As the RFID business quintuples to $25 billion in 2017, involving hundreds of billions of tags, it is becoming more of a label business.

Five years ago, most RFID tags took the form of plastic moldings and cards. However, to save cost and make them more suitable for new applications, the moldings have largely given way to labels. Examples include the Paxar labels on Marks and Spencer apparel in the UK (soon to reach 350 million yearly) and labels in books of the world's libraries and Selexyz Bookshops in the Netherlands (rising to 100 million yearly).

A form of dry label called the smart ticket is rapidly gaining applications in Russia and China, in particular for transport. Several billion of these smart tickets a year are expected. Companies such as Kovio launching printed alternatives to the silicon chip, eventually at one tenth of the cost, will help this revolution along, increasing the addressable market for RFID labels by 100-fold.

Active RFIDs, where a battery is in the tag to boost performance, have remained a business involving plastic moldings but that is about to change. Labels in the form of so-called Ubiquitous Sensor Networks (USN), Real Time Locating Systems (RTLS) and Smart Active Labels (SAL) are being developed by a large number of companies. A popular SAL will be Time- Temperature Recording (TTR) labels. Indeed, ACREO of Sweden has a fully printed version—transistors, sensors, battery, antenna—all on roll-fed paper.

Active-label types will grow from 13 to 26 percent of the RFID market in the next 10 years partly due to the tags becoming lower in cost and more manageable via electronics that uses less power. To achieve the laminar format, the button battery we see in car remotes—an active-RFID tag, by the way—and in many other forms of active RFID will be abandoned.

Converters will be assembling laminar batteries of two types into labels. Firstly, the manganese dioxide zinc printed batteries of Enfucell of Finland, ACREO, PowerPaper of Israel and its European and US licensees, and of Thin Battery Technologies in the US will be used in disposable labels of the lowest cost.

Then, there will be the rechargeable lithium batteries of Infinite Power Solutions, so thin they have been embedded in cards, and alternatives from companies such as Cymbet (US) and Leeds Lithium Power (UK). Some of these battery types will be recharged from the RFID signal beam or, more powerfully, from printed photovoltaics.

The use of photovoltaics to boost batteries in RFID was pioneered by Beigel Technology working for Edwards Air Force Base. Strangely enough, they initially put them on desert tortoises to track them for wildlife conservation purposes at the base.

The latest photovoltaics are printed onto web-fed plastic film compatibly with label conversion. Proponents include G24 Innovations in the UK and Nanosolar in the US and Germany. Some of these devices are transparent, and some even generate electricity from heat as well as light.

IDTechEx will host “RFID Smart Labels USA” Feb. 20-22 in Boston. About 500 delegates, a substantial exhibition, investment forum, optional Masterclasses and visits to local RFID facilities will be available. More info: www.idtechex.com/RFIDUSA