German electronics printer PolyIC claims to have reached a milestone last month in its efforts to develop printable RFID tags when it printed “miles” of rolls of 13.56-MHz RFID integrated circuits (ICs) using a roll-to-roll printing process, reports Graphic Arts Monthly (www.gammag.com). The company, which plans to commercially produce printed circuits next year, was formed in 2003 as a joint venture between Siemens and Leonhard Kurz & Co., a hot-stamping and coating specialist.

Printed RFID ICs (also called “organic,” “chipless” and “polymer-based” tags) are made with conductive ink that can store and transmit data. They are not produced by semiconductor manufacturing methods but instead with common commercial printing methods such as flexographic, gravure, offset or rotary-screen using special inks and materials. Developers say that printable ICs can one day be produced much more cheaply than traditional fabricated RFID chips and antennae.