It is projected that in 2012-2015 a trillion RFID tags will be made each year.
In 2010, 33 billion RFID tags/year up from 1.3 billion in 2005.
In February 2007, Hitachi announced new RFID tags are that 0.05 x 0.05 mm, which will be available in 2-3 years. The smallest RFID tags currently available are 0.4 x 0.4 mm mu-chips. The new RFIDs have 128-bit ROM for storing a unique 38-digit ID number.
One catch is that the new chip needs an external antenna, unlike the Mu-chip. The smallest antennas are about 4 millimeters — giants next to the powder-size chip.
But say in 5 years, they could figure out how to make micro sized antennas that are integrated with the new chips, then production could go as follow :
From 4 million ICs from a wafer in 2007 up to 2 billion RFID ICs per wafer in 2015
450 mm wafer plants to start in 2008
Hitachi has plans for 12 micron on a side RFIDs.
Fabs can produce 30000-55000 wafers per month
Intel has 7 fabs.
A couple of fabs producing RFIDs would be 2400 trillion RFIDs/year.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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