Introduction - RFID: Fundamentals and Applications in Contactless Smart Cards and Identification - page 1

Introduction
In recent years automatic identification procedures (Auto-ID) have become very popular
in many service industries, purchasing and distribution logistics, industry, manufactur-
ing companies and material flow systems. Automatic identification procedures exist to
provide information about people, animals, goods and products in transit.
The omnipresent barcode labels that triggered a revolution in identification systems
some considerable time ago, are being found to be inadequate in an increasing number
of cases. Barcodes may be extremely cheap, but their stumbling block is their low
storage capacity and the fact that they cannot be reprogrammed.
The technically optimal solution would be the storage of data in a silicon chip. The
most common form of electronic data-carrying device in use in everyday life is the
smart card based upon a contact field (telephone smart card, bank cards). However, the
mechanical contact used in the smart card is often impractical. A contactless transfer
of data between the data-carrying device and its reader is far more flexible. In the ideal
case, the power required to operate the electronic data-carrying device would also be
transferred from the reader using contactless technology. Because of the procedures
used for the transfer of power and data, contactless ID systems are called RFID systems
(Radio Frequency Identification).
The number of companies actively involved in the development and sale of RFID
systems indicates that this is a market that should be taken seriously. Whereas global
sales of RFID systems were approximately 900million $US in the year 2000 it is
estimated that this figure will reach 2650million $US in 2005 (Krebs, n.d.). The RFID
market therefore belongs to the fastest growing sector of the radio technology industry,
including mobile phones and cordless telephones, (Figure 1.1).
Furthermore, in recent years contactless identification has been developing into an
independent interdisciplinary field, which no longer fits into any of the conventional
pigeon holes. It brings together elements from extremely varied fields: HF technology
and EMC, semiconductor technology, data protection and cryptography, telecommuni-
cations, manufacturing technology and many related areas.
As an introduction, the following section gives a brief overview of different auto-
matic ID systems that perform similar functions to RFID (Figure 1.2).