The most amazing thing about this (and another tiny RFID chip that was on HN recently) is not that you can print them on wafers, but that you can cut up the wafers and handle these tiny dies. Imagine you manufactured sugar, but had to manipulate each sugar grain separately.
I have always wondered how this works (along with wire bonding), especially in an economic way. Chips being cheap makes sense at the lithography / wafer level because sure, you can stamp out thousands of them at once. But once you need to dice them up, bond wires to them, and package them... how on earth do you do that so efficiently that each chip can be sold for fractions of a cent?
In 2006, Hitachi developed a 0.15mm-sized RFID chip
31–40 of 75 posts
Re: In 2006, Hitachi developed a 0.15mm-sized RFID chip
#32Still needs an antenna tuned to the RFID frequency which will be much larger than the chip. It's cool engineering but doesn't mean you can have a working sub-mm tag.
Re: In 2006, Hitachi developed a 0.15mm-sized RFID chip
#33honestly given how long ago that was I'd not be surprised if everything's completely peppered with chips... one from the manufacturer, one from inventory, one from logistic, one from corporate espionage agent, one from foreign adversary state actor sky really is the limit with these. didn't parmesan put some chips in their cheese too?
Re: In 2006, Hitachi developed a 0.15mm-sized RFID chip
#34In an early example of conspiracy theories that would eventually envelop social media, I actually remember internet commenters pointing to the previous generation of these as supposed "proof" that the government was embedding RFID chips in banknotes to track people (following a blog article by Alex Jones): https://news.slashdot.org/story/04/03/02/0535225/do-your-20-...
What never cease to amaze me with conspiracy theorists, is that they keep inventing preposterous “conspiracies” while being totally oblivious about the real world. Like why bother putting chips in banknotes when the government could track everyone in real time through their smartphone.
Re: In 2006, Hitachi developed a 0.15mm-sized RFID chip
#35In an early example of conspiracy theories that would eventually envelop social media, I actually remember internet commenters pointing to the previous generation of these as supposed "proof" that the government was embedding RFID chips in banknotes to track people (following a blog article by Alex Jones): https://news.slashdot.org/story/04/03/02/0535225/do-your-20-...
If I worked for VISA's marketing team I'd want to spread FUD like this and "XX% of dollar bills have cocaine on them; protect your children with a youth MasterCard!"
Re: In 2006, Hitachi developed a 0.15mm-sized RFID chip
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
If I worked for VISA's marketing team I'd want to spread FUD like this and "XX% of dollar bills have cocaine on them; protect your children with a youth MasterCard!"
For those not familiar with using powered drugs nasally, a credit or debit card is also usually a part of the drug taking toolkit. Its one of those odd occasions when you need both cash and credit.
Re: In 2006, Hitachi developed a 0.15mm-sized RFID chip
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Used to develop readers based on similar UHF chips (868 MHz in EU). They were quite expensive compared to printed bar codes those were replacing. Also large. With (folded) antennas we are still talking about 40*10 mm minimum for the label. You can not use them on metal surfaces. Readers nearby will interfere as it works by EM wave backscattering, unlike NFC which is essentially a transformer (with electric field inte…
I have a hobby project where I am using UHF tags for counting poultry. The advantage that it gives me is long range (few meters) compared to LF / HF tags. QR code also wouldn't work due to size and distance. Here's a video. https://youtu.be/_iGn_pZ3IkY
Would be interested in doing something similar
Re: In 2006, Hitachi developed a 0.15mm-sized RFID chip
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sounds crazy but car and truck tires have had RFID chips for years. I assume most people would be surprised by that. https://www.tirereview.com/michelin-connect-car-tires-rfid-2...
Stealing people's tires is a common thing. So add an RFID reader to cars with ALPR gear, and they can see if any tires they come across have also been reported stolen. See, it's nothing but wins for the consumer!
Re: In 2006, Hitachi developed a 0.15mm-sized RFID chip
#39The most amazing thing about this (and another tiny RFID chip that was on HN recently) is not that you can print them on wafers, but that you can cut up the wafers and handle these tiny dies. Imagine you manufactured sugar, but had to manipulate each sugar grain separately.
I have always wondered how this works (along with wire bonding), especially in an economic way. Chips being cheap makes sense at the lithography / wafer level because sure, you can stamp out thousands of them at once. But once you need to dice them up, bond wires to them, and package them... how on earth do you do that so efficiently that each chip can be sold for fractions of a cent?
The bonding machines are crazy. Definitely look it up on YouTube, the machine puts down bond wires super fast.
The other part of it is sheer scale. Once you start making thousands or millions of something, economies of scale drive the costs way down
Re: In 2006, Hitachi developed a 0.15mm-sized RFID chip
#40The most amazing thing about this (and another tiny RFID chip that was on HN recently) is not that you can print them on wafers, but that you can cut up the wafers and handle these tiny dies. Imagine you manufactured sugar, but had to manipulate each sugar grain separately.