Chipless Tag Technology Faces Significant Limitations that will Need to be Resolved For it to Truly Live up to its Potential.

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c58489)

has announced the addition of the new Frost & Sullivan report "Asia Pacific Chipless Tag Markets" to their offering.

This Frost & Sullivan white paper titled Asia Pacific Chipless Tags examines this emerging technology to provide a broad understanding and discusses several Chipless tag type technologies that show potential. It examines the advantages and disadvantages of each type and looks at the key and emerging applications that Chipless tags can support. This paper also examines the distinct similarities and differences between Chipless tags and RFID.

Areas covered:

-         Technical Specifications
-         Applications
-         Chipless Tags and RFID
-         Barriers Towards Chipless Tags
-         Chipless Tag and RFID Applications Matrix
-         Competitive Landscape and Structure
-         Conclusion and Outlook

Similar Functionality as RFID at Lower Costs Drives Interest in Chipless Tag Technology

Chipless tag technology is a relatively new one, but is steadily gaining attention since it has many of the key features of RFID such as providing the track and trace option on a wide range of applications, at a fraction of the latter's cost. While the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has issued initial mandates for all key suppliers to be RFID-compliant by the beginning of 2006, the high prices of RFID tags pose a significant barrier to wide-scale implementation. Even though these prices have considerably reduced over the past few years, many suppliers continue to feel that RFID tags are far too expensive for mass deployment, especially for lower-value items. Manufacturers of RFID tags are working to further reduce prices, but in the meantime, Chipless tag technology is attracting great interest for its ability to provide similar functionalities to those of RFID technology at lower costs.

However, Chipless tag technology faces significant limitations that will need to be resolved for it to truly live up to its potential. For instance, there is no single set of standards that govern this technology, largely because there are more than 20 different types of Chipless tags operating differently and based on varying principles. Many of these technologies are patented under individual owners or companies and this further complicates the task of creating a formal set of standards due to intellectual property issues. Furthermore, the memory capacity for most Chipless tag types is currently limited and could pose a problem in application areas such as supply chain management, especially when item-level tagging is a definite possibility in the future.

Despite Many Similarities, Chipless Tags and RFID Technology Likely to have Distinct Areas of Application

Chipless tags are unlikely to fully replace RFID and will be considered more as a complementary technology that can be used along with RFID to provide end users with the best possible solution. The two technologies have distinct similarities and differences that are likely to determine their suitability and use for specific application areas. Owing to their price advantage over RFID tags and lesser memory capacity, Chipless tags are likely to dominate in areas where product value and functionality is low. They would be highly suitable for applications requiring a basic track and trace function, and could be used in closed loop or stand-alone systems. Small- and medium-sized business operations, where cost is always a key factor, are also likely to offer good opportunities for these tags. In such businesses, standards may not be as pressing a concern as the need to offer more than UPC barcodes or other legacy tracking systems can offer.

On the other hand, RFID tags will continue to prevail in areas where the product value is high and that need greater functionality such as supply chain management. The higher memory capacity offered by RFID is essential in such an environment, particularly since organizations are eventually planning to migrate from pallet to case- or item-level tagging. RFID is also governed by a more secure set of standards that support its use in applications that require interoperability within different locations.

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c58489