-level RFID systems (including tags) is projected to increase from $0.16 billion in 2006 to $13 billion in 2016. In other words, 0.2 billion items worldwide will be RFID tagged in 2006, but by 2016 that number will soar to 550 billion items. What is item-level RFID and why is it being proactively adopted these days? Let's take a closer look.

The basics

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Item-level RFID is defined as the tagging of the smallest taggable unit of things — such as a library book, apparel, engineering parts, jewelry, laundry and even liquid substances (Figure 1). While its range of benefits depend, in part, on the industry in which the item-level RFID solution will be used, a possible list includes such things as better service, cost reduction, crime reduction, increased sales, removal of tedious procedures, and safety.

The most common types of item-level tags operate in the 125 kHz low-frequency (LF), 13.56 MHz high-frequency (HF), and the 902 MHz to 928 MHz ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) bands. In the latter case, far-field UHF is dominant. Near-field UHF is expected to become more prevalent though within the next five years due to its ability to lower costs when proven in high-volume applications and the fact that it would allow a more homogenous RFID supply-chain environment. However, it would still require different reader antennas from existing Gen 2 UHF. Of all the possible frequency options, HF remains the most popular for item-level tagging, having already surpassed one billion tags delivered. Because of its ability to leverage the Gen 2 protocol, UHF technology is now making great strides in the market as well.

Regardless of the frequency espoused, item-level tagging solutions must be able to meet a number of unique requirements. They must, for example, be small enough to be placed within product packaging without causing any obstruction. And, they must be accurately readable, even though many such tags may sit in close proximity to one another. Additionally, they must be able to work around RF-unfriendly materials such as liquids or metals. Other requirements include suitability for EPC coding/mass serialization and open systems, the ability to be made in quantities of millions to trillions yearly, and the ability to read items individually as well as many at a time. Item-level tags also need to be disposable or fitted for life.

Because the challenges at the item level are different than at the case and pallet level, industry-wide disagreements exist regarding which type of RFID technology performs best for item-level tagging. EPCglobal took up this question when it formed the Item Level Tagging Joint Requirements Group to explore potential use cases, or applications, for RFID at the item level. Earlier this year, the group identified seven critical scenarios that use RFID at the item level and applied these scenarios to test tags operating at a variety of frequencies. The goal was to determine which frequency bands would likely be used for tagging items and whether new air-interface protocol standards needed to be created to meet the requirements for item-level tagging. The group is continuing to work to identify, what, if any, standards need to be created for item-level tagging.