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| European
Group Researches Polymer RFID Chips |
Several
electronics manufacturers and research institutes in Europe have
joined forces in a
European Union-funded project aimed at developing low-cost,
polymer-based electronic circuits.
PolyApply, a new, four-year research project launched by the
European Commission under its 6th Research, Technological
development, and Demonstration Framework Programme.The aim of the
PolyApply project is to lay the foundations of a scalable and
ubiquitously applicable communication technology that will make
'ambient intelligence' commercially viable through the use of
low-cost, polymer-based electronic circuits.
'Ambient intelligence' means integrating a variety of electronic
functions, such as sensing,
computing, and communications, into everyday objects, all of
which
will be able to interact via a low-cost, RF-communications
technology. Today, although most
electronic functions are implemented by means of silicon chips and
each new generation of silicon chip technology reduces the cost of
implementing a given electronic function, there are many potential
applications of 'ambient intelligence' that require costs far lower
than will be achieved with silicon-
based technology.
To enable these applications, a new technology will be required; one
that preserves existing
system- and circuit-design expertise but uses materials and devices
that can be manufactured at substantially lower cost. Polymer-based
electronics promises to allow these sensing, computing,
and communications functions, as well as additional capabilities
that will result in new products
with added value, to be implemented on a wide range of substrates.
These substrates include
flexible or paper materials such as consumer-packaging materials.
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Copyright ŠTechnology
Management Newsletter, 2004
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