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In 2006, Hitachi developed a 0.15mm-sized RFID chip

hitachi.com

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Re: In 2006, Hitachi developed a 0.15mm-sized RFID chip

#61

Also, you can find previous announcements of Hitachi's μ-Chip series. In 2001, evidently, they put out a 0.4 mm x 0.4 mm chip. Not being programmable at all and just transmitting a 128 bit number would help get the size down. Let's compare to a Monza R6 chip that was introduced in 2014, I think. This thing is 0.464 by 0.442 mm according to the datasheet, so quite a bit larger even than the 2001 read-only μ-Chip. But…

> tag remains radio silent unless it sees a specific 32 bit code from the reader. So you could spray sticky rfid chips into an enemy’s hair, undetectable when scanned, and later on you could send the correct signal to identify enemies in the room. Later their hair would be trimmed, leaving no trace. Aside from the cool privacy aspect, it seems like it would be cool to: - Attach to insects to later use a detector to f…

Were you the ghost writer for the Headhunters (2011) film ?

Re: In 2006, Hitachi developed a 0.15mm-sized RFID chip

#62
post #2

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.

It thought it was an interesting analogy, so I looked up the size of a typical sugar crystal. It's between 450 and 600 microns. So these chips are 3 to 4 times smaller than that even.

Checks out with the picture in the article.

Re: In 2006, Hitachi developed a 0.15mm-sized RFID chip

#63

Earlier 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!"

There has been legitimate interest in putting RFID chips in high denomination Euro bills. It's not a whacky conspiracy theory but something actively being considered.

Honestly I would welcome it in all bills. Cash drawers could become self accounting, and bill sorters and talliers wouldn't have to rely on magneto optical sensing

Re: In 2006, Hitachi developed a 0.15mm-sized RFID chip

#64
post #16
post #8

Earlier 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

This looks immensely useful

I've been thinking about ways to count my chickens, making sure they return to the coop and don't get locked out at night. Most of the time all tge birds get in, but occasionally some will dawdle and wind up sitting outside a locked coop door.

You mention this can read for a couple meters. Can it read all the members of a flock, so I could mount a single transmitter in the ceiling if the coop, or is it one at a time, so something that should live above the door

Re: In 2006, Hitachi developed a 0.15mm-sized RFID chip

#65
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

This looks immensely useful I've been thinking about ways to count my chickens, making sure they return to the coop and don't get locked out at night. Most of the time all tge birds get in, but occasionally some will dawdle and wind up sitting outside a locked coop door. You mention this can read for a couple meters. Can it read all the members of a flock, so I could mount a single transmitter in the ceiling if the c…

I haven’t played with any stationary antennas but I think it’s possible.

The scanner that is used in the video has configuration for transmit power. At its maximum setting, the range is 15 feet with clear line of sight.

Tags with larger antennas, generally speaking, have longer range but might be too big for younger chickens.

So overall there are a lot of variables.

Re: In 2006, Hitachi developed a 0.15mm-sized RFID chip

#66
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Lots of automation. Dicing is automatic, bonding, testing are automatic. The manual work is mostly just transporting materials. 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

Bond wires really are a thing of the past now except in niche applications or legacy chips. Flip chip designs have the die directly interface with a substrate that is then soldered to the board. With the kinds of speedy signals modern chips use, bond wires introduce impedance mismatch that degrades quality. This is related to why you don't see many new designs using pins.

Re: In 2006, Hitachi developed a 0.15mm-sized RFID chip

#67
post #2

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.

How big is the saw if you're cutting up 150 micron pieces of wafer?

Sometimes a diamond saw is used but modern processes use lasers to score the die and then the wafer carrier expands to break along the scores.

Re: In 2006, Hitachi developed a 0.15mm-sized RFID chip

#68
post #58
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With respect, this gives me serious ick. Black mirror vibes.

It's a hardware wallet that just looks cool. Where's the "black mirror vibes". There's not much nefarious tech here.

looks at the crypto community and gestures broadly

Re: In 2006, Hitachi developed a 0.15mm-sized RFID chip

#69
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Well, these ones are RFID chips, so they don't need to be connected at all - they are read wirelessly.

They'll still need an antenna.

Re: In 2006, Hitachi developed a 0.15mm-sized RFID chip

#70
post #58
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With respect, this gives me serious ick. Black mirror vibes.

It's a hardware wallet that just looks cool. Where's the "black mirror vibes". There's not much nefarious tech here.

The ick and black mirror vibes comes from the technical fact that bitcoin is non fungible and publicly traceable by design making it a surveillance states dream.

Luckily there are superior alt coins that don't have that flaw.

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