Hitachi develops thin, low-cost RFID chip.

Imagine a world where every vehicle component--from manifolds to hinges--has an imbedded RFID chip, providing up-to-the-minute accuracy in line-side delivery. This same chip could be used to better pinpoint potential problems that may develop when the component(s) are subject to daily consumer wear and potentially reduce the cost of recalls, allowing OEMs to detect the exact lot of components that may need replacing. Hitachi thinks it has the answer with a new RFID IC chip that's about the size of a spec of dust (0.15 x 0.15 x 0.0075 mm). Not only is this tiny size important from the point of view of deployment on products, but it means Hitachi is able to increase the number of chips fabricated on a single wafer, which reduces the manufacturing cost per chip, which results in lower costs to users. The chip utilizes an external antenna to receive radio waves and wirelessly transmits a unique 128 bit 10 number. Data is written to the chip during the fabrication process, which eliminates potential rewriting and tampering.--KMK