[photopress:poster_RFID_.jpg,full,alignright]China’s RFID market has forecast sales growth of 50%. Before we take that any further we had better define RFID.
The initials stand for Radio-frequency identification which is an automatic identification method, storing and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders.
An RFID tag is an object that can be stuck on or incorporated into a product, animal, person. container, what have you for the purpose of identification using radio waves. Some tags can be read from several meters away and beyond the line of sight of the reader.
Most RFID tags contain at least two parts. One is an integrated circuit for storing and processing information, modulating and demodulating a (RF) signal and perhaps other specialized functions. The second is an antenna for receiving and transmitting the signal.
A technology called chipless RFID allows for discrete (as opposed to discreet although it might be that as well) identification of tags without an integrated circuit, thereby allowing tags to be printed directly onto assets at lower cost than traditional tags.
So this is an important way to indentify products and, indeed, the near-field radio standard is also being touted as a solution to the country’s food quality problems.
China Business News reported the Chinese RFID market was worth RMB1.66 billion last year and the forecast is it will reach RMB2.6 billion in 2007, a 50% growth rate.
Extra spectrum is being allocated by the government and RFID trials are now happening. Qingdao city is planning six pilots, while Beijing, Tianjin, Shenzhen, Dalian, Chengdu and other cities are actively testing RFID tags and applications.
Zhang Qi, the deputy director of MII’s (MII is China’s Ministry of Information Industry) electronic technology committee, said RFID was now being tested all around the country.
Many of these tests, she said, are in food processing and agriculture where RFID is being applied to prevent fakes and provide security management. She also said RFID tags are also supporting commercialization of rural products and for public security, production management and logistics.
With a plethora (a splendid word which is correctly defined as ‘bloody excess’) of North American and European standards organizations involved in setting RFID standards, China also has intensified its own standard-setting. This is handled by the MII’s electronics labeling standards work group, set up in October 2005 and also headed by Zhang Qi. The group already has 150 foreign and domestic firms working with it.
Zhang said China has already developed a wide range of electronic cards, read-write tools, applications and systems. She said, ‘The industry chain for intelligent cards in China has already taken shape.’
Source: Comms Day